(2 May 2015, 17:14)bigpaul Wrote: [ -> ]I wish I could have such a complacent view of any catastrophe, but I cant. maybe back when we had proper "statesmen" who cared about the country but the modern lot of politicians hate the country and have only contempt for the population, their only interest is one of SELF interest, even when they turn up at a disaster its only for a "photo opportunity", the real work is done by lesser mortals paid a pittance for their efforts, so no, I don't give out much hope in a major disaster, well- outside of the "Westminster bubble" that is.
" couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery" springs to mind.
I cant think of any Devon council that has its own DIRECT workforce any more. so it will all be sub contractors...IF they even have enough employees to get the job done, and even if they are in the right place.
and if the power grid goes down? there wont be enough generators to go around, that's even if the fuel can be pumped out of the tanks...remember no power!! remember the flooding on the Somerset levels? they didn't even have enough pumps they had to "borrow" them from Holland. so NO, I'm not holding my breath.
BP, no disrespect, but that post makes you sound like the common sheeple, waiting for TPTB to rescue you!
Do you honestly believe that the 1000's building contractors and plant hire companies, not to mention the farmers, and others etc would just sit back and say oh shite what do we do now, we're all going to die?
No, of course not.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there will not be trouble or death or despair, of course there will, but.......we have seen it a thousand times up and down the country, that in times of adversity people pull together, especially if we are talking about natural disasters. It doesn't have to mean the end of the world as we know it.
Farmers and plant hire companies already get out there during and after storms to clear the roads of debris; trees; snow etc, it isn't just left to the local authorities to sort.
Also as in my previous post we see it every year where linesmen will travel the country helping out other regions to get the power back on, it happens, it's a fact.
Also take the Somerset floods last year, look at how the farmers and others all rallied together to help each other. And we've all seen instances of builders providing there services free of charge to help those affected by the floods.
Another example is the Aberfan disaster in South Wales, again everyone came together and helped, just as they are right now in Nepal.
As for Devon County having no Direct Workforce, well it doesn't actually need one, instead it has access to a workforce many times larger through numerous private companies who provide the services needed. For example SWH is the old Devon County direct workforce and they now work almost exclusively for Devon county and other local authorities, then in addition to this, there is actually an entire network of both professionals/consultants; and contractors that have term contracts with the county.
Even the MoD works like this, in this case they are referred to as Prime Contracts and the responsibility for everything from catering to maintenance to the construction of new sites is carried out by the Prime Contractors, but again they do not actually do the work, they use subcontractors.
And as for the Politicians, well they will have bugger all involvement, disaster relief is coordinated locally in the UK, it is not something that the politicians have any active involvement in. We don't an equivalent of FEMA so there will be no national approach, it will be down to County/District level to sort but it really will be a case of the communities coming together rather than the authorities
