The Yorkshire Floods And A River Of Snot

A streaming, energy-sapping, spirit-crushing cold has kept me largely indoors for the last 48 hours where I have occupied myself by watching BBC News 24. Two stories dominated the news - the crashing stock market and the flooded streets. The streets in question were in West Yorkshire, indeed they were within a mile or two of where I sat. But I live on the top of a hill and all I could do was to sit up here and watch the water flow away. By mid-afternoon, the television was saying that children were being rescued in Brighouse and houses were being evacuated. The newshound in me dragged me out of my sick-bed and, camera in hand, I set out for Brighouse. But a few hundred yards down the road I began to realise the impossibility of the task : traffic was stacked up as roads were grid-locked. I turned the car and headed home for bed. So no photographs, no first hand reports, no tales of wading through flooded streets. Just a very red nose and a river of snot.