Now the Environment Agency has declared a drought in seven regions covering half of England, from Devon and Cornwall to East Anglia. In 1976, the last really serious drought in the public's memory, I was on local radio covering Oxfordshire and beyond. But we are also less inclined to follow the small rules, it seems. There was talk of getting him to do a rain dance, though at least one clergyman condemned the very idea. Within days, torrential rain caused floods across the hard dry land, and he was renamed minister for floods.