Running through the aftermath

Went running after work tonight, the first time I'd ventured out on my usual route since the floods. Unlike in Taxi Driver, when "a great rain washes the scum from the streets", my usual favourite scenes such as the Jack Kaye Walk grafiti remained intact, thankfully, but it was quite obvious that a strange moroseness has enveloped parts of the city. Under the Chanterlands Avenue bridge, Costcutter and Ken Ellerker Cycles remain closed, looking strange under a blue cloudless sky. But the saddest site was probably Ella Street, my favourite street in the west of Hull. The overhead banners for the Ella Street carnival have been joined by a yellow skip every few houses, filled with household remnants. Purple barricades mask the drains that badly flooded, leaving this beautiful Victorian street under water. Running on, onto Beverley Road, there was more rubbish. But that was just fly-tipping. Copycat flood dumping. Luckily, this will never happen again, because the Hull Daily Mail tells us so. Some young scallywag writers called John Meehan and Eddie Tor have coined tonight's front page - a campaign called Never Again, which will stop global warming, rain and even a light drizzle.