So where's 'big society' when it's really needed?

I fear this letter from Keith Flett in today's Independent, referring to the politics of the recent floods in England, is too easily overlooked and it really deserves not to be:

A government that promotes austerity measures and claims that Big Society volunteers and the private sector will pick up what the public service can no longer do was always likely to end in a bad place, and now it has.

While people in a number of areas are suffering from flooding, it is clear that cuts to the Environment Agency’s budget and staffing have made a difficult situation worse.

No doubt some volunteers are helping in flood work, but there are limits. Dredging rivers and saving life and limb are jobs for professionals, and they are to be found in the public sector. After weeks of flooding in Somerset, there has been no evidence of volunteer or private sector dredging operations. Rather, it is the Army who are called into help.

It is probably too much to hope that the ideologues of the present government will take the point, but one suspects that voters will.

Keith Flett, London N17