When I tracked down a group of local experts who could explain why we were faced with the worst of three such disasters in four years, I was drawn into what would become one of the most bizarre political stories of 2014. This abnormal flooding, it turned out, was not just a freak of nature. It had been deliberately brought about by the Environment Agency and green lobby groups who, in the name of “conserving nature”, had abandoned the dredging of the local rivers and destroyed the old proven system of flood management. Ironically, nothing suffered more from the resulting floods than the wildlife they claimed to want to protect.