Tories’ leaky policies on flooding leave us unprepared | Letters

Congratulations on a notably hard-hitting editorial (28 December). I can only fault it on one point - your contention that Leeds and Manchester carry more weight in Westminster than do Somerset or Cumbria. Not with the Conservatives, they don't. If they did, the government would be acting on George Monbiot's advice and re-afforesting the uplands, to mitigate flooding in urban areas downstream.
Emeritus professor Glyn Turton
Shipley, West Yorkshire

" Your headline "Failed flood defences cast doubt on UK readiness for new weather era" (Report, 28 December) prompts me to write to congratulate the British people for apparently having joined the US in establishing spending priorities - bombing in Syria is more important than flood defences at home. Well done, you. So it is in the US as well. War over healthcare, war over infrastructure and war over education and on and on. Clever, aren't we?
Anne Kass
Albuquerque, New Mexico