Can we please borrow your government. Ours is broken.

Rob Billideau, Marquette, MI USA

An impressive response by a proper government. It's too bad all our boys were off in Iraq when Katrina hit.

Matt Majer, New York, NY

Peter Wells, Austria.
Builders will build where allowed, the Government holds back greenfield land and the planning process is a joke. So in some cases there isn't too many options, but to build where the Government or local councils prefer. These proposals of building in flood plains, which isn't just restricted to larger areas like the Thames Gateway but all over the country, are all Government and local council backed schemes. So to suggest that "builders" are in collaboration with the councils and want to build in these flood plains you are mistaken. There are plenty of other areas available to build in but through Nimbyism and planners refusing to grant planning permissions on sites such as greenfield, where are the options?

Adam, Macc, UK

ITS TIME TO DO WHAT THE DUTCH DO.BUILD HOUSES ON
Pontoon's the water rises the house rises with the
water level,they sell this idea all over the world,and yes Alice
you are a tomato, the met office knew the gulf stream had dropped, and severe weather pattens were likely BBC
and channel 4 showed programmes late last year forecasting the effects.

george william taylor, hull, uk

Reminds me of the saying - is the glass half empty or half full ? In other words was it a disaster or a triumph because the emergency services were brilliant ?

Think about it !!

IAN PAYNE, Lichfield, STAFFS

I think there would have been more posts accusing the writer of insensitivity, but the (potential) authors have no electricity.

Justin, Alford, UK

If you live in Tewkesbury then you know then its liable to flooding or did your lawyers not do their homework?

The government shouldnt be letting new homes be built on flood plains and also, why are our drainage systems so old, this country collapses when it sees a bit of snow or 'extreme weather'.

As for global warming I think personally that its just differernt weather patterns for no reason whatsoever, I recycle because I think if I don't then its a waste, but the weather??!! Its just another excuse to tax us!

I thought America was bad on taxes but at least they tell you they are doing it!! Our Emergency services - the best in the world , not paid nearly enough, this country has had it and if you regularly read these 'comments 'columns then you know that the rest of the world thinks we are a joke!

I want the Australians to come and take over , and give us back our humour and common sense!!

Theresa, Manchester, ENGLAND

Some houses flooded TWO years ago are still unfit for human habitation.

Alice Miles manages to be both flippant and irrelevant at the same time.

Martin, Telford, UK

Lewes in East Sussex flooded in 2000; a light industrial estate there was later abandoned as being unfit to have anything built upon it because of the continuing risk of flooding. Now 760 houses are being built on that site. Someone, somewhere needs a swift kick in the backside. The developers? The Council?
Why doesn't some investigative journalist start digging into the planning permissions given for the modern housing which has been flooded? What objections were raised at the time? What limp reasons were given for the granting of permission to build in areas known to be at risk?
And who took the kickbacks?
I think that the murky floodwaters are going to wash up some equally murky, filthy secrets.

Stephen Brown, Selsey, West Sussex

Bravo Mrs Shaw well said,some people need to climb down from there ivory towers once in a while!

Notontherichlist, Gloucester, uk

Amd another thing. All those people who are moaning about being starved of water and electricity etc have managed to get onto the internet, but with difficulty I am sure (cruel world). And yet another thing. When the stats come out for this week or two it will probably be shown that death rate dropped becasse the young idiots in their cars didn't try to put them into trees.

Barrie, Brussels,

The recent appalling floods have been caused by a shift in the jet stream pushing cold air southwards over the UK. Aircraft fly through the jet stream disrupting the weather at such high alittudes. Global warming affects the jet strea.m Go figure ... support the PEACEFUL Climate Camp at Heathrow.

SB, Brighton, UK

Alice Miles is absolutely correct: & whilst "R,York" is correct in saying that people have NOW died, it is a tribute to the British way of life that has enabled the vast majority to deal with the situation. In a sober & pragmatic way.
As for those wasting the limited drinking water available by trying to "shower": Have they never heard of a flannel wash? What on earth is their vison of a hospital bed-bath!
Shame on those guilty of literally stealing the drinking water. These mindless few should be named & ostracised by their neighbours.
But overall: "Still Proud to Be British"

Steve Singleton, Hyde Nr. Manchester,

I would not call it a tragedy losing your home. We are well insured, and I'm sure if we ever got flooded our house would be in a better state after the insurance company fixed it than before. I thought my brother's daughter dying at 20 minutes old and my friend's best mate in Iraq dying were more like tragic. Anyway to every body hit by the floods I wish you luck, and I might meet some of you on Sunday when I will be driving a water tanker

Joe Hough, Northampton, UK

I would have more respect for Alice Miles is she lived in Gloucester instead of posturing from her London home. Where I live, we've not had water or electricity since last week .

Amy H, Gloucester,

I think Alice is being a little harsh on the Radio 4 reporter. I saw a TV report the night before in which the cameras were invited to film key cabling inside the switching station that was waterlogged and, we were told to camera by the experts, only 2 inches away from distaster.

I guess the Chief Constable was by the following morning in full "downplay" mode and also, as so often, badly briefed.

Peter, MARLOW,

Outstanding ignorance. Not just of the tragedy of losing your home, the ongoing lack of available drinking water, but even of the people who have died in the floods - DIRECTLY.

R, York,

You know what Alice? - you're bang on here. Calm and phlegmatic - the "just deal with it" attitude. I think we can do better on the flood prevention issue - but at least we don't have the rank incompetence that afflicted New Orelans during their hour of need.

And the picture of a bunch of part time firefighers pitching in - and then one turns to camera and says "of course - all our own homes are flooded" sums it up brilliantly.

I hesitate to use the term "blitz spirit" - but what else applies?

Thank God for calmly competent British emergency service workers!

James Robertson, Birmingham,

Build your house on a flood plain and it serves you right in my book. meanwhile the weather has been glorious in bonnie scotland.

Ed, glasgow,

Thank you Ms Miles; it is so refreshing to have a report on the news instead of a piece of hysterical prose.

It is very uncomfortable and nasty for all those who are suffering from flood damage, there is no getting away from that fact, but we all have to accept that such things will continue to happen until we learn to live with nature rather than control it. If we have to build on flood plains we must learn to accommodate that fact, not fight it.

J Richards, Southend,

Government seems competent -it is hard to appear incompetent when you do nothing. It is individual and local resources which have coped not Government agencies.

peter, Lincoln, UK

What a very stupid and thoughtless article. Presumably the writer is trying to get attention for herself by composing absolute drivel
such as this.

David Browne, London, UK

I love this article, it really reflects how many people feel. i was most disapointed to find channel 4 news spending 40 minutes on the floods and 5 minutes on other news (which was mostly about a heatwave in romania), surely there are other events they could have reported on? thankyou alice miles for a wonderful article.

joseph, kent,

"Properties have been ruined, and it is miserable for those who have been hit, but they will be fixed." says Alice Miles. My brother was flooded out in York in 2000 , and had to spend 6 months with small children in rented accomodation. There are still some who have not been able to return to their homes in Carlisle more than 2 years since they were submerged. And no-one has died as a direct result of the floods? Tell that to the father of the young man in Sheffield who diied of hypothermia in rising flood waters with his foot stuck in a drain cover. Its easy to criticise others "over-reaction" from cosy, dry London Ms Miles!!!

Finlay Simpson, Rotherham, Yorkshire

I hear that the Queen has expressed her sympathy with those affected by the recent floods. It would have been nice to hear one of the following instead:

"I will be selling all of my excess properties and donating the money to the flood victims".
or
"My family and I will donate all of the money we normally sponge from the british tax payer annually to the flood victims"

But then words cost nothing.

John Mills, Raunds, UK

An excellent article. Having been flooded before I know what a wonderful job the emergency services do.

But let's not single-out the Beeb for the 2 inches error. If you look at the Times' own picture gallery on the floods (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=2131838&&offset=11&&sectionName=Weather&randnum=null) picture 12 has the caption:

'The floods in Gloucester began to subside just two inches short of overwhelming Walham power station'.

One thing that does amaze me is the fetish the Beeb now has for getting their weather presenters into the action. The weather lady on the breakfast news this morning presented the weather from within a few hundred yards of flooded houses in Oxford. She was even praised for battling into position as apparently it was 'inaccessible'. Of course it was inaccessible, the roads are flooded. There is no earthly benefit in having her there - why not stay in the studio out of the way?

David, Oxford, UK

Although I agree that we are lucky compared with many countries, so far as I know it isn't true that there have been no deaths as a direct result of the floods (I'm including June's floods here of course).

Doug, Birmingham,

Good article & it makes me glad to be English.
I just love the humour that goes with a disaster of this sort, it's as though people think , yes it's bad , but it could have been worse
So they come across as almost grateful !

As for the money lost by the farmers, surely this is where the EU should step in ? you bet your life the French would be slamming a claim in pretty quick [ as they did for their floods some years ago] so why have I not heard this mentioned ?

Maggie Millington, Brittany, France

It's time to wake up and realise that our natural resources are finite and that we must must must look after them. Access to water is so fundamental that we cannot carry on being complacent about water wasteage and pollution. It's time for politicians of all parties to take decisive action to safeguard the water supply network for our future, and to think about sensible environmental and building policies. We may not be able to reverse the damage that has already been done but we have a chance to minimise our impact on the future. We cannot continue to treat the planet as a disposable commodity. The irony is that many millions of people already live like this in other parts of the world, but it's not until the problem lands on our doorstep that we start to take it seriously. The impact of climate change is no longer someone else's problem, it's ours, and we do have the ability to do something about it. Let's not forget that once the floodwaters have receded.

Lily, Bristol,

dave b's comments show his ignorance of flooding
Our neighbours were flooded in the 2003 floods on the Thames
They were out of there house for 6 months.
It is very unpleasant.

And the anger can be directed at poor planning.
The people whose flood barrrier did not arrive in time have a right to be angry.

Bob D, Staines,

Everyone of you call upon me in YOUR day of trouble...and I will remind you you of something...

Hugh, London , Albion

There isn't a "British love of disaster", it's more a matter of there being no constraint against dipsticks becoming journalists.

John Ledbury, Kings Lynn, England

I was disgusted,sickened to hear about the mindless vandalism of the bowsers and of non-locals driving in to a street and filling numerous containers and upsetting the true locals. and grown men snatching bottles of water out of children's hands.An old friend laughed when I said words to the effect that that wouldn't have occurred in the war.She said it certainly did but obviously didn't get reported as morale had to be kept high.(It's human nature/law of the jungle,really.How sad!)My Cheltenham friend phoned last night to ask if our local pool in N.Somerset was open(for a hot shower)and if there was a launderette handy.(I told them to drive to me(70 miles)They're only 4 days without water so far but so very fed up.I wouldn't wish the situation on anyone.

H.D., W.s.M, UK

My thoughts exactly, I'm glad someone has the courage to speak such sense.

While I'm sure it is upsetting to be affected by the floods, it's not the end of the world.
So what if you can't have a shower for a few days?! I think the media have blown this out of all proportion, as usual.

What they should be concentrating on is the poor farmers whose crops are ruined and whose livestock have drowned. This is the real tragedy.

Clare, Harrogate, People's Republic of Yorkshire

This article nicely focuses on the different functions that news nowadays seems to perform.

Whilst information should be paramount, and victims with battery-powered TV will be glad to know that a water bowser is within inflatable beach kit rowing range, or that help is on its way, there can be, as highlighted, an excessive dwelling on the misfortunes of others.

The opportunity for political soothsaying may not be unwelcome, and watchers of such discussion now have information on forecasts, availability and location of preventive equipment, and can be glad of the difficult work of the emergency personnel..

The valuable lesson for all, of being prepared for most adverse events within the bell curve of the Risk Assessment continuum should be welcome.

Consumers may now seek out basic survival kit and some dried foodstuffs, whilst the eco-aware can refill some empty mineral water bottles from the tap (when available) for use in an emergency.

dr venables preller, Warminster, UK

Bravo Alice. This modern over-use of certain words like hero,tragedy and disaster serves to reduce their real impact. Of course everyone should sympathise with flood victims and help in any way they can but over -emotional jounalism only diminishes that sympathy. Hurricane Katrina was a disaster as is Darfur. Aberfan was a tragedy. See what I mean ?

SLC, Hampshire,

As a person of British heritage (Canadian, Dad born in London), I am so pleased to see the civilized approach which you in England and Britain have taken to the misfortune of the floods. Certainly a contrast to the hysteria of people in the United States to similar sorts of natural disasters.

England and Britain continues to be the world's example for behaving well under duress.

Jim, Prince Edward Island Canada

James Follwell, Charlottetown, PEI Canada

Go to Gloucester, or Tewkesbury, or even Cheltenham (where I live). Look around you, and talk to people. You have a point, but you could have made it with both more eloquence and - much more important - a great deal more sensitivity...

David, Cheltenham,

Yes I agree but we see only what the TV companies can show - what about those stuck out on their farms, houses etc who are dependent on the heroic RAF sea kings etc helicopters and what about the poor farm stock, horses, sheep etc who have had to defend for themselves or have perished in the rising waters?? This whole scenario of building house on flood plains, reclaimed land, infills etc is a total charade - the sooner the government in collaboration with the "builders" between them both taking over land that is not worth putting a tent on get their act together instead of granting planning permission in these non buildable areas the better!!!!!!!

peter wells, Vienna, austria

Slight correction. You refer to the 'British love of disaster' mistaking media obsession with national focus.

What the media thinks, says and believes is as different from what ordinary Brits say, think and believe as chalk and cheese.

H, London,

Great article. Whilst I do sympathize with those in the midst of the flooding I think that the media coverage, as usual, has generally tried to find something to complain about. The emergency services and others appear to have worked tirelessly for those in need. The great British spirit has shone through again.

bill hails, bolton,

Great article. No doubt about it , the media couldn't find a stick to bash the goverment with. If my home flooded, I would go upstairs, slob around for a few days and wait for the water to go down. I found it strange that people were 'angry'. How can you be angry at a rain cloud?

dave b, york,

I'm glad to see commen sense breaking out at the Times after the outrageous "Looting" article earlier in the week. Good job Alice.

Larry, Buckingham,

Good upbeat stuff and well written. Hopefully Alice Mills will be able to write similar stories in the future should such events happen again after the Fire Services have their budgets cut by up to 10% and all the local Control Rooms in the Country have been shut down and replaced by Regional Control Centres with a quarter of the staff but at a cost of £2billion! Surely events like this prove we should be investing in improving front line emergency services, not wasting our valuable resources on discredited national projects that (with this Government's pathetic record on such projects) is doomed to failure.

Nick, Gravesend, England

Re: the dead twins. I need to point out that the Police "Pregnant Tewkesbury Woman: Emergency Services Joint Statement" refers to the speedy response and the BBC report was headlined "Twins die in flood rescue bid". Neither statement /report unambiguously says the flood was or was not a cause of the premature labour and the resultant deaths. Given that, I need to point out that referring to the twins on this Have Your Say (as I did in an earlier post before the debate on their status was known to me, God forgive me), whether arguing pro or con, is *spectacularly* inappropriate until somebody medical actually stands up and says the flood was/was not a deciding factor in the deaths. Civilised postings on an Internet board is one thing. Disputing the causes of death of children is obviously another.

Timothy Martyn, Southampton, Britain

Bravo! This lies in stark contrast to the response of my government when New Orleans was flooded.

Carl Pietrzak, Chicago, USA

"As I write, we do not know of anybody who has died as a direct result of the floods." Well, no-one's died, that is, except for the poor devil who drowned in a drain in Hull. Oh, and the twins born prematurely thanks to flood-induced maternal stresss. The general tenor of the article, yes, but have a heart, Alice...

Jonathan Trueman, Manchester, UK

Good report apart from one thing - the government has done the right thing by doing nothing! Apart from some commentary they have, largely, left it to the professionals to get on and organise a response. That's what should happen, hence the "luck" - a prepared and measured response by emergency services left to get on with the job.

The real questin is - will the government learn from this and apply the philosophy more generally?

KR, Stockport,

A wave of relief washes over me to read something so straightforward and honest! Well done & thank you Ms Miles.

Amit, Ealing,

Lucky maybe an exaggeration. Noone is lucky to live on a planet which is everything but an ideal environment for such a weak creature like man but you are right it could be much worse. There can be huge differences between disasters and disasters. However, I doubt a tomato is able to understand that.

Meanwhile about 500 people died due to the heat wave here but it's not a disaster since far more people died in France in 2003. Logical.

Cid, Veszprem, Hungary

Well said Alice Miles!! The first article I have enjoyed reading in ages!

Chantel, UK,

I feel guiltily relieved - I have had exactly the same thoughts myself, but like you from a dry, clean, water-supplied vantage point. But when one of the news reporters began talking about the need for residents to try to show "the Dunkirk Spirit", I felt my patience wear thin.

Mark, Worthing, UK

We should therefore assume that Ms Miles is, in fact, a tomato - of the extremely happy, complacent, self-satisfied variety.

AJ, Manchester, UK

oh, again, liberal shouting about the Third World, "millions people dying from diseases" and so on.. no doubt, developing countries need help but now it is at least awkward time to recall it.
Yes, these floods are a national disaster for the UK, undoubtedly. It is so because such events of this scale are rare in UK and it affected hundreds thousands people.

Yeah, UK emergency services did well their job and they deserve sincere praise. But it isn't luck for UK citizens that they live in the UK, it is their achievement that they created good emergency services and contribute to them through taxes.

Unfortunately, people in other parts of world can't boast of being able to create such emergency services,,,,

Ilya, St. Petersburg, Russia

This is the Britain I love! Disaster strikes but a good plan, some hard work and plenty of coordination will reduce the nuissance to the least possible burden.
It's not a picnic and the clean up is going to be ugly but the government responded in nothing short of exemplary fashion. No hysteria, no self-importance, plan, coordinate, execute. My sincere respect to everybody involved.
Compare that to the aftermath of the Katrina disaster where there was no plan although it was a long-fortold calamity and even then it took them a week to respond in the most dismal manner.

If government is doing badly, it needs to be held accountable. Absolutely. However, when government is doing an excellent job, it needs to be acknowledged and recognized as well. If praise is deserved it should be giving unreservedly. This is what the planning and the spending is for: when the time comes effective help can be offered straight away. Prime Minister Brown: outstanding job, sir!

frances, london, uK

alice, i totally agree with you. so refreshing to read this in the midst of so much hysteria and hand-wringing.

kate harding, hereford,

The twins who died were born at 21 weeks of their mother's pregnancy. medical science has not yet advanced to the point where they could have been saved even if they had been born in the greatest hospital in the world. And the Times reports that in fact their mother was airlifted to hospital faster than she could have got there by ambulance on a normal day. Please, no tabloid emotionalism. It was a tragedy for the parents, but it would have happened anywhere.

Jenny Jonas, Glasgow,

Call upon me in YOUR day of trouble and I will curse you...

Hugh, London , Albion

Until you have been through it yourself no-one has any understanding of what is involved when your home is flooded. As for no sympathy about not being able to wash. Those who have their homes flooded probably have no means of heating their water, if they have any so what do they put their pills into.
Of course it is devastating and a major disaster to those involved and those helplessly waiting for the water levels to peak. It is also a disaster for the rest of us. The sheer waste of resources replacing all the damaged goods will affect climate change and maybe even the spend will convince the Bank of England to raise the interest rate again. No-one is saying we are worse off than those in the Third World who suffer from flooding every year, but people are suffering here so don't dismiss it so redily.

AMC, B, England

The response from the media highlighted in the article reminds me of the media after Katrina. I remember one reporter (or was it a politician?) blathering on about how tens of thousands had probably died. Exagerating as usual, because the real story is never tragic enough. It seems the media was, as you mentioned, almost disapointed that more people didn't die. (Because that sure would have been a story!)

Lis, U.S.,

Its just another example of the "We Must Have Someone to Blame " culture in this namby pamby soft cosseted country. Yes, it IS ghastly to have your home ruined by filthy flood water, however, it is only a natural phenomenon. In another age it would have been "an Act of God" but as He is now dead the next best agency to blame is the Government. Pathetic!

Linda Graham, Winchelsea Beach, East Sussex UK

I think a lady drowned after her basement flat was flooded.

Nat Bridge, London,

The real news here is not the way citizens and government have responded. It's that a member of the media had something good to say about the response, and dared speak her colleagues' penchant for the negative. Bravo, Ms. Miles!

R. Spencer Robinson, Salt Lake City, Utah USA

Unlike Katrina...

Delia Isabel Soto, Sacramento, California

A century ago, before diesel lorries and artics, most of our rivers were used by commercial shipping; they were the highways to our towns and cities. Ships and boats kept the water churned up and the mud was washed down to the sea. And rivers were dredged regularly.
But as transport switched from river to road over the decades the rivers were allowed to silt up and their carrying capacity in times of heavy rainfall is now much reduced.
Perhaps it is time to start dredging our rivers again.

David Harrison, Norwich, UK

Where was the press hysteria when Carlisle suffered a couple of years ago?

Michael Douglas , Gateshead, U.K.

Alice,

In a few weeks the cost of all produce will go through the roof.

Then city people will start to gripe and compain.

Not a disaster, but just a litte shared pain

George Kalogridis, Ojai, USA California

Compared to those who suffered through Katrina, here in the states, you are in fact lucky. Governments in the third world had an excuse for the difficulty in responding to their disasters. Ours had no such excuse.

K.C. Halloran, San Diego , California USA

This is one of the more honest simply needed piece of journalism. Why can't we read more of this. Thank You.

Dave , London, UK

Can your government cross the pond and deal with the next flood in the US? We would pay you handsomely for your states-peoples' services and still get better result for less money than the ramshackle system we have elected here. Thank you for your consideration.

US citizen feeling small.

colin, Chicago, IL

You just have to compare how the British are handling the current flooding to how the US managed the Katrina related flooding to conclude the British government and the emergency services deserve nothing but praise.

Well done UK! I hope Washington is paying attention.

John, NYC, USA

Excellent article but one important error, it was not a power station it was a substation. If it had been a power station it could have been shut down and the network fed from the National Grid. In fact it is a major substation receiving energy from the grid and distributing it to a network of smaller substations over a very large area.

Gordon Hulme, Aylesford,

Alice, You have rightly exposed the louder parts of the media's desire to seek for the sensational. Thanks for putting forward some sensible balance. Maybe this year claims on the insurance companies for wild fires etc will be reduced to balance against increased flood claims and air conditioning system will have a reduced fuel bills. Personally I prefer water management against drought, but then I have not got 3 feet of sewage to remove from my carpets.

Barrie Noble, Dorridge, Solihull, England

My sympathies go to flood victims across the land. However, the contrast in media coverage between the Hull and Tewkesbury floods could not be more apparent. It simply confirms the worst suspicions of bitter northerners everywhere and will come back to haunt this nation.

Chris Winn, Hull, UK

Regarding the older folk's philosophical comments and their taking it all in their stride saying 'we've seen it all before'. Yes, they've seen it before, and worse!

At the time of the 3-day week in the early 1970s, I was a district nurse. I was asked to go round and check on all the old people on my patch, check how they were coping with 3 hours of electricity a day. I was impressed and humbled. Without exception, they were coping magnificently. They were the 'Blitz generation' and they had their own coping strategies born of long experience. They knew about cooking a stew in a hay-box, they were able to keep their hands warm with a candle in a (washed and pierced) baked bean can.

Nowadays few of us are used to coping without power at the flick of a switch, water from a tap, whereas those older folk had grown up in homes without bathrooms. I'm delighted to find that the spirit is still there, the undefeated, dogged determination of the English, and long may it survive.

Margaret Stoll, Rochford, Essex, England

Excellent and astute item after having put up with dumb bits of TV reporting such as interviewing a verbose man complaining that his council hadnt done enough. Just about everyone comes out of this with some creditability but it does demonstrate how close our society and the accepted norms are to the edge of major disaster.

mike gee, bournemouth, uk

Sense at last. Yes it is flooded, but how much worse could it have been but for the emergency response. Remember Katrina et al.

J Grover, Wroughton, Wilts

Well written Alice, Amen to common sense. I turned off the ITV news last night - it wasn't news, it was a desperate scrounge for something bad to tell us. At one point the presenter told us all about the "humanitarian crisis caused by impending water shortages", before switching to a reporter who showed the mountain of bottled water that had been shipped in! Is that not "crisis" resolved???

No different on the BBC. I will tune in again when these supposedly highly-respected broadcasters can return to the journalistic standards that we used to be proud of. I hope other viewers do the same.

Carl Meredith, St Albans, Herfordshire

Wow! What a fantastic breath of fresh air in journalism. It is a relief to read a frank and accurate description of events with the necessary perspective to make us realise how fortunate we are. Thank you for your piece, it has lifted my cynicism for at least a few hours.

Dave Dowling, Islington,

Fantastic article. I am fed up of hearing on BBC and Sky News about ruined carpets and kitchens (one appently hasn't even been fitted conpletely!). I also note that Caroline Horley (BBC) has returned from Baghdad to report on the floods! One lady was most disappointed that she missed two appointments with her GP to check her blood pressure!!! Of course the people caught up in the floods have their hands full now and wll have moths of cleaning up and fitting new carpets but its not a national disaster. Give a thought to the millions who dont have clean drinking water on a daily basis. I was struck by what a 90 year old woman said ( in Gloucester?) - "these floods are not as bad as the one sometime in the 50s" and she had photos to prove it! Get things in perspective. The emergency services are doing a remarkable job as usual. Good luck to the people who are affected. Hope things get back to normal soon.

Mark Lothian, Edinburgh,

In the 1970s I remember a Blue Peter appeal for the victims of floods in Bangladesh. Couldn't the BBC ask Blue Peter viewers to donate money by phoning in and ... oh, no maybe not.

Adam, Eastcote, middx, uk

Hmm, just deciding whether to eat you on a pizza, or in a ham sandwich.
Come here to Gloucestershire, speak with the lady whose twins died.
Then reassess whether you are animal, vegetable or mineral.

Diz, Stroud, UK

Thank goodness for an article that showed judgment and
commonsense as opposed to the blatherings of some so-
called correspondents on TV whose main interest appears to have been trying to play the blame game to please their
politically-motivated superiors, although they were probably
doing what they knew was expected of them.

Eric Blunt, Neston, UK

You are the Hazel Blears of the media.

The sort of remarks that might be acceptable coming from a veteran of the First World War seem incongruous coming from someone holed up in a newspaper office.

You may be right but I doubt you are the person to say it.

Anthony, London,

Many thanks to the , i'm sure, unsung people who worked their hearts out on friday night for all the people who were lucky enough to get off the stationary M5 in Strensham Services. I thought the way you handled the problems and did not just shut up shop and go home was wonderful. I'd write to you properly if i could find an e-mail address!!!

Dave Kneen, Saltash, UK

What a wonderfully optimistic article. Very unfashionable for the British media, I'll admit, but refreshing and uplifting all the same. I don't suppose there's any chance of this setting a new trend in British newspapers: looking on the bright side; and encouraging the return of the traditional stiff upper lip?

Phil Samuels, Sheffield, UK

Well,
"disaster" holliwood-like media, especially but not just TV reporting of anything out of the ordinary is now the bread and butter of british and to some extent world media.
It is the Law that says the world belongs to He Who Shouts The Loudests.
very sensible article, I enjoyed reading some sense, finally.

Jondi Saka, London,

Good call Ms Miles. I'm right in the middle of this flooding and hence one of the 'victims' apparently. But apart from not having any water to have a bath with, everyone is coping fine.

Sure some people have been more majorly affected but no-one I've heard is seriously blaming anyone else - its just one of those things.

From what I've seen the government bodies have reacted as well as can be expected to a summer wetter than any other I've known.

Its just the media looking for somewhere to take their story, they must be bored of saying 'yes theres still a lot of water here'.

iain collins, Stroud, Glaws, Uk

Having just read diatribes attributing the calm response to the "lack of immigrants" in the area, your article strikes me as refreshing common sense.

The emergency services in this country are some of the best in the world, even when overstretched.

Maureen, London,

Thank goodness for a bit of common sense at last. There was an item on the TV news last night that contingency plans were in place to evacuate all able bodied people from Gloucester in the event that power supplies were disrupted and their mobile phones would no longer work. The slightly worrying corollary being that those who were not able bodied might have to be put down.

Patrick Griffin, Dalston, London, UK

How marvelous to have a positve column about the flooding in Engalnd and the response...we are used to Doomesday in the USA for anything that the povernment attempts. Having experienced massive flooding one spring while visiting England and Wales, I can appreciate the havoc . Our prayers are with you all that have been faced with the destruction and we cheer you on for your optimism

Barbara Glanville, Scottsdale, AZ USA

Dear alice,

I would like to commend you on your insight that you show in this article. Your narrative is both blunt in its truth and objective in its appeal. It is quite common to witness how oblivious the west is to the rest of the third worlds' plight. In fact even affluent citizens from third world countries can be terribly unsympathetic towards their fellow countrymen - those who may not be as fortunate. I agree with you that this might a generation thing - we are so accustomed to satiating personal desires that we have very little regard for everything else around us; we are so accustomed to comfortable living that little things make us irritable - leave alone something as grave as nature's wrath or as destructive as war. Your positive take on an unfortunate inconvenience, I think, is a small step in highlighting the truth.

SIddhartha, Canterbury,

Excellent article. The media (Sky News, BBC 24) are enjoying this far too much for my liking.Driving, not reporting the news seems to be the standing orders. Well done to our emergency services !

david sharp, birmingham,

This is off topic, but I thought you might be amused by this definition from the Dictionary of American Slang: "tomato n. 1 A very attractive girl or young woman."

Going back to the topic I will just say that all of us who live in Western countries are, compared to most others, "very lucky", indeed.

Jim Miller, Kirkland, WA, USA

Yes, I have a bowser outside my home. It has been empty for over 24 hours.

Our car is stranded, surrounded by water miles away, so my family is limited to the water I can carry home from the distribution point. Do you know how heavy just the drinking water for a family of 5 is? The health guidelines state 2 litres to drink per day, so that is 10kg.

We cannot even use the flood water for flushing our toilets, the flooding is over 10 miles away. I wonder how Alice Miles feels we should deal with that? We cannot wash our hands, we will run out of clean underwear, we cannot wash.

As for no one has died? Hospital appointments have been cancelled, even for very pregnant women for high blood pressure. People will die, not of drowning, but of infections, and these will not be directly attributed to the floods

And of course I have no income, I am selfemployed and the premises I would normally work at are shut.

Thanks for your smugness Alice Miles! Try turning your water off at the mains!

Mrs Shaw, Bishops Cleeve, England

Absolutely spot on. The last few paragraphs certainly put things in perspective.

We are fortunate to live here in the UK, with a responsive government, organised and well-funded emergency services, and a comparatively large amount of personal wealth.

I hope the sensationalist cynics in the media find nothing to run with.

Matt, leicester,