Retsdon

From the fox's perspective, it probably doesn't make a lot of difference at all. When a wild fox gets too old or sick to feed itself nobody is going to gather it up in a blanket and take it to the vet for a humane injection. Unless it's lucky enough to get killed on the road or shot it's going to die a slow and lingering death from disease of starvation anyway. That's just how it works. No happy endings... Given that reality, if people were honest they'd acknowledge that the issues around hunting are in truth less issues about animal welfare than they are issues about the policing of morality. But it's an emotive topic and there's a lot of smoke blown on both sides...

Why is it always about me? First there's Rewulf with his snide personal comments about my current location and now it's my state of mind. But if it's not about me, it'll about Corbyn, or Starmer, or the Mayor of Worksop. What it will never, ever be about is this criminally incompetent and dishonest government. Anyway, as it seems to be the fashion to make things personal - here's a parting one for you. "A people that elect corrupt politicians are not victims but accomplices” - George Orwell Perhaps that explains it.

At least I'm allowed out of my house! 😂 - because for all its faults the Saudi government has largely got on top of Covid. When I came to the UK in June both countries had roughly the same number of cases. And yet today Saudi registered 104 new ones and 9 deaths whereas after Boris's world-beating efforts - how many was it today? Oh look! Another record broken...a mere 60,916 new infections and 830 dead.... Face it, Boris and his government are worse than useless. Even a monarchic feudal police state like Saudi Arabia is running rings around Britain these days. Don't you find that a bit humiliating? Because I do, even if you don't.

If you got them before the US market opened it was a very well-timed purchase!

Sorry, I didn't mean to stir up a row, but I really, genuinely, fear that this government is doing terrible damage to the British political system. It's not the policies (although I'm not too keen on them) it's the serial and brazen dishonesty and unaccountability, which is on a scale far surpassing even Blair's government (who probably started the rot). As for Starmer and Corbyn, well, they're not in government, but if they were I'd have exactly the same viewpoint if they and their ministers cynically lied to the extent that this government does. And that's the thing. If this serial dishonesty in political life is going to be crimped it will need ordinary people to call out their OWN side as well. When you give Johnson and Gove a free pass when they lie it's no different to an Argentinian supporter praising the 'hand of God'. But I don't know, maybe that's how people just are in Britain now. It's a dangerous road to go down though. Without a common, across the board standard of acceptable morality and behaviour we're straight into jungle law. And it's not such a big step. As for Clarkson, he's funny. But he's slick too. Take this - According to the internet, if you have anything at all, you should definitely get into your car and drive to Swindon, or Redcar, where recently trained civilians in white coats will tell you after a day, or two, or three, whether you must stay at home — or you should simply stay at home. Instead, because I know everything on the internet and social media is always wrong, I used an actual doctor and an actual laboratory, ... Fine, but perhaps more accurate would have been , 'because I'm rich and can afford it, I didn't have to drive around looking for some badly run test centre in the the middle of nowhere and then queue for ages like other poor s*ds have to do. Instead I could pay to see a real doctor straight away and get an instant fast-track test done'. But of course, the bare facts lack the humorous edge for which he gets paid very well. I've got about 3 of Clarkson's books on my bookshelf and I really enjoy his writing. But 'truth' isn't really what he's about.... Hmm...

Interesting map. Outside of some urban areas and the odd hotspot, in most of the country you'd have to think there'd be more heart attacks that Covid deaths.

That's because he deserves to be bashed. IMHO the biggest threat to Britain isn't Brexit; it isn't Covid; it isn't immigration - it's the breakdown of trust between government and governed. That trust is what underpins a western democracy. It's not possible to have government by consent without it. Undermine it enough, and history shows that eventually there'll either be a breakdown of the institutions and functioning of the state, or else the state will morph into a police state (if people don't consent then they'll have to be forced). And there can't be trust when the government can't be trusted to tell the truth. Everyone accepts that all governments are occasionally 'economical with the truth' but this government lies brazenly and openly as a matter of policy, so much so that it's got to the point that large swathes of the population don't believe a word they says on any topic at all. It wasn't always like that. At one time it wouldn't have been possible for newspapers to openly call the serving Prime Minister a bald-faced liar without grave risk of being sued out of court. Now anyone can do it without a care because everyone knows it's absolutely true. This culture of dishonesty is very dangerous and corrosive to society. Just look at the Covid thing. Even when Hancock tells the truth, millions of people are so gun-shy of the constant fibs that they instead go hunting for information on the net, often from dubious sources. Then the algos do the rest and if's off the wacky races. Half the population believes a totally different set of 'facts' to the other half. How can society operate harmoniously like that? it's just not possible. And the root of the problem is this culture of dishonesty and shamelessness. Lie, take a bribe, give contracts to your mates and connections...so what? At one time ministers would have been forced to resign, either by public opinion or by the leader of the government. Not any more. The whole government from the Prime Minister down think like crims. 'Wot you gonna do about it?' is their response to anything they're caught out at. And of course they're right. If you have a system that relies on an honour code to work it will break down when the people running it are devoid of honour themselves. This isn't a left or right thing. It's about basic integrity and the necessity of integrity to maintain the very fabric of government and the machinery that society relies on to work. Because without it, the country is in danger of going right down the rabbit hole. And that's why Boris deserves to be bashed.

😅🤣😂

I nearly lost a very valuable border collie once on account of a thunder storm (the dog I used to use as my avatar). The thunder scared him so much that he tore his chain out of the wooden wall of his kennel and just took off. As he was outside, I didn't know he'd gone until I went out of the house after the storm. Eventually, about 5 hours later, as I was driving around a large suburban village/ development about two miles from the farm in the landrover, whistling out of the window, a woman came out of her house and told me their neighbour had a strange dog trailing a chain in his back garden that was too shy to let anyone near him. And I got him back. But it was a very, very, worrying few hours. And that dog was trained well enough. I had run him in the Scottish national championship.

Or dead.

Happy New Year to you too . ✌️

I'll second that.

Since 2016 the Brexit arguments have all been philosophical and abstract. Tonight at 11:30 the country enters the realm of empirical Brexit science. Let's see how the abstract theories hold out.

Well, the Prime Minister did once famously say, "**** business!' Perhaps for once he's being true to his word. 😄 But the money that paid this chap's tax contributions and his workers incomes will now need to come from somewhere else. Rishi's magic money tree perhaps?

No, they haven't. They have had no idea what to plan for. Until a week ago nobody even knew there was a trade deal forthcoming, let alone what it looked like. How can any business plan or budget for that?