Apologies for the flippant tone of today's post. I do not wish to make light of the distress that many are presently experiencing back in the UK. To watch an unstoppable wall of water invade one's home must be traumatic and heartbreaking. But inevitably there are those who exploit these natural disasters for their own purposes, and I do not just mean the looters or cowboy tradesmen.

Today's 'Speaker's Corner in the Telegraph asked the curious question: "What can be done to save Summer 2007 ?" . My first contribution was serious, but then some religious tubthumper by the name of "David" (David Icke ?) suggested it was all Divine punishment. That drew a quick riposte from the eloquent David Llewellyn, followed close on his heels by my own:

David writes (10.44am) : "I believe that God has had enough of this once great Christian nation's slide into godlessness, selfishness, greedy materialism, and immorality, and that this is his way of saying it."

David may be getting his instructions any day now, from on high, about building a Mark II Ark. He'd better start googling "cubits", before the servers get swamped, and get some doves trained up in homing techniques.

Special plea: ignore instructions to take two of every species, David. Leave behind the grey squirrels, mosquitoes, vampire bats, all viruses and unfriendly bacteria.

If my reading of Creationism is correct, Noah may have decided unilaterally, so to speak, to leave behind the dinosaurs and pterodactyls.