The north wind shall blow...

...and we shall have gales.

About 5 years ago, I stood at my back window looking out at heavy snow falling while a friend from one of the islands phoned home to try to find out if the road to Oban from Glasgow was passable so she could drive home next morning. It wasn't. She didn't. It was March and we'd had a few years of bad snow. It was inconvenient but we coped. She got home 3 days later.

That is the last time I can remember serious snow affecting Argyll and Glasgow.

Since then, it's been gales and heavy swells that have been the problem. Year after year, boats right along the west coast have been badly affected by bad weather. Calmac and other ferry companies have quickly adapted, becoming adept at shifting boats around to make sure island communities have had some sort of service - if at all possible.

The weather on the west coast is going through a wet n windy phase which may last a few years or last for many years to come. It may be the effect of il nino or of climate change. It's probably too early to say. Anyone who claims to know the answer is a fool. Similarly, anyone in government who thinks the awful flooding in Cumbria - and now in Lancashire and Yorkshire - is a 'one-off' is a moron. And that includes HM Government, which cut flood defence budgets last year on the grounds that it couldn't possibly happen again.

So action for today: send the PM to an emergency COBRA meeting, then send him oop north - probably by helicopter to keep him well away from locals who could point out the cuts to flood defence budgets haven't helped - and urge local people 'to take action.' What action would that be, I wonder?

There are cases where action can be taken by individuals: if you have a sore throat, check the contents of your medicine cabinet or go to the emergency chemist. Don't camp out in A&E. But if your house is flooded, we're told to put precious items upstairs. And if you don't have an upstairs or are too feeble to do that? You could rely on charities to come and help: the RNLI for example, last seen swimming across streets in Hebden Bridge. Local mosques and other churches have risen to the occasion, as have the Salvation Army, the WRI and the Red Cross. The army may help. But Westminster? I don't have my fingers crossed.

I have been annoyed in the past by people telling us to stop sending money abroad on foreign aid. There's a good reason for spending on foreign aid: keeping people where they are - rather than here - being the most selfish of them. But in this case, the argument: why are we buying missiles to fire at Syria when people here are in such need? hits home.