In the aftermath of the horrendous damage caused by the storms, there is overwhelming evidence that, once again, people are learning to care for each other.

I hardly dare hope it may be true.

Apart from the crucial work being done by the aid and rescue agencies, this newspaper is leading an appeal to raise money to help flood victims rebuild their lives.

Glyndebourne Opera House had a fund-raising concert. There has been an auction, sales and people have donated food, clothes and blankets.

Other volunteers have helped wherever they can. It has been, and continues to be, an inspiring example of how good we can be at helping each other in a time of extreme crisis.

My heart goes out to all the victims. I have been there. I know exactly how devastated they feel. In the 1987 storm, a 14ft-high chimney collapsed and crashed through the roof of my home, tore through two floors and ripped out the back wall of the house. My wife and my son missed death by, literally, inches. I look on their survival as a miracle.

But what a sea-change in public attitudes between then and now. The Eighties were the years when Margaret Thatcher unlocked Pandora's box.

She unleashed a plethora of nasty, spivvish, greedy behaviour under the guise of urging more self-reliance, taking more responsibility for our own futures, lessening dependence on the state and all the rest of it.

Her great moment came after the 1987 storm when we were all numbed by the devastation.

With looters still running off with television sets and bicycles from smashed shop-windows, and ransacking private homes, Thatcher told us to sort it out ourselves with the help of insurance companies.

The worst storms in living memory were not, in her warm-hearted, compassionate mind, the stuff of a national emergency.

Sickeningly, there has been looting again this time, though nothing on the scale of events I recall 13 years ago. But while we, as communities, may be recovering from the worst excesses of the "greed is good" Thatcher regime, and restoring a more humane and caring state of mind, there is little indication that our present leaders will be more generous.

The performance of that buffoon John Prescott, in the House of Commons this week was a disgrace.

The saga of his death-defying battle with the English language continued as he blustered on about "global warning" and the "extreme weather event" we were coping with.

His government professes to be a caring people's government - but which people?

We need millions of pounds to help recovery. A pig-headed Tony Blair has refused the chance to make £200 million by tearing down the Millennium Dome and selling the site for industrial development.

An equally pig-headed Clare Short has approved aid of £52 million for a corrupt Malawi government in Africa which has responded by buying 39 new Mercedes Benzes for its ministers.

Hey, Mr Blair - what about Sussex?