The Observer view on the floods and budget cutting | Observer editorial

The water pouring into defenceless homes and businesses symbolises the disastrous effects of George Osborne's economic ideology

Inundated; crumbling; overwhelmed: there could hardly have been a more graphic physical representation of the fragile state of Britain's infrastructure than the floodwaters surging down the streets of our towns and cities and into shops and living rooms in the past few days.

And the government can't say it wasn't warned. Our story today reveals that experts had left ministers in no doubt that skimping on flood defence spending was exposing a growing number of households to risks.

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