Dear All
Politicians like to be seen as caring, even
if they aren’t.
In England there has been flooding, this
has led to the rise of the ‘Westminsiter Flood Tourist’.
The invasion of senior politicians into
flood-hit areas has started to backfire with local communities getting really
hacked off.
So, what can a flood tourist do?
Well apparently not a lot, but the aim isn’t
to help but grab that all important photo op.
In a verbal barney Labour leader Ed
Miliband was confronted by Tory MP Alok Sharma, who accused him of failing to
do his homework before donning his willies.
Next to cop a packet was Defence Secretary
Philip Hammond was berated live on TV by angry volunteers demanding to know why
troops had not been sent in to help flood communities.
Good point from the volunteers, in a
situation like this, troops should have been make immediately available to
help.
A local newspaper has accused politicians
of using flood-hit families as 'extras' in promotional films designed to 'inflate
their own egos'.
So, we have the co-ordinated photo ops with
senior politicians with willies doing tours, David Cameron in the South West, Deputy
PM Nick Clegg in Somerset yesterday and Eric Pickles visited Croydon.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage also got in on the act, and pulled on a set of waders for a photo shoot in Chertsey, 48 hours after standing waste deep in water in Somerset.
The Western Morning News, a regional
newspaper covering Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset, demanded to know what
the point of the visits was.
In fact the paper is so upset that in a
stinging leader article, the paper said local people were 'getting a little bit
fed up' with the flood tourism.
It added:
'The farmers of the Somerset Levels,
watching their fields, their barns and their homes fill up with fetid water do
not want parts as extras in any kind of promotional electioneering film design
to show how ‘caring’ Mr Clegg or Mr Cameron might be. 'They want action. All
politicians are, of course, welcome in our region but not to inflate their own
egos. It is time to start asking them: “What is the purpose of your visit?”'
In the Miliband episode, while posing for
cameras in Purley, Ed was confronted by Reading West Tory MP Mr Sharma who
accused him of being a 'Westminster flood tourist'.
Sharma said:
'The issue is Mr Miliband: why are you
actually here?'
Sharma added:
'What I am hearing from local residents is
they are not actually interested in people just coming for a photo opportunity
talking about local issues when they don't know what is going on locally. I
wish you had done a bit of homework before you turned up here.'
One person who hasn’t appeared with a Saltire
is Alex Salmond, presumably the SNP couldn’t find a Scottish angle or a 5 star hotel
to suit his Presidential style.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
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