The biggest mistake the Government made

was allowing Eric Pickles anywhere near a microphone. The man is an absolute liability and in all my life I have never seen a more brass-necked arrogant performance from a politician than his appearance in the Commons yesterday.

Actually, until the weekend, I thought the Government were just about holding it together in terms of public perception regarding the flood response. These events are always multi-agency affairs with local authorities, blue light services, the EA and the Government playing a role in recovery and response. With that in mind, those desperate to play the blame game were finding it hard to pin down the culprits.

Paterson was behaving pretty decently and Cameron *was* actually on the road a huge amount discussing the crisis. I should know - I work for a local authority and I met and spoke to him on this topic in Norwich last month (ooh get me).

However, they've now been blown out of the water (excuse the pun) by Pickles who, in blaming the EA ("I thought we were dealing with experts") has smoked out Chris Smith who, in turn, has thrown the argument right back in his not altogether inconsiderable face. It's now all about cuts, it's now all about central government funding not local, multi-agency response.

It really was the most astonishing own goal and I would imagine that Cameron, Paterson and others are absolutely incandescant. An astonishing nuclear-sized f**k up.

Posted By: norway, Feb 11, 10:14:13