Does anyone here feel a lack of sympathy for all these flood victims?

Insurance companies have subsidised people living on flood-plains for years.

Almost, Ken. In fact it's insurance companies' other customers who have been subsidizing them, through higher premiums.

Annoys me, as I would like to buy one of these properties, particularly an older one with land, and give it a go. Get rid of cheap, modern gypsum plaster and cement rendering and restore the original lime, through which water can evaporate. Tiled floors with rugs, all furniture and units on legs, power points above waist height, repair and clear the original drains and guttering.

But the work costs money, and currently, because of the subsidized insurance, the owners of these supposedly unsaleable properties never seem to drop their asking price. They just get new carpets and wallpaper every year and moan to the media that the rest of us should pay for flood defences.

Ah yes, I thought I'd inherited that opinion from somewhere, it was you, even if I did fk it up in the paraphrasing.

What you said, then. Hear hear.

those in somerset said they were used to the area flooding most years but since they stopped dredging it was reaching their homes

I live 600 yards from the Tone, though not on the Levels. There's zero risk of flooding here. But the chap who farms the fields beside the river lost his potato crop in the more intense and deeper floods of summer 2012, because he couldn't get in to harvest it (though I gleaned a healthy supply by hand for months afterwards). It wasn't a problem, though, because the flooding silts the fields and re-fertilizes the soil, so he was rewarded with a bumper crop of corn and barley the next year.

And this is the key to the issue with the Levels. The whole reason our ancestors drained them for agriculture was because perpetual winter flooding would restore their fertility. You worked the land in summer, harvested your crop in the autumn and moved out of the area in the winter. The clue is in the name Somerset - where you settle in summer. (The Saxons who first worked the Levels were Germanic, and the German word for summer is Sommer, pronounced "Zommer", hence the local habit of calling the county Zummerzet.)

You certainly weren't supposed to buy a house to live there all year round admiring the scenery.

There have been worse floods on the Levels. 70,000 acres were poisoned with sea water in 1919 (double the area flooded with fresh water this winter). And hundreds drowned in the Great Storm of 1704, which also saw the loss of thousands of livestock and a ship ending up 15 miles inland.

Yes, GAZO. Dredging is a big issue.

600 yards from me at Longaller is a working mill - the water drives a turbine to provide the electricity for a few
houses around it. The owners said they'd been petitioning the Environment Agency for years to be allowed to dredge the river bend and leat to prevent flooding, but had been refused permission. The EA's stated policy is to ban dredging and clearance of vegetation in order to keep rivers in their "natural" state and encourage wildlife. Central Government obviously like this policy, as it costs nothing, and Chris Smith likes it, because it leaves enough to pay himself £97,000/yr while employed in ten other jobs.

Summer 2012 the mill was flooded and the EA finally relented. The mill owners had to DIY the dredging, but the result has been no flooding this winter. And, of course, the wildlife has returned, because the water level is now stable there.

Even water voles (an EA obsession) have turned up and burrowed into the banks.

Owners of some of Britain's costliest homes will benefit from subsidised flood insurance, the Government has announced.
The state-backed "Flood Re" scheme, which guarantees affordable insurance for households in flood-prone areas, will include properties which fall into "band H" for council tax, Defra said.
This means homes in England and Wales at risk of flood and in the highest tax band will no longer face huge insurance premiums. There are around 3,800 homes at risk of flooding that are currently in band H (or band I in Wales).
Previously these top-end homes were excluded from the scheme as it was thought the homeowners involved would be wealthy enough to pay for their own cover without subsidy. This was immediately controversial, with some owners of expensive riverside homes fearing they would not have the means to meet the full cost of cover.
The flooding last winter of expensive riverside homes highlighted their plight.

In February, David Cameron ordered the Flood Re policy to be reviewed after insurers warned that excluding band H homes would leave their owners facing huge insurance premiums. Hiscox, an insurance company, said ministers were "discriminating" against those in bigger houses.
Flood Re is a collaboration between the insurance industry and Government and will come into force in 2015. It will cap the insurance of home owners in flood-prone areas at up to £540 a year, varying by council tax band.
The subsidy will be funded by a levy of around £10.50 on all household premiums across the country.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/11301860/Flood-insurance-scheme-is-expanded-to-include-riverside-mansions.html

Not too surprising. After all, we're all in this together. Surely, you would help your fellow countryman in his hour of greatest need.