Sometimes life is frustrating as an MP trying to get some service for constituents out of government. Ever since the summer rains hit I have been trying to find out who is responsible for each of the main watercourses, culverts, ditches and drains that take surface water in my constituency, and to discover how well the owners have been doing at keeping them clean. I have also wanted to know from the Environment Agency what action they are now going to take to deepen or improve the main water channels that take water from the Loddon and other main watercourses they are responsible for.

I have asked for lists of all affected homes, lists of which homes were recently built on floodplain thanks to some Inspector overriding local wishes and which homes will still be at risk if improvements are not made. It is especially frustrating, as I raised the general question with the government many times in the Commons well before this summer about what action they were taking to make us better prepared for rising water levels and heavy rains. I have a another meeting with the Environment Agency shortly, and would be happy to hear from anyone whose home was flooded who has a bone to pick with the main anti flood body in England.

It is also uncomfortable being so close to the latest outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in neighbouring Surrey. When the crisis first hit I raised the issue of whether the exclusion zone was big enough around the outbreak and well enough enforced. We were told all was well, and heard Ministerial reassurances that it was under control. The recent outbreak, shortly after the government had given the all clear was unsettling. It is particularly worrying that the disease came upon us from a government and government contractor’s laboratory facilities, where everyone should have worked to the highest health and safety standards the Ministers should have taken action to maintain and upgrade facilities earlier.

The summer we have had floods, animal disease, and a run on a bank. Some in the press follow the government’s spin, and tell us our Prime Minister has done well, staying calm in these crises. I would say it is easy for him to stay calm, as he has the protection of Downing Street and the power of the state around him. His home was not flooded and his cattle are not suffering. I am not so impressed, when it was the government he leads that allowed the disease to escape, when it was the government and its quango that failed to maintain and improve our key flood defences, and when it was the government’s changes to the Bank of England which made it more likely we would have trouble in the money markets in a period of higher interest rates. They cannot escape all the blame for everything that happens on their watch, especially when they are crucial actors in each of the tragedies we have seen unfold this summer.

It was good last week to hear that my website, www.johnredwood.com had been chosen in a survey as the best MP site. It means I am getting even more feedback from readers.

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