On the positive side, everyone is busy ‘making hay while the sun shines’. However let us hope that the rain will come soon and not wait until it is time for harvest, as so often so happens.
The cattle are content although the grass is slowing down due to the lack of rain. The stock graze fairly extensively, allowing the fields to rest between grazing. So hopefully there will be enough grass to keep them going throughout the summer.
Austin Mitchell was the kind of old fashioned sensible, grass roots type of Labour MP whom my father respected and had a huge amount of time for. In his later years as an MP Mr Mitchell recognised the gradual change as Labour transformed from a party representing hard working communities with traditional values, who were deeply patriotic, wanting jobs, a fare wage, a good education, a well-run NHS, and decent affordable housing, into what it has become today.
None of these aspirations were very different from what their conservative colleagues across the floor of the House of Commons also aspired to deliver. The main difference was how these goals were to be achieved.
Austin Mitchell in a well drafted and revealing article in the Daily Mail, has put his finger firmly on the button, when describing those who today are spreading their destructive influence deep into the heart of Government across party lines, and dominating the attempt to overturn the result of the Referendum.
Mr Mitchell labels them as the liberal intellectual elite, who do not like Britain. They see themselves as cosmopolitan rather than nationalists. Quoting George Orwell who once remarked, ‘England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their nationality’. This clearly remains true today as they mistakenly still see Europe as the future.
What they fail to realise is that the money handed out by the EU is our own money coming back but with heavy costs deducted. Today the EU Commission, struggling to keep its rickety show on the road and facing unmanageable difficulties in Eastern Europe and Italy, are hell bent on punishing Britain. It seems this is top of their agenda, rather than ensuring a smooth transition which will benefit EU countries, which need us far more than we need them.
Austin Mitchell was elected Labour MP for Grimsby in 1977, where the fishing industry had been ruined when the Europeans declared the seas around Britain ‘common waters’, and gave other members, including landlocked Luxembourg, equal access.
He formed a Save Britain’s Fish campaign, which attracted support from across the country. Equally it goes without saying that interference from Brussels has done huge damage to British agriculture having cut us off from our traditional markets.
He said, “There is nothing the EU can do for us that we can’t do better for ourselves. Europe is too big, unstructured, divided and powerless. It is not a democracy but a plutocracy, always pursuing an ever-closer union the people don’t want”.
“Their original purpose was to protect French agriculture and boost German Industry by imposing policies without democratic consent and ever prepared to overrule the people for their own good”. Nothing has changed.
The EU drained Britain of jobs, money, demand and growth. It has been a brake on our economy, not an accelerator. Now it is time the so called ‘intellectuals’ recognised the simple truth.
As US Ambassador Woody Johnson, said last week ‘stop being defeatist about Brexit, be inspired by the huge opportunities’, surely it is time to support the PM and speak with a united positive voice.