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That sinking feeling: Owen Paterson faces a deluge of bad PR after misjudged visit to flood-hit Somerset

By Chris Boffey

January 28, 2014 | 3 min read

Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, is obviously no student of American politics.

Owen Paterson

When George W Bush, the US president in 2005, failed to visit New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, his popularity slumped and never recovered.

Barack Obama, however, wasted no time when Hurricane Sandy devastated the eastern states and gained great kudos from being there, pledging money and giving the impression that he actually gave a fig.

OK, Katrina was one of the top five deadliest and most destructive Atlantic storms in the history of the US and its costliest natural disaster, and Sandy was not far behind, but like politics all flooding is local and is traumatic for those affected.

Paterson waited four weeks until visiting the disaster area that is the Somerset levels, and then only after the prime minister heard a direct appeal from the local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger and it became national news.

To compound his error Paterson turned up just 24 hours after pumps were delivered to try to move water off the farmland and then tried to claim credit.

It couldn't be worse PR could it? Oh yes. When he turned up in his highly polished shoes, not even a wellington, Paterson refused to meet those directly affected. It was a snub those voters will never forget and neither will the millions who saw it unfold on television.

When he drove off in his four wheel drive ministerial Range Rover having promised no immediate assistance but pledging a consultation, injury was added to insult.

This will not be the end of it for Paterson.

Having got himself in the headlights for the wrong reason people will start to look at his policies, the cuts he has made to the environment agency and his future.

He may get away with his disastrous visit not being raised at prime minister's questions by the opposition but it does play into the Labour Party's brief of how austerity cuts are affecting ordinary people.

Paterson's snub to those farmers in Somerset may gain more importance if it turns into an embarrassment for David Cameron.

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