Poor Eric Pickles. As if dealing with floods largely caused by that most irrational and unreliable of voters – Mother Nature – is not enough of an inconvenience for Westminster's own unstoppable force. Now the big man is coming under fire for a perceived lack of action over these Biblical rains simply for being, well, a big man. As the severe flood warnings continued to pour in early this week, and with Eric desperately trying to put a dampener on party-politicking while councils and their partners shore-up half of Britain, one very helpful academic suggested a new use for the secretary of state. As if to prove that Twitter sometimes reduces even the most intellectual of minds to irrational and gibbering trolls, Dr Richard Ashley – a water expert (bit vague!) – suggested that the big man would currently be better employed as a giant sandbag. That's harsh on lots of levels. Even those in Somerset.