They kept this quiet too ey?

[Anise]

The question that keeps coming back to my mind is ~ How did Tony Blair know this was about to happen?

Because he has his finger on the button of the diabloical weather machine that's why.

[Misunderstood]

Pedant alert : whiskey is from Ireland (northern) whereas whisky is the bad Scottish impression thereof.

Bushmills = good, everything else = not good.

OK?

My subject matter is imposters today - hadn't you noticed?

[Barman]

On that point alone I have some sympathy for his dilemma, I would bet good money that given his choice he wouldn't have gone anywhere near water.   

Being Scottish that would, no doubt, include his whiskey! 

On the radio this morning they were complaining that he hadn?t got around very much? 

Still as was pointed out I did see him on the TV last night making a complete arse of himself? 

[degsy]

When will Bob Geldof, Sting or Bono launch Flood Aid UK concert? Keen enough when other countries need help/they need publicity. (Only joking - I know our situation doesn't compare to world disasters)

[Barman]

I wondered last night just how many media helicopters there were covering the flooding? Certainly Sky and the BBC seem to have an endless supply of ?from the air? pictures and commentary so that?s at least two and I suspect that ITV and other foreign agencies have aircraft up too?

I can?t help thinking that, just like the PM?s visit, this is an unnecessary burden on the emergency services at a time like this. It can?t be fun for the air sea rescue pilots and air traffic controllers in the area to have to be aware of and provide separation from formations of news helicopters.

Why can?t news crews be ?attached? to an air sea rescue helicopter or have a designated news helicopter that provides feeds for all of the news agencies?

We have the same thing in the latest famine-struck area of Africa or third-world disaster zone. They always need more helicopters and food is scarce yet here we have the well-fed BBC reporter and his entire back-up team flying over the area to take pictures?

[Snoopy]

I wondered last night just how many media helicopters there were covering the flooding? Certainly Sky and the BBC seem to have an endless supply of ‘from the air’ pictures and commentary so that’s at least two and I suspect that ITV and other foreign agencies have aircraft up too…

I can’t help thinking that, just like the PM’s visit, this is an unnecessary burden on the emergency services at a time like this. It can’t be fun for the air sea rescue pilots and air traffic controllers in the area to have to be aware of and provide separation from formations of news helicopters.

Why can’t news crews be ‘attached’ to an air sea rescue helicopter or have a designated news helicopter that provides feeds for all of the news agencies?

We have the same thing in the latest famine-struck area of Africa or third-world disaster zone. They always need more helicopters and food is scarce yet here we have the well-fed BBC reporter and his entire back-up team flying over the area to take pictures…

It's not as if we don't know by now what water covered fields looks like ~ or for that matter fly covered African children.
Personally I'm more concerned about my child being bullied at a school that is in denial that they have a bullying problem. I am more concerned about the pain in my back, I am more concerned about the fact that it has taken two weeks to remove my kitchen ceiling, identify and cure a leak from the shower room above it and replace the ceiling. They still cannot decorate it until Monday which will make it three weeks that the kitchen has been hors de combat. I am more concerned that the people who are supposed to be fitting a new boiler are still dicking about with regulations and that the local authority are now arguing with the Welsh Assembly that the Regulations that came into force in January do not apply in Wales or Scotland. The WAG agrees with me that the regs do not apply but the local "official" says they do.
These are all battles that I must fight ~ I can do nothing for Gloucester, Tewksbury or Oxford and Reading They have my sympathy but at the end of the day I have to point out these people made a choice to live there and elected the arses that are letting them down.
So BBC let's have a Helicopter over Denbighshire County Hall and thrusting interviews of the Chief Executive or the arse of a Building Control Officer by Paxman. Let Humphries loose on the local headteacher. Get a camera crew round to the builders acting for my insurance company and doorstep the MD with a few searching questions from Huw Edwards.

I am a pissed off beagle today   

[GROWLER]

I wondered last night just how many media helicopters there were covering the flooding? Certainly Sky and the BBC seem to have an endless supply of ?from the air? pictures and commentary so that?s at least two and I suspect that ITV and other foreign agencies have aircraft up too?

I can?t help thinking that, just like the PM?s visit, this is an unnecessary burden on the emergency services at a time like this. It can?t be fun for the air sea rescue pilots and air traffic controllers in the area to have to be aware of and provide separation from formations of news helicopters.

Why can?t news crews be ?attached? to an air sea rescue helicopter or have a designated news helicopter that provides feeds for all of the news agencies?

We have the same thing in the latest famine-struck area of Africa or third-world disaster zone. They always need more helicopters and food is scarce yet here we have the well-fed BBC reporter and his entire back-up team flying over the area to take pictures?

I am a pissed off beagle today   

Normal sort of mode then ey?
I'm a bit of a pissed off bear too, and I'm getting mighty pissed off with the following message 8/10 when I want to quote:

An Error Has Occurred!
Session verification failed. Please try logging out and back in again, and then try again. 

 

Oh, and it's pissing down here YET again....FFS!

[Snoopy]

As the little Asian kid in the old Billy Bunter TV series would have said:
"The pissed offness today is indeed terrific".

What was that character's name? ~ probably very non PC these days

[Uncle Mort]

The Beagle has the right of it. Yes, the people affected by the floods have their problems but they're getting help and most seem fairly good-natured about their trials and tribulations.  They don't need the media circus descending on them, asking them daft questions most of which have blindingly obvious answers.

[GROWLER]

Just caught the very last bit of an interview on the news with some Asian geezer, loading his people carrier up with many bottles of water.
He didn't seem too happy about being critisised but didn't catch the whole story.
What was that all about then, as if I couldn't take a fairly accurate guess?

[Misunderstood]

The Beagle has the right of it. Yes, the people affected by the floods have their problems but they're getting help and most seem fairly good-natured about their trials and tribulations.  They don't need the media circus descending on them, asking them daft questions most of which have blindingly obvious answers.

You have mentioned the one really good thing about being British.  The stoic and defiant nature that either ignores disaster or laughs at it.

If you can't do that - you ain't really British in my opinion.

For a fair chunk of my life I have seen people whizzing around in circles screaming, whilst the Brits just sit down and moan about it over a cup of tea and a laugh.

It is, I think, the only reason I am still here.   But it is being slowly erased by the compo culture.   

[Darwins Selection]

it is being slowly erased by the compo culture.   

Aye

[Misunderstood]

Between you and Snoopy - you're gonna wear Google out   

[Uncle Mort]

I don't know if it is the compensation culture that is eroding our stoic nature but something sure is.

Maybe it's this rising desire to be a 'celebrity' because a lot of the wailing and gnashing of teeth I see in other cultures seems to be more of a wish to be noticed rather than true fear or grief. A sort of 'look at me, I'm really suffering here' 

[Snoopy]

I don't know if it is the compensation culture that is eroding our stoic nature but something sure is.

Maybe it's this rising desire to be a 'celebrity' because a lot of the wailing and gnashing of teeth I see in other cultures seems to be more of a wish to be noticed rather than true fear or grief. A sort of 'look at me, I'm really suffering here' 

DO NOT get me started on the "Keening" over dead relatives that "Muslims" get themselves into and is shown so regularly on TV. If that isn't play acting I don't know what is. And Why BBC Why do we need to see it over and over again? It's tragic, we know that, move on and cover other stories ~ there's plenty of news that you don't ever tell us about.
And it's not just them ~ look at the performance of grief put on for that Brazilian shot by the Met. All those cousins etc screaming and bawling ~ they probably seldom if ever saw the man ~ I'd lay money some had never even met him.
 I can understand anyone's mother being pissed off that her child has been shot. But Cousins, Uncle, Aunties ..... all false grief, all looking for a share in the compensation.