So how exactly did Cameron respond to Benyon when they talked about the risk of flooding?

Somewhere in Whitehall, in either a plain brown folder, or possibly an exchange of emails, there lurks a smoking gun.  I say this because some things are true, even though they may have been in the Daily Telegraph.  So when Richard Benyon, the Conservative MP for Newbury, says he warned about climate change and its impact on the British landscape (and agriculture), we should probably believe him.

Benyon told Downing Street, and other climate change deniers, about this uncomfortable truth sometime during the floods of 2012/13.  His reward: in October 2013, David Cameron sacked him as the junior minister responsible for flooding and as part of a shameless exercise in coalition horse-trading, gave his job to North Cornwall's Liberal Democrat MP, Dan Rogerson.

As Bridgwater today loses its railway line beneath the rising waters, and as its MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger slags off the Environment Agency's chairman as "a little git," consider what Benyon wrote on his own blog a few days ago:  "As groundwater levels in parts of West Berkshire exceed anything ever recorded, many residents find themselves in an awful situation. If your home is flooded, and, or sewage is flooding into your garden, it is human nature to feel angry; to hold someone to account. In my experience, this anger is often directed at the Environment Agency.

"Anyone who has worked with me on these issues knows that I am intolerant when such organisations fail.  I had a full and frank discussion with the then Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, following the devastating floods of 2007. Conversely, when they get things right I am full of praise. 

"The Chairman of the Environment Agency is the former Labour Cabinet Minister, Chris Smith, who has shown good leadership at a difficult time for any Government body. The majority of front line staff I have worked with are competent, professional people, prepared to work around the clock to protect homes and businesses from flooding. I am sure everyone recognises that they don’t always get it right, but I think they do a difficult job well."

I can't wait to see how Defra responds to my request for detailed disclosure of its exchanges with Downing Street and the Treasury.  The Independent, last week, is on the right lines.

Meanwhile, ponder the power of this landscape-changing wave crashing ashore at Seaton, near Looe: