Spare a thought for York

I sometimes forget that the media makes its own decisions about what gets reported and where the focus lies. I'm not talking about how the right wing press ignores Cameron's blunders and Osborne's failures but emphasises Corbyn's smallest slip up, at least not on this occasion. No, I'm talking about editorial decisions that give us information about some events but not others, and which place emphasis on some places whilst ignoring others, thereby giving us a skewed view of the news. I'm not saying it's done intentionally or malevolently, only that it happens.

On the weekend that Cumbria was flooded Andrew Marr nonchalantly ended his show with the comment that some people in the north had got a bit wet. I'm sure he didn't mean to be that callous and also pretty sure he'd have been a lot better informed if the flooding had been in the south. Eventually, though, the scale of the problem, not to mention the incredible footage of the floods, saw Cumbria and Lancaster break onto the news.

What I didn't see reported, though, was the scale of the flooding in York. Today, Izzy and I drove across there as the new university term is about to start. As usual, it took bloody forever to get through Harrogate, and then we were on the home run to York. I was amazed by the amount of flooding immediately we were clear of Harrogate and when we got into York itself, Izzy pointed out whole areas that had been under water. She was driving so I managed to grab this shot as we went over the bridge. I appreciate it's not the best of photographs but if you look closely, you can see how the river is still terribly swollen. (The Kent in Kendal, by comparison, was back to its usual levels the Monday after the floods.)