Article Numero Dos

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/01/warctic101.xml

This article is called "More homes face flooding risk as budget is slashed by £24m" and it was published on November 1st 2006 on Telegraph.co.uk, written by the Telegraph's Politcal Editor George Jones.

This article reports that the UK government has made huge cuts to the budget set aside for protecting people and property which will be affected by flooding caused by climate change. The Environment Ministry predicts many nasty consequences of this budget cut, like increased risk of flooding, water quality failures, and illegal dumping issues (the article uses a word I was not familiar with, "fly-tipping" - which is the illegal dumping of waste anywhere it is not authorized)

The article's author, Mr. Jones, contrasts this budget cut against the recent unveiling of the Stern report, which mentions quite clearly the "increasing pressure for coastal protection", and Tony Blair's promise for Britain to set an example for other countries in combating global warming. There is a fairly clear bias in the article, as it speaks critically of the UK government. While it is not as teeming with opinion as it could be, the author's message is pretty clear, and he's right: the budget cuts make for sobering news after Tony Blair's promises regarding climate change, as reported in my previous post. It doesn't necessarily (hopefully) invalidate what the British government has promised, but it's cause for concern. On the other hand, when hasn't a government been inherently hypocritical? As far as modern democracy goes, the Brits seem to be doing alright on this issue.