In recent days, thanks not least to a widely quoted article by a Cumbrian ex-farmer and lawyer, Philip Walling, there has been much talk of how flooding in the North has been greatly exacerbated by the agency’s failure to dredge the rivers, which have again been disastrously overflowing their banks. When I spoke to Mr Walling he had just been inspecting the Cumbrian Derwent, where failure to dredge has led to its gravel bed being raised by six feet, which he ascribed to the agency complying with the EU’s Water Framework Directive.