Utter madness

Now this post has absolutely nothing to do with the band, and everything to do with Gordon Brown's great folly: his obsession with building new houses wherever and whenever he can. A green paper is to be published that will basically allow houses to be built on flood plains. Never mind the utter stupidity of building a house in an area at risk from flood (the events of the past year notwithstanding), Brown now intends to allow even more low-lying land to be concreted over, which will exacerbate the effects of flooding even more in the years to come.

If someone can pinpoint the exact moment when common sense left the building as far as politics goes, please let me know. In the meantime, I'm just grateful we carefully picked a house well away from any flood-risk areas. It's also reassuring to know that there's plenty of green space in and around our street and neighbourhood - mind you, if Gordon gets his way, I expect it all to vanish into a sea of concrete before too long.

Here's how to fix the flooding problem - one, stop concreting over new areas of land. Two, stop allowing farmers to drain land adjoining rivers to maximise intensive farming methods. Three, allow the river's natural defences - meadows, marshes, etc - to reappear, helping to soak up the worst effects of future floods, because believe you me, it doesn't matter that this year's calamities have been exacerbated by the El Nino effect, we've just been given a sneak preview of what climate change is all about.