YP Comment: Flood questions will not go away

An oversight which will not help MPs to win back some of the trust that has been eroded, this omission also neglected the fact that flooding has hit each and every region of the UK, and that it is a false economy to leave major towns and cities without adequate defences.

Of course it is important to distinguish this silence at PMQs, the one occasion when politicians can command national attention, with the diligence of those who have been trying to hold teflon Ministers to account. For example, Holly Lynch, of Halifax, has led an effective debate in Westminster Hall, a side chamber to the House of Commons, on the specific difficulties facing businesses in the Calder Valley while Leeds MP Rachel Reeves spoke last night about how doing nothing in the West Yorkshire city will, in time, cost the taxpayer more in clean-up costs than the actual bill for building new flood relief measures along the river Aire.

Yet, with Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss now floating the idea of a £15 a year flood tax being levied in those communities deemed to be most at risk, the plain fact of the matter is that only Mr Cameron, or the Chancellor, have the power to take the necessary decisions to protect Britain’s infrastructure.

However the PM appears to have washed his hands of responsibility while George Osborne’s silence is deafening. And here is the final irony. If Google, and other global giants, paid corporation tax which was remotely commensurate with their UK earnings, the Government could afford to protect Leeds and other vulnerable communities. Now why didn’t anyone think to ask that question...