Our family fell in love with a particular bit of coastline in County Cork some 40 years ago and in 1991 we bought an old Coastguard Cottage with rather a nice view. It has no mains water or drainage and about 17 years ago, we suffered a drought and the well ran dry. Whilst it was still very dry, we had a new well drilled which hit water at about 200 feet but we went down a further 100 feet to ensure supply in even the driest conditions.

Last week, I received a phone call from our neighbour to say that there was a problem with the water supply. Like here, there has been precious little rain since the beginning of May. The well in the house across the road had already run dry. We were having the outside of the house painted and the preparatory power hosing was going pretty well but the neighbour was worried we would run dry too. Thankfully, it turned out that our friend had not run out of water at all but had a broken pump, another occupational hazard of life off the mains.

Our sizzling summer would normally be a hot topic in a slow news week but last week was nothing of the sort. We had the drama and fantastic successful rescue of the football team from the flooded cave in Thailand. What a wonderful story that was; to find those boys alive so deep in the cave system and then the brave decision to bring them out well executed. It was sad that one caver died in the events leading up to the rescue but that said it was a wonderful international co-operative effort.

Not so enlightening was the soap opera that is the Conservative Cabinet. Although I fundamentally disagree with David Davies in his desire to remove us fully from a free trade area that we helped to create, he is a politician of principle who felt he had had his position undermined by the Prime Minister. Our friend Boris is quite another kettle of fish. Hopefully his evident manoeuvring to engineer his own advancement has entirely backfired. I have found it hard to talk to anyone recently who feel he has any vestige of principle left. Where this debacle leaves our negotiation with Europe is quite another matter! It is just sad to me that we are playing with millions of our citizens’ livelihoods for the sake of the delusion that we can be a Sovereign State that does not share sovereignty in a modern world.

The re-emergence of Novichok in the Salisbury area was one of the more disturbing stories of the week and just when we all believed the danger had passed. Sadly the attack on the Skripals did in the end have fatal consequences, just at the time when the World Cup seemed to have created the possibility of a new understanding with Russia. Enter then Donald Trump, stage right, ready to meet Theresa (the School Headmistress) and of course his old mate Boris, not to mention his real friend Vladimir. Shame about those nasty Europeans and their terrible trade practices. Theresa ought to have had him in charge of the Brexit negotiations - I seem to have heard that line before somewhere! Tact and diplomacy are not his strong points.

Yes that does lead us finally to the World Cup. I well remember the 66 final. I was at Scout Camp in the Yorkshire Dales and it so happened we had 5 visiting German Scouts camping with us. I did not see it on the television but after all is was only very grainy black and white anyway. Nor did I see the glorious technicolour 1990 semi final as I was at a tedious meeting which went on and on. 

And finally I missed Wednesday night’s match travelling to Sussex on deserted motorways. This World Cup has been something else and it’s not just the fact that England did well.

Congratulations to France and Croatia for delivering a great final. 

The football has been good and it has on the whole been fair. VAR has been a great development which will improve the game for us all. England’s improvement has also shown that good management and leadership are really important for success. That applies to the legal sector too which is why Jackson Lees continues to thrive and make a positive difference through what we do and who we are. 

PS  We've even had a bit of rain. That certainly is good news...