General Chat

From Land's End to John o' Groats there is chaos and severe disruption, flights cancelled, trains cancelled, ferries cancelled, power lines down, rivers bursting their banks, homes flooded, roads closed, and where is the Prime Minister, probably sitting in his country retreat Chequers, nice and cosy by the fire tweeting his sympathies to those affected by the chaos.

Where he should be is in Downing Street chairing a meeting of Cobra the government emergency committee and while coordinating things he should be kicking ministerial backsides to get things sorted out, there again maybe there are no ministerial backsides to kick because they are all away on their holidays.

I don't know really what difference it would make if he were chairing bureaucratic committees in Downing Street - this is a wretched situation over wide areas, and I'm sure the local authorities are doing all they can in very difficult situations. However good provisional crisis plans are, no-one can magic everything back to normal in a few minutes

Perhaps he should see what cutting funding to local councils can do in a situation like this, and maybe go to see a housebound person who has no power. It would be nice if he attempted the job of a grossly underpaid carer trying to visit.
Osborne should be told, in no uncertain terms how much (financially) it's costing councils.
The financial cost will have to be retrieved from some other 'service' - usually a moral/ethical one - like meals on wheels.
Apparently services for the elderly/disabled don't seem to count to this government.

It would at least show they were taking the matter seriously, that said, it seems governments do things when it is convenient for them or when they have a bad news story to hide.

The government's emergency Cobra committee was convened to coordinate efforts to sort out the chaos caused by Storm Jude earlier this month, last nights storm was just as severe, maybe even more severe than Storm Jude.

So why the difference between how the government responded at the time of Storm Jude and how they have responded to last nights storm - I've got it the PM and his ministers were not on their holidays at the time of Storm Jude ;-)

Unfortunately there is no quick fix to remedy destruction caused by the weather.
Not really sure what the government could do to help people whose Christmas has been ruined.
I agree that Local Authorities will be doing their best & will eventually pick up the tab, which they can ill afford, but as I understand it, they all have emergency cash available for events like this.