Far be it for me to tell the Chancellor of the Exchequer how to solve the current economic crisis, but the sunshine has got to help.

Oxford has been empty save for the odd, wet, depressed looking foreign exchange student wondering why they bothered ever coming to such a cold, wet country in the first place. And then the sun comes out and the city centre is suddenly crammed and full of pretty girls in short skirts and bare legs, while everyone rushes into the shops to spend money.

Sunshine means TV viewing figures go down (who needs Simon Cowell when you can be outside?) and consumer spending rates go up.

Who needs a new barbecue or pair of shorts when it’s pouring and Britain’s Got Talent is on instead?

Who needs cold white wine, garden furniture and a whole new summer wardrobe when you can’t even see your own car on the drive, because it’s raining so hard?

Who wants to paint the outside of their house or purchase a canoe or designer sunglasses when you still have the heating on in May?

Who wants to eat out, or even go out at all, when it means getting drenched from head to foot before you even arrive?

Phew...

The saying ‘save it for a rainy day’ was obviously invented by someone who spent too much time in the sun and hadn’t spent an entire winter, spring and the beginning of summer trying to remember what their garden looks like. And what exactly do they intend to spend it on anyway? A personal lifeboat?

Welly boots and umbrella sales will plummet, but their makers must already have made enough to buy their own Caribbean island this year already, so no sympathy there.

The only problem is, that having forgotten what the sun is, we are now expected to get out there and bare all. Forget venturing out slowly, tanning gradually and emerging brown and toned once summer arrives.

No, desperate in our rush to make the most of every second of the heat, we all strip off and run outside squinting, only to be faced with an entire nation of people who look like they’ve been under a rock for the past six months.

And that’s the thing about sunshine. You can’t hide from it. Justifying another round of hot buttered toast, or a Sunday roast or a fry-up is easy when it’s miserable outside, and anyway, no-one will be able to tell with that big woolly jumper on. But now? There’s no place to hide.

And yet we have to start somewhere. So go out there and be proud, get your arms and legs out, eat lunch in the park, walk instead of driving, barbecue your food and enjoy the great outdoors while it lasts. If you’ve got it flaunt it and if you haven’t... flaunt it anyway, in true British style.

Enjoy it while it lasts. We’re obsessed with the weather for a reason...