Southwold always seemed an unlikely holiday destination for the Prime Minister: charming, upmarket, its development paternalistically guided by the Adnams brewery. The one thing he might have liked was the quiet. Except that, when Gordon Brown was there, calm was thrown to the blustery North Sea winds.

The burghers of this most easy-going of seaside towns actually mounted a demonstration. The subject that had got their blood up was coastal defence.

Over the past couple of days, Lord Smith of Finchley has relit the firework. Otherwise known as the ex-Culture Secretary Chris Smith, he now heads the Environment Agency.

A report on sea defences, due next year, is expected to make uncomfortable reading for parts of Norfolk, Suffolk and elsewhere. Already, the River Blyth, near Southwold, is being abandoned.

Read the full story by Clive Aslet in the Telegraph