A flood of requests? Not exactly, but two, by the same post, very much concerned with flooding. While we all know that organisations need funds in advance to meet the next emergency (whatever and wherever it may be), heart-strings are likely to be tugged the hardest when we see (locally or on television) the dire situation.

National Flood Forum needs money, but I am not sure that many people will be rushing to give £250 for a fridge or £75 for a microiwave for the benefit of the staff in the office. It is somewhat illogical – but most of us want to see our cash going directly to help victims, conveniently forgetting (as the Forum points out) that staff have to be paid, and need desk and laptop computers.

The British Red Cross Sociey starts its letter by asking me to imagine that my home is cut off from the outside world by floods, and then describes how a couple in their seventies, living in rural Gloucestershire, were flooded and were completely cut off. After a week (why, one asks, did it take so long?), they were rescued by a team of British Red Cross volunteers, carrying water, food and hygiene packs.

That is stirring stuff, and the letter, not surprisingly, goes on to point out that it is not only the UK which has been affected by natural disasters in recent years. It then claims: “And because of our unique network of volunteers, on the ground in every country, we were there too, often the first to help those in desperate and sudden need”.

So, a well-reasoned letter from National Flood Forum, with the British Red Cross Society taking the more dramatic line.

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