They have left towns and cities to fend for themselves after nine years of vindictive austerity," he said.
But rural areas have been affected by a shrinking workforce as people have left towns or stopped looking for work, while the workforce has grown in suburbs and cities.
Four years of war had left towns and villages little more than rubble, and an estimated 500m shells fell on the western front, obliterating great swathes of countryside, wiping roads, woods and farms from the map.
Fog and drizzle on Thursday brought some hope of containing the 50,000-acre fire that was raging through the San Bernardino Mountains, but winds gusting more than 50 miles per hour and the unpredictable path of the wildfire still left towns like Big Bear Lake vulnerable.
Flooding in northern California's Sonoma County has left towns cut off and forced thousands of people to evacuate.
He also highlights the Perth-Kinnaber junction (near Montrose) line closure, which left towns such as Coupar Angus and Forfar cut off from the network.
