Another rider falls victim to the "substandard" British summer

The British Summer has been declared "substandard and inherently faulty" by the manufacturers. The Weather has issued a recall notice for Summer 2008, citing "manufacturing defects" that have resulted in inadequate sunlight and a severe excess of rainfall.

"We have to put our hands up and say it's been pretty shoddy," said a spokesman for The Weather. "Obviously we've had supply issues with certain key raw materials like sunshine and warmth, but yes, we could certainly have looked at how we allocated what we had."

According to Weather officials, they're not obliged to issue any kind of refund. "Basically, Summer's broken, but we can't do much about it at this late stage," commented the same spokesman on condition of anonymity. "So we're planning to pull it and roll Autumn on to the market earlier than usual to fill the gap. We expect that most customers won't even notice the changeover. Our 2009 model year Summer will be fantastic, though, honest."