Friday 7 April 2023

Signs of Spring


I found this Morel mushroom in Rainbow Woods above Bath yesterday. That is not strictly true - someone else found it and left it on a path for me to re-discover. I wish I knew where they picked it. Morels are wonderful and rare.

Reading Rachel's latest post has encouraged me to write this one. I too have slowed down in the blogging world. If I write a non-contentious post I find it boring, and if I write a contentious one I find it boring too. Having implied that you can't win, I am going to tell you what has been going through my mind for the last few months. Warning: this may contain references to Brexit and associated issues.

I have been wondering if anyone still truly believes that running away from Europe was a good idea. The repercussions which were predicted and the many that were not are beginning to manifest in a truly depressing way. Our latest desperate and incompetent government have signed a trans pacific agreement which will see trade tariffs on goods imported from all the participating countries reduced and eventually phased-out completely over the next ten years. This will hurt British farmers more than anything else has since WW2. 

Can you imagine being forced to buy Mexican dried egg used in all manner of baked goods when we have chicken farmers here who are going out of business already? 

In 2016, Boris Johnson reassured us that we would continue to be able to work and travel freely in Europe and the 'bumps in the road' described by Michael Gove would be no more than a mild inconvenience which would become easier in time.

Suella Braverman said that the queues of coaches waiting 40 hours at Dover whilst they tried to get into France had nothing to do with Brexit. The next day, Rishi Sunak was obliged to correct her, implying that it it was all the French authorities fault when they insisted on inspecting all the blue passports, punishing us again for leaving Europe.

It was Britain who insisted that all passports from non-E.U. countries should be inspected and stamped at the borders. The French are just under-staffed and doing their job, even if they do have a wry smile on their faces when going about it.

These are just two issues. Time will reveal hundreds of others.

As far as I can tell, only King Charles is doing anything to try to mitigate the damage.

19 comments:

  1. Have you not noticed there is also an attack on King Charles and his wealth. Whether you agree or not, is not the point. The insidious nature of destroying someone is again in play. I wish someone in authority would just apologise for taking us into Brexit.

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    1. Yes, I have noticed that. They have brought historical slave trading by the monarchy into the spotlight, and - like historical anti-Semitism - you are not allowed to dodge any bullets fired your way. In general it is the left who are attacking the monarchy, but I do not trust any of them. They will never apologise for the Brexit fiasco. Nobody will.

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  2. I truly wish that we had never had the Referendum and that the 2005 leadership contest had not been won by Cameron, or Davis, but that Ken Clarke had become Prime Minister, then we wouldn't have had this mess at all. However, I am obtuse enough not to kow tow to EU games that they play and give up because of them. As for British agriculture, and world agriculture, and rising food prices, the biggest problem is the rising cost of fertiliser which has nothing to do with Brexit. Russia began to control exports before the Ukraine war in order to protect its own farmers and prices began to rise and it has been non stop rising ever since with energy costs thrown into the mix and sanctions against Russia. It is what puts up food prices and production.

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    1. production more likely to be going down, that is.

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    2. The rising cost of fertiliser and food in general has little to do with Brexit, but the signing-up to the Trans Pacific trade pact has everything to do with it, as I am sure you understand. The measures being taken to mitigate the global problems have been seriously compromised by decisions taken over 30 years ago, not least the selling-off of national assets in the privatisation policies which led to France owning most of Britain's power generation plants. France's energy costs have increased by 4 percent, ours by over 100. Water companies were also sold off. My water company is owned by Malaysia, and British rivers are full of sewage because money that should have been spent on modernising the infrastructure has been spent on pension funds and shareholder dividends. It fucking stinks.

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  3. Don't blame me - I voted remain. Happy Spring to you, Don't stop posting will you - I love what you write - and I did get in first with the Shropshire Lad this year. If you want cheering up you could do worse than get out the Houseman and read again Loveliest of trees the cherry now. x

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    1. Happy Spring to you too Weave.

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    2. The comment I left on your post for getting in first with the Shropshire Lad that got spammed was that you haven't got in first with 'mists and mellow fruitfulness' yet!

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  4. Debt crisis among EU members and financial mismanagement are the crux of EU problems. I understand the EU intent was to unite Europe and this has merit but the financials are the downfall. Did you hear, Finland has joined NATO?

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    1. Yes, Finland joining NATO ha just added an extra 800 miles to the Russian border. The Euro's main function was to keep a cap on the mighty U.S. dollar. Those days are long gone.

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  5. That mushroom is a fascinating shape. I wonder why it grows like that?

    I feel despair at politics...and politicians in denial and conspiracy theories...

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  6. Can't you make something of the times? Farmers Markets, eggs from local chickens? We support farmers markets here.

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    1. Yes, there are a few farmer's markets but they can't supply everyone like supermarkets do. I sometimes bought eggs from a farmer, but they have stopped keeping chickens because they were losing money.

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  7. First: Yes, King Charles III made such a very good impression on his visit to Germany - and won many hearts!
    Second: I love your blog, first thing I look at when I come back from Berlin - and maybe we all might try to eliminate winter-blues' spider webs and take a deep breath and start all over again with élan!
    I love your humour and wit, Tom - so please go on!!!

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    1. He had to meet the Macron in a palace. Too dangerous to wander around the streets of Paris amongst piles of burning rubbish. He wanted to go around shaking hands! I don't intend to give up blogging, but I did give up complaining for a few months until now.

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  8. Wow - that is a great find. They are much prized mushrroms

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    1. I have only ever found about 3 in my years foraging for mushrooms.

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  9. Sometimes, life just becomes unbloggable. It's okay to take a break. We know you'll be back when you've got something to say. As opposed to, say me, who blogs when I've got absolutely nothing to say.

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