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.   

Lady Thatcher

A few weeks ago - just after the Budget -I came across this quote

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be re-filled , public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance."


The author was one Cicero, a famous orator and politician of the time of Julius Caesar. Like Margaret Thatcher he fell from power - but - it has to be said -the penalty for political failure then was rather greater than it is now as he suffered execution with his body parts being prominently displayed in the Forum.

At the time it struck me as exactly the sort of speech Lady Thatcher could have made and just the sort of speech that none of the political pygmies currently running the government could ever make - simply because they are too frightened of being hated ever to be loved. It was Lady Thatcher's great strength that she didn't care who hated her as long as she believed she was acting in the best interest of the people of this country- which she always was.  

Looking Cicero up on the Encyclopedia Britannica  web site I came across this:

...as a 'new man' a man without noble ancestry, he was never accepted by the dominant circle of Optimates  (Conservative Senatorial aristocracy) , and he attributed his own political misfortunes after 63BC partly to the jealousy, partly to the spineless unconcern of the complacent Optimates

How history repeats itself though no one, surely, would go so far as to to ascribe 'noble ancestry' to that mountebank Heseltine    
  

church attendance this Easter

Memo to the Archbishop of Canterbury - next time Easter Sunday and putting the clocks forward looks like coinciding get the date for putting the clocks forward changed. Getting teenage children out of bed and into church by 10 o'clock is a bugger at any time - but when the 'real' time is only 9 o'clock it is a real challenge!

Eastleigh By election

I suspect the main effect of the Eastleigh by election result will be a sudden, and very welcome,silence from the Liberal Democrats on the 'unfairness' of the 'First Past the Post' election format.  It is all very well bleating about how 'unfair' and 'undemocratic' the First Past the Post system is when you would be the major beneficiary of  some form of Proportional Representation but hey - now - oh dear - those beastly UKIP people would get representation in Parliament - actually rather a lot representation too if the Polls are to be believed - rather more than us 'right on' Liberal democrats in fact - and that would never do would it?

 I mean you really can't let people like UKIP into Parliament - because they actually believe in something - something really horrible too -like putting their country first - like controlling immigration -like getting a grip of Human Rights abuse - like giving the people a referendum on Europe - like thinking - horror of horrors - that looking after our armed forces is a little bit more important than dishing out Overseas Aid to all and sundry.  I mean what they believe in is really disgusting - isn't it?

Because you see the Liberals - like all the current political establishment - are not really 'Democrats' at all.  If - by the word - Democrat - you mean governing according to the wishes of the people. It is -in fact - a very long time since politicians of any party bothered to actually take into account what people actually wanted.  No - today's politician - is like an old fashioned Nanny - Nanny knows best - so no matter how much you shout and scream there is nothing you can do about it because if you get rid of Nanny Cameron - you will get Nanny Milliband - whose medicine will be much the same but slightly nastier.  Except now there is a new kid on the block - UKIP - which actually stands for something - and oddly -an increasing number of people like what they hear.