With the flood defence blame game set to kick off in the Commons this week, spare a thought for the residents of Pooley Bridge, Cumbria.

Sodden locals recently turned out to meet a delegation from two government departments — only to discover the hapless group had arrived on the wrong side of their village’s collapsed bridge.

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin breached safety barriers to gawp across the now impassible River Eamont. He was accompanied by ministerial colleague Rory Stewart would should have known better given that he is also the, errrrr, local MP.

A local man claimed on Facebook:

“So the whole village turned out yesterday afternoon to attend a meeting with our member of parliament Rory Stewart and the Secretary of State along with the British Transport minister … “They turned up 20 minutes late on the wrong side of our washed away bridge. A local farmer had to make a 30 minute journey via quad bike to get them here whilst the entourage made the 20 mile journey via road to get to where this picture was taken. You couldn’t make it up.”

This confusion might dismissed as understandable given the quickly evolving situation — if the bridge in question had not collapsed three weeks prior on 6 December.

Good to see the government knows which bridges have collapsed and which have not.