´óÏó´«Ã½

Flood Warning!

Comments

1. At 05:34 PM on 08 Nov 2007, patricia clarke wrote:

   we Have bagless shops up here in manchester for years they are called markets and are steadily being destoyed by the big supermarkets

2. At 05:48 PM on 08 Nov 2007, David Traynier wrote:

   The Lebanese secure hotel is an excellent idea and I hope it keeps the legislators safe.

   It's a shame the Palestinians don't have something similar to protest their legislators from Israeli assassinations -sorry, 'targeted killings'- although, they'd probably just drop a 3000lb bomb on it.

3. At 05:51 PM on 08 Nov 2007, Noah wrote:

   Oh.....come on,..........don't say i didn't warn you.

   
   Oi..you two, pack that in...a dodo is not a suitable substitute for a mop!

4. At 05:52 PM on 08 Nov 2007, kathleen mawer wrote:

   Readers of The Times letter page on 1 Nov 2007 will have read in a letter from Piers Corbyn of Weather Action long range forecasters that, using solar activity, they forecast in the previous December the summer floods, and also forecast the recent end-of October rain, floods and severe gales in the N of the UK by the same method. He also predicted that more serious, damaging storms would hit much of Britain and Scandinavia around Nov 8-13.
   I have just heard on the pm program a severe weather warning of floods about to hit Eastern parts. Should we not be taking more notice of the evidence about the current, and possibly future, weather extremes obtained from the same types of data?
   It is worth mentioning that the Met Office suggested we could expect a warm or very warm summer with little rain.

5. At 06:00 PM on 08 Nov 2007, Rachel G wrote:

   Is this for DI's part of the world? Keeping fingers etc crossed.

6. At 07:04 PM on 08 Nov 2007, mac wrote:

   Cheers, David, (2). Guess you posted it here 'cos there's the usual political filter at the Glass Box (the producers haven't expalined their Wed position yet!) (This will be posted 3 times to prove me wrong!)

   Thanks for the extracts from the US of the Fed Chair's comments.

   You also reported the BoE as leaving rates unchanged.

   In London the markets shot up. But it was only temporary. The fallacy in the BoE positions ensured the markets were down at the close.

   King, the Governor, felt that Northern Rock could have been saved the 'runs' had he secret powers. (His Select Cmttee stuff)
   As he used to say in B'ham, the government authorities '..will know who is in charge..'

   There he 'learnt' that body of knowledge known as the Impossiblity Theorems when he was a yong professor.
   The theorems purport to show that a group of three decision makers (the Governor, the Chancellor and the Regualtive body) with a moderately wide range of strategy alternatives available to them, must bow to someone among them 'in charge' - a dictator - if their decison making is to be rational.

   His demand for secrecy in a world crying out for transparency seemd contradictory. Earlier this week he shifted his stnace claiming the Chancellor was to blame.

   He must find the analysis difficult. Mervyn was a professor of investment whilst at Birmingham, certainly not a monetary economist in the powerful school of Ford, Driscoll and Dickinson of that time.

   Best do nothing when you do not know? So rates are unchanged here.
   But the problem is a credit crunch and strategies which lift stock prices don't help because the added value they represent is undermined in two ways.
   First it is the banks and the BoE who must convert this value into monetary resource if it is to feed the economy directly.
   And it is the reputation of those banks which is the problem. King says it will be months until banks are clear about their own viabilities. Meanwhile the regime of mutual suspicion and dishonesty between the banks remains. They are still being less than transparent with each other. Yet King demanded more secrecy for his own actions - secrecy which requires that the banks he supports should also be less than frank about their own positions.
   Secondly these sudden upward movements of the stock markets, at one point the FTSE was £12 billion up - further undermine any remaining belief that the numbers the dealers shout can be anything other than the highest prices they think they can get away with. The FTSE is still 10 -15 percent overvalued in 'market' terms. The numbers seem designed simply to provide wealth for our very own oligarchs and their acolytes. Marx said theft takes palce at the point of production, we know now that it also takes place at the point of valuation of investymetn assets.

   But the whole crisis of capitalism is caused by asset owners knowing full well that they are over - valuing their assets. As this truth comes home so the excess value drains away. As did the BoE's effect by the time London closed today.

   As for NY they were unimpressed by the remarks of the Federal Reserve boss. The Dow dipped into +ve but quickly went to 1.5 percent off (6.30 this evening)

7. At 07:18 PM on 08 Nov 2007, Piper wrote:

   
   Glug, glug...

8. At 07:20 PM on 08 Nov 2007, Belinda wrote:

   Thanks Eddie. We've bought everything from outside (when I say 'we' I don't actually mean 'me') and have all the usual flood/potential electricity failure stuff out. This is the downside of living on the east coast...well, this and never being able to get a decent cup of coffee.

9. At 09:37 PM on 08 Nov 2007, Izzy T'Me wrote:

   Good luck everyone - hope they're wrong. Fingers crossed 'n all that.

10. At 11:48 PM on 08 Nov 2007, Aperitif wrote:

    Good luck Belinda, and anyone else in the potential path.

11. At 12:04 AM on 09 Nov 2007, wrote:

    Thoughts are with all y'all Easterners, from my windy byt dry eyrie.

    xx
    ed

    Another dream that failed. There's nothing sadder.
    -- Kirk, "This side of Paradise", stardate 3417.3
    

12. At 07:05 AM on 09 Nov 2007, Little Red wrote:

    what about those of us the other side of the north sea? are we just much more prepared for these sort of things (NL being mostly under sea level and all) or is this a one sided sort of affair?

    i only ask because i live just inland at around -3m. any thoughts?

13. At 08:45 AM on 09 Nov 2007, Karen wrote:

    DIY

    You OK or underwater?

    I had a domestic flood at home yesterday morning (nightmare) - waiting for insurers to clear that up - so didn't actually get to do anything online. The first news I heard was PM and then I find out that this area is high risk flooding! I think I'm far enough away from the risk areas to avoid a second dunking.

14. At 09:33 AM on 09 Nov 2007, witchiwoman wrote:

    Belinda - hope all is ok!

15. At 09:37 AM on 09 Nov 2007, Stewart M wrote:

    Belinda hope the floods are not as bad as expected and that was what Today were saying.

    But as for decent coffee get a stove top expresso machine. Cheaper than a fancy cappucino maker.

    It makes decent coffee on a primus stove so even if the leccy fails, that and a milk pan will be all you need.

    Whisk the milk whilst warming it sort of makes froth.

16. At 09:53 AM on 09 Nov 2007, wrote:

    Re: mac (6)

    You mention that as yet there has been no feedback from the Editors on Wednesday's glassbox.

    I thought I'd just mention to you that unless there is anything specific that the editors wish to leave feedback about they probably won't respond.

    It's been nice having Elouise pop in and have a chat - but generally I suspect they read through the comments and if necessary take note and tinker if they feel a comment is justified.

    I'm sure - on a day to day basis - there is more than enough to do than wate time commenting here.

    More importantly, we should also remember that:-

    Three-and-a-half million people listen to PM, how many comment on the Blog?

    There is no evidence that the Blog is representative of all the listeners and to adapt their agenda because of a vocal and articulate micro minority would be a small tail wagging a big dog.

17. At 11:26 AM on 09 Nov 2007, Belinda wrote:

    Hello all,

    Yes all ok here. Very very windy night with things flying everywhere, but no apparent damage. We went out early this morning to look at the tides and ...it was a bit wet to say the least. But it didn't seem any worse than last year when the breaking waves were reaching the top of the cliffs. All the local fishermen and RNLIers were on look-out looking awfully grim though.

    However, due to the wind-induced howling, I only had 2 hours sleep, so that's knocked me back a bit. I'll just sit here and go to sleep at my desk. :)