A farmer pulled me up on the lane approaching my village last week. We always stop to talk about the weather. I've written a book about it and he has a long memory. "Fearful night," he said. "Felt like I was sleeping in the Severn tunnel, and the train just kept on coming. This boy's a bad un. When's it going to end?"
By "this boy" he meant the low-pressure system or depression that's been barrelling off the Atlantic and into western Britain for days, bringing rain, south-westerly gales and now flooding in Cumbria. I can't remember when "this boy" began. Forecasters don't know when it's going to end. Welcome to the new Wild West.
I live in the Black Mountains, south Wales. From just behind the house, on a clear day – don't laugh – you can see beyond Offa's Dyke footpath and into England. That ancient border is increasingly irrelevant. There's a new divide in Britain. It may prove to be more significant than any ethnic, economic or social division that has ...