What made you UNHAPPY today!

[march]

Well this really sucks and just shows how this government is really treating British farmers. Our silage suppliers are packing in their family run beef farm as it no longer makes any sense to run. They farm 500 acres are each working 70-80 hours a week with no breaks and are just getting more and more restrictions put on them (all farmers are). And to top it off they have Natural England / DEFRA are in their area threatening to fine farmers if they don't build covered and enclosed concrete yards to handle the winters muck piles (never been an issue before), the farmer thinks it would cost them between £200,000 and £250,000 to achieve so completely unrealistic. If a 500 acre farm cannot make is worth while then we are truly screwed.

We are packing in farming as well as it no longer makes sense (costs and stupid rules - do you know I can no longer feed cattle in the fields, absolute madness, this is how we used to target areas that needed fertilising naturally - so no to natural fertiliser but yes to loads of expensive chemicals. And don't get me started on fence posts.

This government is killing British farming (amongst many other things), especially traditional family farms and I can't see it getting any better. Just wait until the next crisis when all the countries that export food to us decide to keep their produce for their population rather than let us have it. See who suffers then - it wont be the fat cats MP's with their massive pensions.

I will never ever vote Conservative again in my life again, the trouble is who else do you vote for, they are all clueless and lacking in any form of common sense. Feeling very depressed. I wonder if real civil unrest in the UK is that far away (Never been on a protest in my life but I will be there, especially if there are Bacon butties).

[C8RKH]

Sounds like a right mess @march. Forgive my ignorance please, hence the questions:

1. Is it really the Government that is coming up with this, or lefty, woke, vegan, civil servants and local authorities? I ask as I always thought the Conservative Party was stuffed with, and supported by, land owners. You know, the farming gentry. Fox and Hounds. Shooting brigades. Etc?

2. Why aren't Farmers better organising themselves to start to raise the public awareness about these issues? So many points would resonate with the general public if it was couched around the environment (some Farmers do an awful lot to protect their land, encourage bio-diversity etc etc), food prices and food security (i.e. if we stop growing our own what are we going to eat?)

We seem to sleep walk ourselves into disasters where a lack of common sense and over regulation works against us.

Having said that, I was totally fooked off by a local farmer yesterday who has left a layer of mud and stones over 3 inches deep on the road to our village. No signs to warn people. No attempt to clean it up. Twat!

 

[march]

3 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

1. Is it really the Government that is coming up with this, or lefty, woke, vegan, civil servants and local authorities? I ask as I always thought the Conservative Party was stuffed with, and supported by, land owners. You know, the farming gentry. Fox and Hounds. Shooting brigades. Etc?

Government and EU (we still follow EU farming regs but without the financial support EU farmers get). I have no idea what the Conservatives stand for any more.

 

10 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

2. Why aren't Farmers better organising themselves to start to raise the public awareness about these issues? So many points would resonate with the general public if it was couched around the environment (some Farmers do an awful lot to protect their land, encourage bio-diversity etc etc), food prices and food security (i.e. if we stop growing our own what are we going to eat?)

Because we are all too busy being ground into the mud by everyone else . I don't really know to be honest, possibly because they don't think they are going to get the support from the general populous.

[march]

18 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

Having said that, I was totally fooked off by a local farmer yesterday who has left a layer of mud and stones over 3 inches deep on the road to our village. No signs to warn people. No attempt to clean it up. Twat!

Give the poor bastard a break the fields are atrocious at the moment, he's probably working all hours and getting nothing but grief from certain quarters 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Just do what many of the farmers are doing round here. Sell your farm to property developers so they can build housing estates and/or giant warehouses on it. I see you’re in Devon, so must be plenty of demand for housing, whether for cash-strapped locals or second homes / Airbnb’s for rich Londoners. Kerching.

[march]

We are in the National Park and I am not related to a local councillor (which is essential around here) and more importantly I rather like the countryside.

[C8RKH]

10 minutes ago, march said:

Give the poor bastard a break the fields are atrocious at the moment, he's probably working all hours and getting nothing but grief from certain quarters 

I would normally, but it's cost me about £20k to put right some shit building work his son and his company did for me so the good will has all run out - and here was me trying to give a local business some business etc.

The Farmer also seems to do very well out of diversification, having secured EU funding to scratch build 3 new holiday lodges for rent and to build a huge kennels operation. Maybe some farmers are just better than others at playing the gravy train? 

The rest of the Farmers around me are loaded - Range Rovers, several kids in the top private schools, several expensive holidays a year, flat in London, etc.....

 

Just winding you up there, returning the favour

I do think Farmers need to get their act together and start raising these issues so more people are aware, and to get public support. I bet most of the UK public still think Farmers are raking it in, whether that is true or not.

[Bibs]

Sounds very shitty Marc. What an industry where you're dictated to by those with no idea and no vision of what their changes are doing. 

[C8RKH]

Sounds all too common to me @Bibs and I think you've been shielded from a lot of the shit over the years as a business owner/operator. But then you surely have a lot of crap to deal with a drone pilot.

[Bibs]

Our regs change on a weekly basis, the CAA are a shit show aided and abetted by the DfT. It's taken a lot of pressure to stop them increasing our renewal costs by 50% this year, they only backed down yesterday. 

That said, in Eire under the EASA rules, renewal has gone from €250ish to €3k this year! They want the small operators out of the picture and just big firms with money involved. Registered commercial operators in Britian are now in the 3,000's rather than 10,000's 2/3 years ago.

[march]

3 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

I would normally, but it's cost me about £20k to put right some shit building work his son and his company did for me so the good will has all run out - and here was me trying to give a local business some business etc.

You hired a farmer to do building work 🤣🤣🤣.

Sorry- we tried giving local contractors work and I am still putting things right myself some years later so do feel for you. We need the Polish builders back!

[C8RKH]

Just now, march said:

You hired a farmer to do building work 🤣🤣🤣.

Worse. I hired his clueless, feckless, indulged, son!

I deserve the shit show I got for that mistake.

[Kevin Wheeler]

2 hours ago, Bibs said:

Sounds very shitty Marc. What an industry where you're dictated to by those with no idea and no vision of what their changes are doing. 

You want to try dealing with the Revenue! (You really don't, trust me!)

[Bazza 907]

7 hours ago, march said:

We need the Polish builders back!

I once met and told Jacob Rees-Mogg that the problem with Brexit was that we no longer have anybody in this country who wants to do the hard graft/dirty jobs now that the Eastern Europeans had returned home. He just looked at me wondering whether I was taking the p*** out of him or not (I was). 

[Kimbers]

Not been that bothered about NIKE changing our flag colour on our footy kit until I listened to Radio 5 live hosted by Nicky Campbell. 

Since when is it ok to be ashamed of our national flag? How is it that the Welsh and Scottish would be 100% unified if someone tried to change their flag colour and design but being English we should be ashamed of it?

Listening to the BBC they had a 50/50 mix of people outraged and those who said its Right wing/racist etc etc. But reading normal press 90% are not happy at the change. The BBC once again have allowed a very few to highjack their program.

Frankly I've gone from Hmmmmm to "Oh F Off". How can we let an American company change our flag on our NATIONAL FOOTBALL KIT? What would happen if they changed the American flag on their national kit? Grrrrrr

[Sparky]

In many countries this would be tantamount to treason.  But we're British, so we'll just tut loudly for a few days then suck it up and allow our culture and history to erode just a little more.

Next year they'll finish the job and it'll be a full-on rainbow cross.

[Chillidoggy]

With unicorn rampant.

[C8RKH]

48 minutes ago, Sparky said:

But we're English, so we'll just tut loudly for a few days then suck it up and allow our culture and history to erode just a little more.

FTFY

Big issue is that if you are proud to be English you get called a nationalist racist/fascist.

But if you're Welsh, Scottish and Irish it is viewed as different.

Really pisses me off.

[exeterjeep]

1 hour ago, Kimbers said:

Not been that bothered about NIKE changing our flag colour on our footy kit until I listened to Radio 5 live hosted by Nicky Campbell. 

All publicity for their brand. 

 

[bogle]

There's nothing wrong with your flag. Nike (or any other corporation) shouldn't be messing with any countries flag.

 

[Sparky]

Two can play at that game.

[Bibs]

I'd imagine that their remit wasn't to change the design as they see fit but to produce the kit as requested by their customer, so the FA are to blame here.

What should be really making you unhappy is a shirt probably made in a Nike sweatshop in Asia somewhere for 8p is retailing at £124.99!! 

[Sparky]

Fair point, but somebody at Nike did a risk assessment on this and decided it was OK to screw with a nation's flag.  Try that in some other parts of the world and your offices will be burnt down.  And probably far worse.

[C8RKH]

The FA have been supportive of Nike and it seems they were involved in the decisions all along. I think they now know they have screwed up.

That's Nike off my buy list.

[ChrisJ]

Reading elsewhere, the "flag" colours are these - which are a "a playful update to the cross of St George"

I find it annoying whenever I watch England (that isn't that often to be fair), that they don't play in red & white kit, but normally have blue shorts or blue in the shirt.