WHAT with the weekend storms and the flooding this week - you might be forgiven for thinking that someone's trying to tell us something.

That may well be the something that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was talking about in the Commons this week - though for a politician you'd have thought he'd be more politic in his preaching.

Yes it may well be Man's fault that we're experiencing the worst flooding since 1947. Yes it may well be that global warming is leading to this freakish weather. And yes we may well have to look at the way we live if it's a regular occurrence.

But storms and floods are also Acts of God. The worst flooding since 1947 - what caused the global warming then? Why do we always have to look to blame someone, or find a scapegoat (re: John Prescott).

The fact is that we are all experiencing these adverse conditions this week - young and old, rich and poor. People are also suffering. They have been put out of their own homes; they have lost dear possessions. Blaming someone or making political points seems cheap.

Yet this is not as bad as the latest panic buying of petrol which seems to be again hitting the area. But then again it was a politician, Jack Straw who recommended this. You'd think people, and politicians, would know better...