Browse content similar to 17/02/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Who knows best when trying to protect Britain from adverse | :00:00. | :00:16. | |
weather. The media, the people whose homes have been wrecked or the | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
Government. There is a substantial number of right-wing MPs who are | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
privately climate sceptical, and who are even more sceptical about the | :00:25. | :00:30. | |
spending of money to deal with the problem. Also tonight this: | :00:31. | :00:34. | |
With the social services I need to have food in, and I need a separate | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
bed for my child. What happens when benefit claimants break the rules | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
and the Government stops their money? | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
David Bailey will be taking me around his exhibition of the | :00:46. | :00:48. | |
National Portrait Gallery, a few of his many millions of snaps he's | :00:49. | :00:53. | |
putting on display for the first time. Snaps? Snaps, is can he do | :00:54. | :01:02. | |
that again! ? Good evening. I will make sure we learn all the lessons, | :01:03. | :01:06. | |
it is what a politician usually says when he or she has made mistakes. | :01:07. | :01:13. | |
David Cameron promised that today while visiting another flood-hit | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
areas, while announcing a fund for businesses who have had a | :01:18. | :01:20. | |
significant loss of trade from all the bad weather. Politicians from | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
every party have been rushing to show their best plans so it doesn't | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
happen again. We track the course of the River Thames in search of the | :01:32. | :01:33. | |
lessons the politicians should be learning. What's normally a trickle | :01:34. | :01:45. | |
is now a river. What's normally a river resembling a lake. Stubborn | :01:46. | :01:50. | |
water with nowhere to go, and everywhere it is not wanted. | :01:51. | :01:53. | |
But if the country's journey through weeks of flooding will change | :01:54. | :02:00. | |
anything, this is where it begins. You can even see bubbles coming up | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
to the surface as the water comes above ground for the first time. And | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
it might not look like much, but this stone marks the start of the | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
River Thames. This isn't just another flooded field, but the | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
beginning of a river that has caused such chaos for thousands of families | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
and businesses. An awful lot of political trouble for those 180 | :02:22. | :02:27. | |
miles further along. Nearby the PM is still cramming in | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
visits after his colleagues spent the start of the crisis pointing | :02:33. | :02:34. | |
fingers rather than pointing out what might help. Desperate to -- | :02:35. | :02:44. | |
show he knows which ways the wellingtons are pointing. The army | :02:45. | :02:47. | |
are on the streets and the call has gone out for favourite political | :02:48. | :02:54. | |
past time, are you ready... There was always time to ask what could be | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
done, what schemes should be looked at and I will make sure we learn all | :02:59. | :03:04. | |
the lessons. But if we have had the heaviest rainfall in more than two | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
centuries is it reasonable, even if feasible, to expect the Government | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
to defend all our homes using our money? Much, much more than the ?10 | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
million promised for affected firms today. One former minister at the | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
stable when some spending was cut believes it is. The decision in 2010 | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
to cut flood defences in, in retrospect, clearly a mistake. I | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
think the Government has to face up to a key role, which is to protect | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
this as best they can from the natural disasters. The Prime | :03:36. | :03:38. | |
Minister has gone right to the other extreme by saying money is now no | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
object. Well it is a shame that there wasn't a bit more money back | :03:43. | :03:49. | |
in 2010. Spending is now being dragged up, and some of the | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
environment agencies' efforts have made a difference, they have kept | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
water from the door but far from making the problem disappear. This | :04:00. | :04:02. | |
is a part of Gloucester David Cameron didn't visit today. Sandbags | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
are piled as high as the hip outside every front door. Locals have been | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
fighting off the water for days. But for many people we have spoken to | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
the risk isn't just from the rain, it is also from years of bad | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
political decisions. Flood defence walls were built in people's back | :04:22. | :04:29. | |
gardens here after 2007. I'm Laura from Newsnight, this must be a | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
lovely garden without the River Severn. What has happened? It came | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
to the top of the wall but not over. Richard said the agency and army's | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
help has been better, it took three days for pumps to arrive. While he's | :04:45. | :04:50. | |
protecting his 19th century home, he's furious new houses are being | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
built nearby. Stew pit, this was build in 1851, they didn't know | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
about things then, we have advanced since then, therefore people know it | :05:00. | :05:11. | |
floods on the floodthings then, we have advanced since then, therefore | :05:12. | :05:14. | |
people know it floods on the flood pla they know it and shouldn't be | :05:15. | :05:16. | |
building. Two thirds of this flood plain is gone, covered in houses | :05:17. | :05:19. | |
since 1947. Round the corner another local sketched out why he believes | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
more roads and more houses don't leave enough room for more water. A | :05:24. | :05:30. | |
lot of it is down to historical Government incompetence. They | :05:31. | :05:33. | |
allowed the landfill site to the south of us, in excess of 300 acres, | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
blocking out the whole of the exit of where all the float warders of | :05:38. | :05:45. | |
1947 went. The problem is that -- flood waters of 1947 went. The | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
problem is the Government is allowing building on flood plains. | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
Even though a person who thought the Government have been excellent | :05:55. | :05:57. | |
thought there was enough. Rivers need to be dredged again, which they | :05:58. | :06:00. | |
are going to be, very positive, very, very positive. Dredging won't | :06:01. | :06:06. | |
be reintroduced everywhere, it is expensive and can hurt as well as | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
help. And senior politicians are now vying to be seen to accept climate | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
change is part of the problem. The coalition's actual commitment to | :06:17. | :06:19. | |
following policies that might make a difference have ebbed and flowed at | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
best. But some senior sceptics have been rather less vocal. So with some | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
of the wealthiest parts of the south-east under water, a powerful | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
constituency, is this the moment where Cameron will cleave again to | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
his original promise, vote blue-go green. I'm surprised that anybody | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
can really dispute with 98% of climate scientist who is say that | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
climate change is a reality. Actually even the climate change | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
sceptics are only sceptical about whether it is man made or not. All | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
of us need to unite behind the very, very clear plan of mitigation and | :06:56. | :07:01. | |
adaptation. Insurance firms are perhaps inevitably being called to | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
Number Ten tomorrow. Emergency payouts have started. But what will | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
matter is not just how this Government deals with this crisis, | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
lapping at the banks of Westminster. What will matter is what happens | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
when these waters finally recede and what will really be different the | :07:17. | :07:23. | |
next time. One of the few areas of consensus among the politicians on | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
the floods is the role of climate change, a Tory cabinet minister said | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
it was clearly a factor, while Labour leader, bland, said floods | :07:32. | :07:39. | |
meant -- Ed Miliband said that floods was a priority. What should | :07:40. | :07:46. | |
our response be? Let's discuss with Kevin Anderson, Professor of Climate | :07:47. | :07:53. | |
Change, and Andrew Montford, author of Hockey Stick Illusion which | :07:54. | :08:01. | |
critques the science of climate change. What we know from the | :08:02. | :08:03. | |
climate modelling we have and science and physics and observations | :08:04. | :08:07. | |
is as we warm up the atmosphere we can hold more moisture in the | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
atmosphere and get more intense rainfall. We can see and the records | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
show this over the last 50 years the intensity of the rainfall in the UK | :08:16. | :08:18. | |
has increased. What we are seeing now by this sequence of unusual | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
events, this is consistent with the fixes, the modelling and with the | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
observations. But we will never be able to say that any single event is | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
a climate change event. Some politicians have pretty much said | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
that, are they exaggerating? If they say that they are misusing the | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
science, that is the case. It is fair to say this is consistent to | :08:40. | :08:42. | |
what we think about climate change. It is fair to say that the scale of | :08:43. | :08:45. | |
the challenge and the impacts will have been exacerbated by climate | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
change. We know the sea level rise has gone on because of the | :08:50. | :08:52. | |
atmosphere and the oceans have warmed. We know therefore that some | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
of the impact in Sandy in New York and the impacts we are seeing now | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
are partly due to the increased sea level rise. It makes the situation | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
worse, even if the overall event is not a climate change event. When | :09:06. | :09:09. | |
Philip Hammond says climate change is a factor and Ed Miliband saying | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
if you keep throwing sixes and they roll the dices are loaded. You say | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
that is exaggeration, but it might be useful for somebody like you. You | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
want to mobilise people to do something don't you? We want to | :09:22. | :09:25. | |
inform people to decide if they want to make the changes necessary. When | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
it was said it was factor, I want to point out from the sea level rise it | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
is a factor, it is not the cause but it is a factor. Andrew Montford, you | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
are not a scientist, you have been writing secretarically about this | :09:38. | :09:51. | |
for -- secretary -- sceptically for a while now, what do you think? | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
Everybody seems to agree, at least scientifically they seem to agree | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
that you can't link these floods to climate change. When he says that | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
sea level rise has been a factor, yes, I suppose it probably has been | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
a factor in terms of the sea level has gone up by, you know, a few tens | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
of centimeters over the last century. You have to remember that | :10:14. | :10:19. | |
sea level rise was occurring before man made carbon emissions were big | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
enough to effect climate change any way. We have seen perhaps a tiny | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
amount of acceleration, but sea level rises have been going on any | :10:28. | :10:30. | |
way, so it is something we have had to adapt to in the past and probably | :10:31. | :10:38. | |
we will just go on adapting to it in the future. My concern is actually | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
all we have seen so far in terms of global warming is about 0. 88 can he | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
greet of -- 0. 8 degree of a rise. If we radically don't reduce our | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
emissions it will he issed up to four, five, six degrees. We have a | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
taster of where we are heading, we have a choice between now and 2025 | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
we have a choice about radically reducing emissions ordeal with the | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
impacts of climate change. If we look at people's homes who are | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
wrecked, pools of sewage across the ground floor, trying to persuade | :11:14. | :11:19. | |
them to spend millions on emissions and decarbonisation now? They won't | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
buy that? We have spent ?350 billion on bailing out the banks, we could | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
have greened all our infrastructure, and made all the houses in the UK | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
low carbon and resilient to climate change for less than we put into the | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
banks. It would have employed more people and better for the | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
engineering base, it would have helped with fuel poverty, everything | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
was a tick on that, we gave that much to the banks. We are not short | :11:48. | :11:52. | |
of money, wealth or capital to overcome climate change. What do you | :11:53. | :11:55. | |
think of that? There is certainly things we can do to spend money | :11:56. | :11:59. | |
better than we have been. I must say I'm not entirely convinced that | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
spending it on decarbonisation is the best way of doing it. We have | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
seen that the concern that people in the south west have about dredging, | :12:10. | :12:14. | |
and I think usefully money could be spend on dredging rivers. I know | :12:15. | :12:20. | |
there is a factor in the Thames floods as well. This is something we | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
can do for very small amounts of money. Let alone the amounts that | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
Kevin's talking about spending. We could do a lot to mitigate against | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
the risk of future flooding. Because flooding has always been a risk. We | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
talk about these, the rainfall in recent weeks having been completely | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
unprecedented. In fact it isn't completely unprecedent. You may find | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
odd places where it is unprecedented, over the south of | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
England it isn't, more infall in the 1920s for example. We have dealt | :12:54. | :12:56. | |
with these things in the past, we could deal with them in the future, | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
spending really quite small sums of money. Let's not talk about spending | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
billions, let's deal with the millions first. You think global | :13:04. | :13:09. | |
temperatures will rise by three, four, five degrees by the end of the | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
century? If we don't reduce our emissions. What will Britain look | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
like then? We are talking about a metre of sea level rise towards the | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
end of the century, if you put on top of that increased severity of | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
storms and possibly increased frequency of storms. What would | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
Britain be like? It would be a different shape. It doesn't matter | :13:31. | :13:34. | |
how much dredging do you in the Somerset levels they simply wouldn't | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
exist. Neither would large parts around the Thames as well. The shame | :13:39. | :13:42. | |
of the UK map a lot of East Anglia would go, and many islands in the | :13:43. | :13:45. | |
north of Scotland. Humberside as well. Many parts of the UK would | :13:46. | :13:51. | |
suffer and we would see, you know, major problems in terms of rehousing | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
people. Same this is a global problem, we would be having problems | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
with imports of food from anywhere else in the world. Our energy system | :14:01. | :14:06. | |
is not able to cope with this, we have a system that is really | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
Victorian. The future of welfare will be a fee -- key battleground in | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
the next election. Getting people off benefits is a key | :14:17. | :14:23. | |
part of the Government's plans. What impact are the changes having. They | :14:24. | :14:31. | |
Maundy Relief drop in centre they provide support and food to some of | :14:32. | :14:34. | |
the poorest residents in the town. We spent a week there finding out | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
about their experiences of benefit sanctions. Maundy Relief, can I | :14:39. | :14:56. | |
help? Hiya Keith. I have still got six days left on my sanction, I | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
wanted to know if I can get help with a food parcel and can you sort | :15:02. | :15:07. | |
a microwave for me. I'm not sure if we have a microwave I can do a slip | :15:08. | :15:13. | |
for you. Ever since we opened in 1998 we have always given out food | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
parcels. Now we are giving out twice, possibly three-times as many, | :15:18. | :15:22. | |
of those probably 70% are going to people whose benefits have been | :15:23. | :15:24. | |
sanctioned, that means they are left without any means of support. I have | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
got six days left. And then everything back to normal. Are you | :15:30. | :15:32. | |
run out of everything? I have got nothing. Could we have dinner here? | :15:33. | :15:44. | |
Dinner is at 1.00, can you stay for dinner. We are almost like a | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
mini-welfare state here. But we're being asked to do more and more. It | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
is forcing people into destitution, that's the word for it. You know we | :15:55. | :16:00. | |
can do what we can here, family and friends, but family and friends are | :16:01. | :16:03. | |
often in a similar position themselves. You can have people | :16:04. | :16:11. | |
sitting in the dock in -- in the dark with no food because there has | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
been a minor infringement of benefit rules, or in my opinion no | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
infringement at all. John was sanctioned last October, he says he | :16:21. | :16:23. | |
was told he hadn't been applying for enough jobs. This is the living room | :16:24. | :16:32. | |
and that is the kitchen there. This is where it is supposed to be doing | :16:33. | :16:38. | |
this up, but I have been living in this for a long time. The sanctions | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
are about basically saying you are not making enough of an effort to | :16:45. | :16:51. | |
look for work. So is that not fair? I turned around to them and said I'm | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
61 now, there is no jobs for somebody at my age, there is young | :16:58. | :17:02. | |
people, how can you sit there a young person, 25 years old and tell | :17:03. | :17:06. | |
me about work. You haven't had the experience I have had. So I said | :17:07. | :17:13. | |
don't make me laugh. This was a bigger bedroom, as you can see it is | :17:14. | :17:17. | |
really damp, I was living in this, you can imagine breathing that in. I | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
started getting really ill, ended up in hospital with it, with pneumonia. | :17:22. | :17:27. | |
This was the smaller bedroom I found were warmer, easier to keep, to get | :17:28. | :17:35. | |
warm in. You can see it is not right good. Sometimes when, if I'm really | :17:36. | :17:41. | |
desperate I will go and do a bit of shoplifting, which sometimes it can | :17:42. | :17:48. | |
be too busy and you are not able to do it. It is one of them things. You | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
take that risk, you might get caught. But you don't think that | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
when you are doing it. You just thinking of something to eat, | :17:58. | :18:14. | |
mainly. Look after yourself and ring the numbers if need be, all right | :18:15. | :18:23. | |
then, OK Jim see you Monday goodbye. Another one in crisis. We see people | :18:24. | :18:31. | |
here with extremely complex needs who suffer from mental health | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
problems who have been brought up in very, very bad circumstances, who | :18:37. | :18:43. | |
have been in care, who have not had the support at the beginning of | :18:44. | :18:46. | |
their lives that some of us would have expected. Many of those people | :18:47. | :18:54. | |
can move through that and have fulfilled lives, and some can't. And | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
they are too damaged, but they are not an attractive group of people to | :19:01. | :19:03. | |
many people. They might be people that you wouldn't want to sit in the | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
same room as. But they are vulnerable. I have been job | :19:09. | :19:15. | |
searching, but I even said to them I said that I had obviously would | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
bring it in to show them that I have been looking for the work and that. | :19:20. | :19:25. | |
But well they still sanctioned me and I were meant to be paid today. | :19:26. | :19:33. | |
You have not been? No. Zach's just been sanctioned. He's 25 and hasn't | :19:34. | :19:39. | |
worked since he was 16. Come in here, no. Shut that door. Bella, | :19:40. | :19:55. | |
chill out. There are jobs out there, why aren't you applying, or why | :19:56. | :19:59. | |
aren't you getting those jobs, what is going wrong? Well, I don't know, | :20:00. | :20:09. | |
some jobs they are only taking on certain qualified people, things | :20:10. | :20:14. | |
like that, I don't have no qualifications. I left school before | :20:15. | :20:21. | |
all my GCSEs and all that. But, most jobs are for qualified people and | :20:22. | :20:29. | |
like yeah, I do apply for it, even things that you need qualifications | :20:30. | :20:36. | |
for. But it is just, I don't know, obviously there must be better | :20:37. | :20:42. | |
people like qualified people for it. Because I just don't seem to be | :20:43. | :20:47. | |
getting anywhere at all. I have got a son to pay for, basically. And I | :20:48. | :20:54. | |
might not even be able to have a place. Breakfast, eat it up. With | :20:55. | :21:01. | |
the social services like obviously I need to have food in, I need to have | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
the gas and electric and things like that, and that's basically who has | :21:07. | :21:13. | |
told me I need a separate bed for my child. But obviously without being | :21:14. | :21:23. | |
paid I can't do that. Eat it up? We know people are trying, really | :21:24. | :21:29. | |
trying hard to get work and are unsuccessful. There is maybe quite a | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
low-skilled labour pool here. The sort of jobs that people | :21:35. | :21:37. | |
traditionally did aren't available any more. They don't have the means | :21:38. | :21:42. | |
to travel to another part of the country because they don't have the | :21:43. | :21:43. | |
money to | :21:44. | 0:14:47 |