Grey Squirrels & rabbits

This time last year I was over run with grey squirrels. Not just me either there was, for some reason, anyway in the South West of England, an explosion in the population of the grey squirrel with consummate appalling damage to young broadleaved trees.

What a contrast this year - a virtual dearth of grey squirrels.  So what has happened?  How can a species boom one year and bust the next - or was last years boom effectively the reason for this years bust? I long to know the answer. Oddly with the waning of the grey squirrel I have noticed a waxing of the rabbit population> I have never known so many rabbits and think back to my childhood when seeing a rabbit was quite an event - 99.99% of rabbits having been killed by myxomatosis.  an old friend worked in the then Ministry of Agriculture and told me that the boffins aim was to completely exterminate the rabbit in the UK. One day the phone rang in his bosse's office. Someone had seen a healthy rabbit in an orchard in Kent - down they all went - with dogs and guns determined to kill this lone survivor - after an exhausting day they ended up killing five rabbits and missing one or two as well.  They got back into their cars and drove back knowing that the rabbit would make a comeback one day - and - at Fulford anyway - that day has now happened. Bunny is back with a vengeance.   

Gay marriage - Equality - and Inheritance Tax Avoidance

Charles Moore wrote a brilliant article on Gay marriage in the May 11th edition of the Daily Telegraph.  In it he pointed out that the Act allowing Gay Marriage does not make failure of consummation a reason for annulment as, trying to define what exactly was 'consummation' in a gay relationship defied the finest Parliamentarian draftsmen. Similarly it was decided that 'adultery' in whatever form would not, in the context of a gay marriage, be grounds for divorce. In other words sex and the sexual act has no meaning within gay marriage. So far so good. But now for a small problem - the Equality Act.

The Equality Act causes several problems for Gay marriage but the principal one is that you simply cannot have one form of marriage for gays and one for heterosexuals. So if non consummation of marriage is no longer grounds for annulment and if adultery is no longer grounds for divorce effectively sex is no longer part of marriage not just for gays but for everyone.  It follows that if sex is not part of marriage the various acts which forbid marriage to close relations etc. are clearly outmoded. In other words there can be nothing - theoretically - against a father 'marrying' his son or daughter or a mother doing so.  Now as 100% Inheritance Relief is given to wealth left to a surviving spouse the conclusion is obvious. The easy way to avoid IHT is to divorce your husband or wife and marry your heir.

Now 'Our Dave' has recieved a terrific pasticng for his cackhanded attempt to bring in gay marrriage but are we doing him a diservice?  Is he perhaps instead secretly bringing in a measure which effectively abolishes IHT with the unwitting total support of  Liberal  and  Labour parties?    



  

A TRAGEDY MADE WORSE

A thirteen year old boy was tragically run over and killed when crossing a B road from his school to the playing fields.  So far so ghastly but to add to the tragedy the school in their stupidity posted details of the boys death on their web site before the father had been informed, yet another classic instance of the dangers of 'instant' communication compounded -in this case - by idiotic and crass 'friends'  who - reading the website -began to send him texts and e mails of condolence before he had been told. What sort of low life people were these who thought texts and emails of condolence were appropriate in the circumstances anyway - couldn't they wait and write a suitable letter? 

Now I only know the details of this case as reported in the newspapers but what sickened me was that parents - who up till now had my total sympathy- had instructed lawyers and were now suing the school and wanting damages. Damages = cash so it seems we are back to the pre Conquest days of Anglo Saxon England and Weir Geld or Blood Money. The school has apparently accepted full responsibility but I wonder if it should have - surely the boy who died was really responsible for his death by failing to obey the most basic highway code of looking right, looking left and looking right again - before crossing.   As far as I remember this basic safety code is drummed into all children at a very early age.

Now though in this modern compensation culture world there is no such thing as an accident and seemingly no such thing as a tragedy in which the victim was to a great measure responsible - not anyway when scum bag lawyers gets going. The result of cases such as this of course is yet more 'Health & Safety ' yet more 'Risk Aversion' yet more cotton wool wrapped round children and adults.

Sadly -no matter what- accidents will happen and it is time the law recognised accidents as such and also recognised that individuals must accept responsibility for their actions.  

Clowns are winners

Isn't politics suddenly fun?  Oh how I have enjoyed the last few days seeing politicians of the main parties squirm as they try to explain UKIP's success.  Looking back I see it was February 2011 when I 'Came Out'  and announced to the World that I had joined UKIP - well we are on a roll now and have - what Americans politicians call- the Big Mo - momentum.   Next stop the Euro elections where the main parties can look forward to another good kicking.

Some thoughts;  Please can someone question Nick Clegg on the fairness of an electoral system which sees a party (UKIP) get nearly 25% of the votes but only 6% of the seats.  And - actually - isn't it time for Nick Clegg to offer grovelling apologies to David Cameron over his tantrum at the latters refusal to make membership of the House of Lords subject to election by a system of proportional representation?

Also did no one ever tell David Cameron and Ken Clark about the stupidity of insulting people with differing political views. So Cameron's description of those who vote UKIP as being; "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists"  is going to haunt him for some considerable time as it really ain't that smart to call some 25% of voters such names. As for Ken Clarke's fatuous remark - from -it has to be said - a politician who is surely well passed his sell by date - that UKIP voters are a bunch of 'Clowns'  that - I think - could be even more disastrous. Most people have probably forgotten that Lady Thatcher's sobriquet of the 'Iron Lady' was original an insult in the Russian media, indulging in childish name calling has a nasty habit of boomeranging back to hit the name caller slap in the face like a wet fish.