All summer long, myself and the kids have been using out new 100 metre hose and watering cans to keep our vegetables, trees and fruit bushes from dying. It has been a daily ritual and we have done well. On Friday, like the rest of you, I got a phone alert from the convicted fraudster Louise Haigh who is our deputy PM, warning me not to light a fire or barbecue because of the drought. It is all so 1976.
In those days a drought was a drought. We accepted that weather could play cruel tricks as it had in 1540 and 1473, and that it was not entirely driven by coal fuelled power stations. I remember roads melting. I remember our local reservoir at Boddington drying up. It was hot.
In the last week of August 1976, during the driest summer since the mid 1700s ( ie.. before global warming), Denis Howell MP was made Minister for Drought and was charged with telling us all to use less water. The rather corpulent Howell told the press that he was doing his bit by sharing baths with his Mrs. But within days of Howell’s appointment there was torrential rain which continued for weeks.
The rain here in North Wales started on Sunday, 36 hours after the texts from the fraudster Haigh and it has rained every day since. We have just had the most massive thunderstorm and the kids and I saw a mass of water rush down the lane into our farmyard which was rapidly flooding. Bravely, we donned Wellies, and I managed to unblock a drain and the floods have abated. From drought to flood in 5 days. It is so 1976. Or indeed 1540 when there were heavy rains after that record breaking summer.
Of course, it is all down to man made global warming in 2026 ( both the lack of rain and the rain) but in 1976, the 1700s and 1540 and 1473 it was just the weather. Whatever you say Mr BBC.
In those days a drought was a drought. We accepted that weather could play cruel tricks as it had in 1540 and 1473, and that it was not entirely driven by coal fuelled power stations. I remember roads melting. I remember our local reservoir at Boddington drying up. It was hot.
In the last week of August 1976, during the driest summer since the mid 1700s ( ie.. before global warming), Denis Howell MP was made Minister for Drought and was charged with telling us all to use less water. The rather corpulent Howell told the press that he was doing his bit by sharing baths with his Mrs. But within days of Howell’s appointment there was torrential rain which continued for weeks.
The rain here in North Wales started on Sunday, 36 hours after the texts from the fraudster Haigh and it has rained every day since. We have just had the most massive thunderstorm and the kids and I saw a mass of water rush down the lane into our farmyard which was rapidly flooding. Bravely, we donned Wellies, and I managed to unblock a drain and the floods have abated. From drought to flood in 5 days. It is so 1976. Or indeed 1540 when there were heavy rains after that record breaking summer.
For what it is worth we are now forecast two weeks of at least some rain every day. No more watering the garden and I am hopeful that my lawns will be showing green shoots very soon.
Of course, it is all down to man made global warming in 2026 ( both the lack of rain and the rain) but in 1976, the 1700s and 1540 and 1473 it was just the weather. Whatever you say Mr BBC.