Rainfall and Shortfall.

by Christopher Booker

As thousands were forced to flee their homes in Britain's June monsoon, therecame the sound of a particular chicken flapping home to roost. When Margaret Beckett made such a shambles of handing out EU subsidies to farmers, Brussels responded by withholding up to £350 million of its payments, leaving a massivehole in the budget of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.Before being rewarded for her incompetence by promotion to foreign secretary, Mrs Beckett slashed the budgets of various of the more useful parts of Defra'sempire, including a cut of £15 million in the allocation for flood defences.

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As a big global warming fan, her Defra successor David Miliband refused to reinstate this cut, presumably because a drought-plagued Britain would no longerneed defences against inundation. Cue, naturally, for the wettest June sincerecords were kept. How apt that Mr Miliband should now be rewarded in turn with promotion to Foreign Secretary.

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