The flood, the bard and the ugly: Cameron's Shakespeare is a tragedy

Corbyn wanted answers over the deluge up north, but the PM had only feeble barbs to offer. Somehow they hit home

David Cameron buttoned up his mac and clumped his way into the chamber. Striding authoritatively is always tricky when you're wearing wellies. Even when they are green Hunters. He had promised to learn whatever lessons needed to be learned from the floods and was determined to show that he had taken every precaution possible. "It's been very, very wet," he observed shrewdly at prime minister's questions. Nothing gets past Dave. "Much wetter than normal. Now can we talk about something else?"

Floods are so last week for the prime minister, but not for Jeremy Corbyn, who quite reasonably wanted to know why so many flood defence schemes had been cut when the government had promised that money would be no object. "That's just not true," Dave said. "We've spent lots and lots of money. Why is the leader of the opposition being so negative? Rather than focusing on all the people who had their homes flooded, why couldn't he talk about the success story of all those who might have been flooded but weren't?"