Me on Channel 4 news, Cornwall Council's sandbag u turn and government help for fishermen

Following on from a series of blogs by myself about the storms and the lacklustre government response here in Cornwall (and elsewhere). I was interviewed yesterday by Channel 4 news in Newlyn. They were keen to hear my views about the response here and the hardship caused by this extreme weather. Understandably a lot of my interview was cut to make way to talk to fishermen and Nick Clegg.

Watch it here if you're interested:



I'm really glad that Channel Four took the time to come to Cornwall and highlight the damages by the storm. It certainly helps us to put pressure on government to take storm damage as seriously here as they do elsewhere. It must also be welcomed that Cornwall Council has done a u turn and rather than offering no sand bags at all will now offer them to residents for free, great news.

I also welcome Nick Clegg's half promise (interviewed after me) that fishermen will get or could get hardship payments. This would only be fair and I'm slightly puzzled why this hasn't already been raised and promised at the same time as farmer's hardship payments by Cornwall's MPs, especially Dan Rogerson and George Eustice who are now junior ministers in DEFRA who deal with fisheries.

Anyway I sincerely hope the government does take this case seriously and from reading Andrew Wallis's blog. That a strong case was made to Nick Clegg by fisherman, residents and Julian Waring from Newlyn Fishermen's Mission at Porthleven. As with promises that government will pay for damages in the storm we will wait and see what happens with hardship payments to the fishing industry.