Just as during the Foot and Mouth Disease catastrophe in 2000-1, Britain has had to call in the British Army because they cannot trust the agricultural ministry then Maff, now renamed Defra.
Defra, through their front organisation, the Environment Agency are supposed to do the job of flood defence, but they spent it all on self-seeking twitchers (bird fanatics) and self-praising public relations.
Correctly, the government does not trust the management of their own ministry - Defra.
During the animal health crises of 2000-2001, Britain's Maff-Defra veterinarians were equipped with mobile phones. They were using them in front of us, whilst faking test results and trying to involve us in criminal deception.
When they were deployed to deal with Foot and Mouth Disease a month later, they had none. The army, in the body of their brilliant commander, Brigadier Alex Birtwistle, had to go to the local telephone shop to remedy the deficiency.
He gave the government veterinarians phones to replace those they had "lost". It is all well documented. The vets were seeking to frustrate the military by failing to be found and lost their phones to facilitate their independence.
So Britain can sleep tonight. The military are on the flooded streets offering aid and also doing an independent assessment of the defences, before Britain's crazy veterinary establishment can flood the country to make way for their favourite ducks.
This is the scandal of the century. All really big scandals have an element of insanity. This one more than most.
Full BBC report, with photographs, here
UK floods: Army to carry out 'rapid inspection' of defences
The Army will check 150,000 flood defences across England over five weeks
The Army is to carry out a "rapid inspection" of England's flood defences within five weeks to assess the damage left by unprecedented flooding.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the work would normally take two years...
