Malcolm Tucker, the foul-mouthed spin doctor from the TV sitcom The Thick of It, would love him. Australia’s employment minister, Bill Shorten, behaved like a well-trained pet when he was asked on live television to comment on a statement by his prime minister, Julia Gillard. “I haven’t seen what she said,” he declared, with a valiant and partly successful attempt not to squirm, “but I support what my PM said.” Pressed further, he reiterated: “My view is what the PM’s view is. I don’t know what that is, but I’m sure she’s right.”

British politicians must surely learn from this. Independent thinking is overvalued. The democratic process has no room for mavericks, individuals, dissidents or any sort of conscience.

The prime minister had commented on claims of sexual harassment by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Peter Slipper. She might have called for his exoneration or his ritual disembowelling. Shorten, in automaton mode, didn’t know and didn’t care. Thank goodness he avoided those words that would have condemned him utterly as unfit to govern: “Sorry, nothing to say.”

No sooner had 20 million people in southern and eastern England been banned from using hosepipes than the heavens opened, and now parts of the country have been told to prepare for flooding.

April has seen day after day of wet and chilly weather, and heavy rain on Wednesday morning led the Environment Agency to issue eight flood warnings and 22 flood alerts across southern England.

Paul Mott, forecaster at MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said the weather was set to remain wet: “It’s going to stay unsettled over the next seven days with frequent showers and persistent rain.

“Sunday looks to be a washout with up to an inch of rain falling across England and Wales.”

Nick Prebble at MeteoGroup said: “Throughout April we have seen 175% more rain than would be normal, totalling 94.3mm (3.7in).”

However, the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, said the rain would not avert the drought and water companies were right to impose a hosepipe ban.

She told MPs the government was well prepared for this summer’s drought as they had “seen it coming”.

The Environment Agency has previously warned that the drought gripping swaths of England could increase the risk of flash flooding as rain is less easily absorbed by dry, compacted soils, instead running off and causing localised floods.

And while the rain may be welcome for gardeners and farmers, the downpours are not enough to alleviate the drought that stems from two unusually dry winters in a row.

Richard Aylard, from Thames Water, one of seven companies which have brought in hosepipe bans in response to the drought, said a couple of wet weeks was not enough to reverse record dry conditions seen in the region in the past two years.

By the end of Thursday 94.3mm of rain had already fallen this month, which is 175% of April’s England and Wales average of 65mm. This is particularly notable given the paucity of rain in the Aprils of 2011 and 2010: 11.6mm and 30.1mm respectively.

It has been a chilly month as well, and the Central England Temperature (CET) was standing at an average of 7.0C up to 25 April, which is 1.3 degrees below average and a full five degrees lower than April 2011.

The rain and cold have also been accompanied by very blustery conditions, and on Wednesday night high winds tore through the town of Rugby, blowing the roof from one home and damaging others in what residents described as a “mini tornado”. Warwickshire police said a number of properties suffered structural damage.