Long term reflections for the summer holiday

I have never known a summer as wet as this one and as depressing. As I write this, the rain is bucketing down out of a grey sky. We have been spared the floods, in this corner of Wales, that have afflicted many of our countrymen in other parts, but we are still left reeling from the drab succession of ferocious inclemencies that have affected agriculture, tourism, sport, business and even education.

It is not the weather in which to embark on a holiday - unless, that is, you are planni...