RISING BROWN WATER

What did for George Bush's Republican Party in the mid term elections was not just the continuing quagmire in Iraq but the complacency and incompetence of the Federal authorities in dealing with the terrible floods in New Orleans.

The disaster unfolding on live national and international television showed the world how out of touch central government was with its own people.

It has been rather surreal watching our TV news over the past week seeing how disconnected some of our politicians have become from the concerns of our people. This was made apparent to me when I saw Sheffield MP David Blunkett carefully polishing Tony Blairs halo. This at a time when the home of Sheffield Wednesday was - in high summer- under water. His constituents had been struck by an almost biblical tsunami and had abandoned their homes and businesses.

I suspect had any journalists asked someone wading through three feet of water in his living room what he thought of Tony Blair's legacy he would have received short shrift.

Now our ex- PM is going to Jerusalem to act as a peace envoy. Of course we all wish him the very best of luck. Peace is a precious thing. But given his record on the Middle East, well what is a man who has been incapable of coming up with a transport policy or a health policy that works or now apparently being unable to keep us dry in high summer going to do to bring to a political, economic, cultural and religious conflict that has been going on for the best part of a century is hard to fathom.

The national media have become part of the problem when it comes to this disconnect between politicians and the people they are meant to serve. There are thousands of column inches and hours of speculation on who will fill this or that position and what it all means. This is truly the time when yesterdays papers are fit only for chip wrappers.

The contrast between regional and national coverage is stark. As the national press obsesses if a Tory or Lib Dem will be junior minister for paper clips it has been left to the regional press to ask why half the country is under water?

The regional press is asking the hard questions and expressing the real concerns of the people whilst the national media have been searching for Tony Blair's legacy.

Well part of that legacy is the inadequate flood defences in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and here in Shropshire and Worcestershire. The Environment Agency and the Association of British Insurers had warned us repeatedly about the inadequacies of our flood protection systems and as long as ten years ago academics at Sheffield Hallam University warned about the weaknesses in that city's flood defences.

The safety of citizens has to be a governments first priority as John Reid was always reminding us. But safety is about much more than terrorism.

Water is a vital resource for farmers and many of our key process industries but we cannot manage with hose pipe bans one day and floods the next. Here in the West Midlands the Regional Assembly and Development Agency are rewriting the regional economic strategy, does it contain a policy for water? Does our regional spatial strategy take into account the likelihood of what the climate scientists call, "extreme weather events"?

Responding to these issues will require some of those hard choices politicians are so fond of. Choices like serious reafforestation in Mid- wales and the Marches, the abandonment of flood plains to soft flood defences like wet land and marshes. This will require us to say no to inappropriate development whilst still requiring a significant budget to protect what already exists.

It is not as if we are not capable of looking after our own water supplies and drainage systems. We know how to do this the City of Birmingham was building pipelines from Mid-Wales before most of us where born.

In New Orleans the US Federal Government response was too little too late - the impact of flooding on that great city destroying the homes and businesses of thousands of people but also destroying the reputation of George Bush in the process. Let us hope Gordon Brown does not make the same mistake.

One of the key messages from his lengthy non-election campaign was the need to reconnect the political class with the British people. Here is his chance to make a new start he was too slow to go to Sheffield and Gloucester go to Gloucester and Upton find out what they need and get it too them.

Tony Blair's gravest fault was to mistake headlines for action. Good government gets a good press for good works. If Gordon Brown is looking for a new motto it should be - by your works shall you be known.