For several years I was convinced that my grade C in O level Maths was due to the number of candles my mother had lit in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary. My Maths teacher probably still is. Don’t quote any of my assertions on scientific matters unless you’ve checked them.
Middle England is more than a geographical description. In British politics it is taken to represent the middle ground that the big political parties are seeking to win on behalf of British capitalism. It summarises the hopes, prejudices and common sense of tens of millions of voters. So it should also be of passing interest to socialists who hope to win control of society by persuading people that our ideas offer an alternative, rational way of living and governing. I got so drunk on Friday night that on Sunday afternoon I found myself watching and quite enjoying Songs of Praise. I think that’s what some of Middle England looks like. An English person may wish to correct me.
The photo shows Upton-upon-Severn in Worcestershire. This year England has had the wettest May and June on record and, if the view from my window and tonight’s weather forecast are anything to go by, July will be added to that list. In some parts of the country 16cm of rain have fallen in 24 hours. Four inches in a July day. As you can see from the map I’ve taken from the BBC website it is the west and the centre of England that are most badly affected. Last month it was the north of England that was inundated
The reason there hasn’t been a day without rain for the last couple of months is because the jet stream, which is the winds which are responsible for driving and developing weather systems across the Atlantic, have been looping south of their normal course for this time of year. As a consequence northern Europe is getting more rain than usual. It turns out that since 1925 northern Europe has been receiving between 50-85% more rain and David King, the British government’s chief scientist predicted in 2004 that the country could expect to see severe flooding occur 20 times more frequently than in previous decades. Scientists are vague on the modelling behind it but believe that one result of a warmer planet is more rainfall. While it would be rash to attribute any single event to global warming this is plainly an extreme event in an underlying trend of increased rainfall.
Lots of rich people live in the affected areas. These are the shires. Buckinghamshire. Herefordshire. Berkshire. Bedfordshire. They include some of the most wealthy parts of the country and it’s good to see the owners of four wheel drives (SUVs) crying beside their drowned vehicle. But Middle England is a broad category. Among those without water, electricity and contents insurance will be tens or hundreds of thousands of working class people, low paid farm workers and migrant labourers. It will be a small sacrifice for the rich to have their homes repainted and new carpets laid. Thousands of families are contemplating at least a year of discomfort and financial hardship as they replace clothes, furniture, carpets and cookers.
The agencies that have responded best have been those of the state. The Fire Brigade and the cops. Brown’s government has left the private sector to bumble along. In towns where there is no drinking water people have to fight in the supermarkets. A rational government would oblige every private water bottling company to send all their output to the affected areas, ration it and give it away. The electricity companies waited until the very last minute before trying to protect their facilities from the water. You can’t help but feel that they were gambling they might not need to spend the money.
In many of Britain’s towns the drainage systems are a century old. They were designed for smaller populations and a different climate. Blair and Brown accepted Thatcher’s hatred of public works and it’s coming back to haunt them. All these are issues on which the left and the far left are easily capable of winning an anti-capitalist argument. Who’s up for it?
Liam redux 
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