Bring in the experts. Please.

I had a meeting with a prospective client in Ingleton, this morning, I normally park about 100 yards away from their office and walk across but this morning the chap I was due to see, Martyn, told me to come and park outside reception, "you'll see why".

And when I got there, I did; all of the road was flooded. So I parked as instructed and went up to his office. He pointed to a large building about a hundred yards away and said it was a council building, and that when it had been built, they'd not considered drainage, so all of the flooding was a result of that.

To be honest, I thought it was just one of those grumbles based on a half-baked theory but as we chatted further it turned out that he has a second job as a drainage consultant. He soon warmed to his topic and, as I love anyone who's enthusiastic about anything, I settled back and listened happily. 

He told me about some simple solutions to drainage problems and I found myself wondering what it would be like to live in a country where we let the specialists make the decisions - about drainage and renewable energy and the economy, for example - rather than politicians and media barons with an agenda. And that reminded me of Canada and the people whom they've recently appointed into cabinet posts, people with experience relevant to their positions. And then I look at our bunch, people like Iain Duncan Smith and George Osborne and Jeremy Hunt, and it makes me despair.