Superb Emergency Services start to beat the floods March 11, 2008

The floods that have severely damaged many parts of the country have revealed one certain fact.  This country has one of world’s finest emergency services.

 The teamwork shown between the Police, Ambulance and Fire Service as well as the input from the Armed Forces has saved countless lives during some of the most testing periods they will have ever faced.

Perhaps their finest moment was stopping the waters engulfing the Walham substation.  Their efforts here probably prevented hundred of thousands of people being left without any electricity across Gloucestershire. 

 They also came to the rescue of hundreds of motorists left stranded on the M5 motorway, after their route was blocked by the rising water.  The RAF played their part by airlifting people from the roofs of their houses in a scene reminiscent of that from the Boscastle flood of 2004.

The Police took some criticism for failing to arrest those who behaved irresponsibly, such as those taking too much water from bowsers or even stealing water from elderly people who could not reach it.  However, it is important to remember that in a situation like this, the priority of the Police is to ensure the safety of the people without homes, without water and without electricity, and they did that extremely efficiently.

Power restored as floods start to recede. March 11, 2008

Emergency services have resorted power to an electricity substation as flood water threatened to cut off the power to thousands of home across Gloucestershire.

Speaking at a press conference, Chief constable of Gloucestershire police, Tim Brain, described the efforts as “superhuman” and said that ” the crisis was past just before midnight, and it has continued to function and supply electricity to the Gloucester area and beyond”.However, he was keen to express that the emergency was not over, saying “water is still high around Walham and there is a prospect of further peaks and the problem of retained water in the Severn basin is going to give problems for several days to come”.

The flooding across Gloucestershire and many other areas of Southern England has been some of the worst in history, with water levels at a dangerously high point.  Three people died when the River Severn burst its banks and engulfed the town of Tewkesbuy.  Thousands of motorists have also been stranded in their cars overnight on the M5 motorway.

Parts of Hereford and Worcestershire have also found themselves under 6ft (1.82m) of water, with Evesham and Upton-upon-Severn both heavily affected.  In Evesham, about 20 special needs children trapped at a special needs school and guests and staff were confined to the upper floors of the Northwick Hotel.

Meanwhile, 140,000 homes still remain without water in the area, following flooding at the water treatment works, at Mythe.  Alan Payne from Severn Trent water said “We’re doing everything we can to address that as a priority and we have two to three million litres of bottled water a day being delivered to Cheltenham Racecourse to be distributed by the military at 17 centres”.  “We currently have 490 bowsers here and another 270 are on their way. We will have 900 here by 6am tomorrow”.

 The environment agency now believe that the water levels have peaked and expect them slowly to recede.  Spokesman, Anthony Perry said “we are not expecting rain later in the week to have much impact, what we will see probably though is the rate of receding slowing up a little”.  In Tewkesbury, one of the worst hit areas, water is receding at the rate of 400mm (4cm) a day.  Mr Perry went on to say “Our advice to people is to look out for flood warnings.  A lot of people have put in a lot of hours to deal with this situation and our thanks go to them all”.

Speaking on behalf of Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust, Dr Shona Arora, asked people to “boil bowser water as a precautionary measure”.  She said “Bowser water or bottled water should also be used for tooth brushing or cooking or anything else where you might ingest it”.  Giving advice on basic sanitation, she said “Sanitation is an important issue we’re looking at. Please avoid flushing where possible and remember you can use ‘grey water’ such as from streams or rain or you can recycle water you have used for tooth-brushing or cooking to flush”.

Dr Brain warned the public that the Police would be enforcing the full power of the law on anyone found to be behaving irresponsibly with regards to bowser water.  He went on to say “If people continue to show patience and forbearance and common sense and continue to conserve water supplies and listen to key message we will come through this successfully”.  He added “Government is very strongly aware of our situation here and are very keen to help and assist”.

It is expected that all residents in Gloucestershire will have fully restored power and water withing 7 days.

Power restored to substation March 11, 2008

Emergency services have resorted power to an electricity substation as flood water threatened to cut off the power to thousands of home across Gloucestershire.

Chief constable of Gloucestershire police, Tim Brain, described the efforts as “superhuman” and said that ” the crisis was past just before midnight, and it has continued to function and supply electricity to the Gloucester area and beyond”.

However, he was keen to express that the emergency was not over, saying “water is still high around Walham and there is a prospect of further peaks and the problem of retained water in the Severn basin is going to give problems for several days to come”.

Meanwhile, 140,000 homes still remain without water in the area, following flooding at the water treatment works, at Mythe.  Alan Payne from Severn Trent water said “We’re doing everything we can to address that as a priority and we have two to three million litres of bottled water a day being delivered to Cheltenham Racecourse to be distributed by the military at 17 centres”.  “We currently have 490 bowsers here and another 270 are on their way. We will have 900 here by 6am tomorrow”.

Breaking News March 11, 2008

BREAKING NEWS

Power restored to Gloucestershire substation.

Robed Obama picture brings Democrat race to boiling point February 26, 2008

By Nathan Hughes 

The fierce debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is threatening to boil over following the release of a new picture showing Mr Obama wearing traditional Somali dress during a visit to Kenya in 2006.

Obama’s campaign team claim that the picture sent to the Drudge Report website was circulated by Mrs Clinton’s staff but her team denied they had sanctioned its release.  The row comes less than a week before the two go head to head in Primary Elections in Texas and Ohio, which could ultimately decide who runs for the White House.

Mr Obama,whose father came from Kenya is shown in the photograph wearing a white turban and a white robe presented to him by elders in the north-east of the country.  The Drudge Report said the image had been circulated by “Clinton staffers” as a smear.

Addressing the issue in an interview with a Texas radio station, Obama said “I think the American people are saddened when they see these kind of politics”.

Supporters of Mrs Clinton have in the past suggested that certain aspects of the Illinois Senator’s past may not appeal to America’s mainstream voters.  Last year, a campaign worker was dismissed for circulating an e-mail wrongly suggesting that Obama was a Muslim.

In the past week, tempers have frayed between the two rivals, with the former first lady attacking Obama for his lack of foreign policy experience.  She has also accused him of plagiarism, by continually using quotes from speeches made by other politicians; a claim which Mr Obama described as ‘ludicrous’.

Speaking at the George Washington University, Mrs Clinton suggested that her rival would need a “foreign policy instruction manual” to keep the country safe if elected.

Mr Obama has won 11 consecutive primaries and caucuses in recent weeks, and is now seen as the Democratic front-runner.  Some political analysts are suggesting that Clinton will need victories in both Texas and Ohio if she is to keep her alive her campaign to become the first female president. 

McCain looking chipper as Romney calls time February 19, 2008

We now know that John McCain will be the Republican nomination for November’s US Presidential election.  Of course this will not be confirmed until McCain has passed the winning post, but realistically he simply cannot be caught.

Last week, Senator Mitt Romney, McCain’s biggest threat suspended his campaign, all but handing victory to McCain.  It seemed an unusual decision to pull out, but perhaps by continuing he would have only been delaying the inevitable.  McCain was comfortably in the lead, and was unlikely to be caught.

It is now likely that Romney and his supporters will fully endorse McCain’s campaign, just like Rudolph Giuliani has since pulling out of the race last week.  The weight of support behind McCain will all but crush the campaign of the only other real candidate, Mike Huckabee.

McCain who lost out to George W Bush in 2000, is brimming with confidence, although his victory has been all but overlooked in the news by the battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Things are far from over in the race to be the Democrat candidate.  As I predicted, Super Tuesday gave us no major clues as to who will run for the Presidency.  Psychologically, Hillary Clinton perhaps has the edge over Barack Obama, after taking the all important key state of California.

It would appear that their head to head battle will go right down to the wire.  Never before has an election gripped America quite like this one, and would you believe that the election itself is not until November.

Why Hain had to quit February 5, 2008

After weeks of hanging on to his political career by a thread, Peter Hain finally resigned last Thursday.  The fiasco over un-declared donations was never going to go away and the final nail was hammered into his coffin when the matter was referred to the Police.

Hain has always been a figure head in the Labour party.  He enjoyed success in Northern Ireland, helping to restore power to the Assembly.  He became popular in his role as Secretary of State for Wales, helping to try and push through legislation to give Wales full law making powers.   However his bid to become deputy leader of the Labour party was ultimately his downfall.

No election is cheap, and the race to become the deputy leader is no exception. To fund his bid Mr Hain had received £103,000 from 17 separate donations, which he failed to declare until some 4 months after the election.  We all make mistakes, but this was unacceptable from a member of the government.  To make matters worse, his campaign was a disaster, coming in fifth place out of six candidates.

Despite the matter being investigated by the Electoral Commission and several calls for his resignation, Hain might well have survived had the decision to refer the matter to the Police not been made.  Once it was, then it was all over. Had he not resigned, I think he would have almost certainly been sacked.  Gordon Brown could simply not afford to have a member of his cabinet facing criminal investigations.  Hain said he was ‘resigning to clear his name’.

Hain was certainly a figure head and a character in politics, but I can’t say I’ll miss him.  Will he make a comeback to the front bench?  I guess it all depends on the outcome of the investigation.  However Politics must look to the future, and Hain is not it.  I certainly would not like to see him return, but in politics, anything can happen.

Now is the time to start taking this sleeping giant seriously February 5, 2008

Gordon Brown’s visit to China this week shows that the world is starting to take notice of a sleeping giant that has finally started to awaken.

China already has the largest population in the world, at well over 1 billion and soon it will have the biggest economy in the world to match.  Making friends with a country ruled by Communism is never easy for the West, but Brown is aware that it has to be done.  He is perhaps keen to show the US that sometimes you can get on with people that you don’t really like.

Of course, some of the actions undertaken by China deeply concern the West.  The country executes more people than any other in the world, and its human rights program is practically non-existent.  The country is also one of the world’s biggest polluters and huge plumes of smog cover it major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.  China fails to recognise the threat posed by Global Warming and refuses to sign the Kyoto agreement.  Instead the number of power station’s is only likely to increase, which is very worrying indeed.

However one thing uniting both China and the UK is Sport.  The two countries will be the hosts of the next two Olympic games, with Beijing hositng the event this year.  Gordon Brown is keen to use the games as a way of improving relations with China.

Love them, or loathe them, you cannot ignore them.  China is growing as fast as Jack’s bean stalk.  The UK has realised that it is time to make friends, but will the rest of the the G8 follow?  Only time will tell.

Hillary cries her way to the top February 5, 2008

Hillary Clinton’s victory in New Hampshire last week left us political analysts rather red faced.  I must admit that I was one of those eating a large slice of Humble Pie after predicting a Barack Obama victory.

So why did she defy the odds to pull off, what was in the end, a rather comfortable victory?  Well, the turnout was much higher than anybody anticipated, at over 50%, showing just how much the election has gripped America.

However, I think you have to look at her last minute campaign held the night before the polls, when she was asked by a member of the audience how she was handling the pressure of running for President?  In response, Clinton was clearly emotional and shed quite a few tears.  Could America’s Iron Lady really be feeling the strain?

 Seeing an emotional side to Hillary, that many Americans thought never existed, worked strongly in her favour.  It suddenly dawned on them, that not only was she a determined and excellent politician but that she was a wife, mother and ordinary human being as well.

As a result, she swept to victory.  Obama was no doubt rattled by what happened.  He could even be accused of celebrating too early, as it looked for all the world as though Hillary was a beaten woman.  We may well look on New Hampshire as the turning point in the election.  Hillary is back, and back in style and she could yet be the 44th President.