It might just be my northern paranoia kicking in, but has the media coverage gone into overdrive since the flooding problems started to affect the south?
I remember when Carlisle got flooded a couple of years ago and there wasn't a hundreth of the national media interest as there is now.
It was the same for the water shortages last year, again this was a localised problem to the south -east but we were all made to feel like it was a national catastrophe because half a dozen gardners in Kent had a hose pipe ban.