Things were looking up, we thought we were at last about to have a dry autumn - an Indian summer - allowing us to get winter crops sown in ideal conditions. Well, it lasted the best part of a week during which we worked all hours God gave us to get the winter barley drilled. But did it last? Hell no, the rain came fast and furiously, flooding some parts of the country yet again and bringing autumn cultivations to a standstill.
The ground is already becoming waterlogged, and as the temperature drops, it will take days to dry out if it ever does stop raining which looks unlikely over the next few weeks. Last year when the rain started in September, it didn’t stop until May.
The decision to cut back on our arable acreage does make perfect sense. Having struggled to beat the weather for the past three years and lost that battle, this last year in particular, it was time to make changes.
Converting arable fields to herbal leys for the cattle, and wild bird seed mix for the birds; paying special attention to the re-establishment of Turtledoves, Curlews and other species which have become rare in our part of the country, is now our objective. These changes seem far more appealing than watching one’s arable crops rot in the ground whilst under water all winter and wishing we had planted rice.
Having been particularly inspired by a presentation on Operation Turtledoves given by Shivan Thevar at a CLM Middle Ouse Cluster Group gathering recently, I am even more determined and excited to press ahead along these lines.
So, Michael Gove the Conservative party’s very own Rasputin is to become editor of The Spectator Magazine, the longest-lived current affairs magazine in history, and the first magazine ever to publish 10,000 issues. Several of Gove’s colleagues, Boris in particular, to this day carry scars on their back because of his treachery.
Boris when editor, (1999-205) increased the Spectators’ subscription to a record breaking 70,000 per year and was described as “A colourful editor”.
Matthew d’Ancona ended the traditional summary of the week’s events, “Portrait of the Week”, not a popular move; one which hopefully Michael Gove will reverse, along with recruiting a columnist with special interest in ‘Countryside Matters’.
Fraser Nelson The Spectator’s current editor, in place for the past 15 years, who replaced d’Ancona in 2009, will continue to write as an associate editor, at the request of Michael Gove. And former editor Charles Moore (1984-1990) will become non-executive chairman after the departure of Andrew Neil.
What is wrong with this labour government? Well, silly question as we could all write a book about that. But what I want to know is why Keir Starmer was unable to function when sitting by the ever-watchful portrait of Margaret Thatcher. Was it because she made him feel inadequate and out of his depth?
And what about Rachel Reeves who has ordered the removal of all pictures of men from the state room at 11 Downing Street. She recently announced that every painting in the room would be replaced by artwork by or of a woman. This plan has quite understandably been dismissed as ‘pathetic gesture politics’, which no doubt plenty would agree with.
The serialisation in the Daily Mail and Sunday Mail of Boris’s political memoir ‘Unleashed’ is revealing and confirms what many of us knew to be fact as opposed to the fiction put out and about by his enemies as they did their best, and indeed succeeded to remove him from No 10 Downing Street. Had they not been successful I am quite sure we would not be facing a possible ten years of this left-wing Labour government, hell bent upon bankrupting and destroying the very fabric of our great country.
Finally, as we wait to hear if the Chancellor intends to scrap inheritance tax relief for agricultural land, it is worth noting that if she does, this could well lead to the death of family farms. Ending the exemptions on inheritance tax for farmland is supposedly among the money-saving measures that Ms Reeves is considering in her upcoming Budget. Such a move would force many landowners to sell some or all their farmland to cover the taxes.
This move would result in less and less valuable agricultural land able to support food production. Removing the tax exemption is also expected to hit tenant farmers particularly hard, as landowners have little incentive to keep their property in agricultural use.
As the CLA president, Victoria Vyvyan said: “The Government has said it won’t increase taxes on working people. Farmers are working hard around the clock feeding the nation and looking after the environment, and uncertainty over tax is one of the most pressing challenges facing the rural sector”.
The ground is already becoming waterlogged, and as the temperature drops, it will take days to dry out if it ever does stop raining which looks unlikely over the next few weeks. Last year when the rain started in September, it didn’t stop until May.
The decision to cut back on our arable acreage does make perfect sense. Having struggled to beat the weather for the past three years and lost that battle, this last year in particular, it was time to make changes.
Converting arable fields to herbal leys for the cattle, and wild bird seed mix for the birds; paying special attention to the re-establishment of Turtledoves, Curlews and other species which have become rare in our part of the country, is now our objective. These changes seem far more appealing than watching one’s arable crops rot in the ground whilst under water all winter and wishing we had planted rice.
Having been particularly inspired by a presentation on Operation Turtledoves given by Shivan Thevar at a CLM Middle Ouse Cluster Group gathering recently, I am even more determined and excited to press ahead along these lines.
So, Michael Gove the Conservative party’s very own Rasputin is to become editor of The Spectator Magazine, the longest-lived current affairs magazine in history, and the first magazine ever to publish 10,000 issues. Several of Gove’s colleagues, Boris in particular, to this day carry scars on their back because of his treachery.
Boris when editor, (1999-205) increased the Spectators’ subscription to a record breaking 70,000 per year and was described as “A colourful editor”.
Matthew d’Ancona ended the traditional summary of the week’s events, “Portrait of the Week”, not a popular move; one which hopefully Michael Gove will reverse, along with recruiting a columnist with special interest in ‘Countryside Matters’.
Fraser Nelson The Spectator’s current editor, in place for the past 15 years, who replaced d’Ancona in 2009, will continue to write as an associate editor, at the request of Michael Gove. And former editor Charles Moore (1984-1990) will become non-executive chairman after the departure of Andrew Neil.
What is wrong with this labour government? Well, silly question as we could all write a book about that. But what I want to know is why Keir Starmer was unable to function when sitting by the ever-watchful portrait of Margaret Thatcher. Was it because she made him feel inadequate and out of his depth?
And what about Rachel Reeves who has ordered the removal of all pictures of men from the state room at 11 Downing Street. She recently announced that every painting in the room would be replaced by artwork by or of a woman. This plan has quite understandably been dismissed as ‘pathetic gesture politics’, which no doubt plenty would agree with.
The serialisation in the Daily Mail and Sunday Mail of Boris’s political memoir ‘Unleashed’ is revealing and confirms what many of us knew to be fact as opposed to the fiction put out and about by his enemies as they did their best, and indeed succeeded to remove him from No 10 Downing Street. Had they not been successful I am quite sure we would not be facing a possible ten years of this left-wing Labour government, hell bent upon bankrupting and destroying the very fabric of our great country.
Finally, as we wait to hear if the Chancellor intends to scrap inheritance tax relief for agricultural land, it is worth noting that if she does, this could well lead to the death of family farms. Ending the exemptions on inheritance tax for farmland is supposedly among the money-saving measures that Ms Reeves is considering in her upcoming Budget. Such a move would force many landowners to sell some or all their farmland to cover the taxes.
This move would result in less and less valuable agricultural land able to support food production. Removing the tax exemption is also expected to hit tenant farmers particularly hard, as landowners have little incentive to keep their property in agricultural use.
As the CLA president, Victoria Vyvyan said: “The Government has said it won’t increase taxes on working people. Farmers are working hard around the clock feeding the nation and looking after the environment, and uncertainty over tax is one of the most pressing challenges facing the rural sector”.
RSS Feed