Monday 10th February

We live in both a blame society and one that dumbs everything down to the most simplistic of explanations.  Whenever something goes wrong, we don’t look at the whole problem, we look for someone to blame.  So when a Rogue Trader gets caught we don’t look at the lack of regulation, the greed that pervades the whole system and how that greed is encouraged by huge bonuses, we demand the head of the bank in question, as if making one man (and it is always a man isn’t it) fall on his sword will sort the problem out.

And there have been terrible floods, awful wet weather for almost six weeks, unprecedented rainfalll which may or may not  be linked to climate change, and recriminations are leveled at the Environment agency which despite having to make huge cuts has valiantly tried to sort out the mess.  The answer, apparently, is for Lord Smith, the Chairman to be sacked.  It may be a nonsense to have a chairman in the first place, they may have a very limited role, and be paid far too much but does anyone imagine that this one man was in charge of day to day operations or decisions to dredge or not to dredge certain rivers.  Of course not.  But let’s not be pernickety here.  It will take far too long and we may never get to the bottom of things anyway.  The answer may be full of contradictions and small decisions and risks assessed which resulted in an inadequate response.  But let’s take the easy answer.  Someone must be to blame.  Someone must pay.  And believe me whether Lord Smith resigns or stays on post will make no difference at all to the flood victims in Somerset.