UKIP Dredges The EU Barrel

As the clean-up operation continues across areas of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Scotland following the latest bouts of flooding to hit the UK, the search is on for politicians to make capital out of all the misery and financial distress caused, and no party is more desperate to make capital at the moment than UKIP and its not-elected-this-time-round leader Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. They have identified the villain, and it is, predictably, the EU.

Now it's squeaky dredging finger up the bum time

How have the Kippers come to this conclusion? Have the dastardly Eurocrats of Brussels somehow conspired to influence weather patterns and force all those low pressure areas and their associated frontal systems to dump their rain only on the unfortunate UK? Well, no, not even UKIP would try that one - at least, not yet - but they are sure that what the EU decided (with UK agreement) caused the flooding.

Getting to their desired conclusion was slow going for the Farage fringe: at first, they joined the Daily Mail bandwagon, pretending that there was some kind of zero sum game between foreign aid and flood defence provision. Very few voters took any notice. So their attack switched to the HS2 project: there was now another zero sum game between that and flood defence provision. Still very few voters took any notice.

Wrong, Nige. Try again

Then a lightbulb was energised somewhere on Planet Kipper, as it was belatedly realised that they were supposed to blame the EU. So blame the EU they did: James Carver, who represents UKIP at the European Parliament, asked “Did the virtual end of river dredging when the EC Water Framework Directive became law, cause the disastrous floods?” That’s another QTWTAIN, even if it is in the papers.

Wrong once more ...

Although the Mail, ever ready to play both sides of the field on any subject where the EU can somehow be dragged in, screamed “Britain's flooding crisis 'made worse by the EU': Green Brussels bureaucrats have 'banned' river dredging that allows water to drain faster, say farmers”, their own article shows why the assertion is not true.

... and thrice wrong

The article concludes “An Environment Agency spokesman said: ‘Dredging and clearing channels are important parts of the Environment Agency’s maintenance regime and over the past two years we have spent £21million on dredging … In many cases, dredging is not the best long-term solution because rivers can quickly silt up again and other measures may be more effective’”. We have been here before.

Two winters ago, the Somerset Levels flooded. Led by professional fraud Christopher Booker, there was a call for the rivers in the area to be dredged. They were duly dredged. The following winter, with rather less rainfall, the rivers nearly overflowed once more. Rivers, after all, only carry away a small percentage of that heavy rainfall, and there are far better ways to mitigate flood risks (read George Monbiot on the subject HERE).

But that would involve engaging brain and entering an intellectual process. Far better, for the Kippers, to point at Brussels and shout loudly. What a complete and utter shower.