We had another anti-austerity march to cheer our weekend. Estimates of the numbers involved varied from 250,000 – the marcher’s estimate, to 25,000 – the analyst’s estimate.  Pollsters refused to give a figure for some reason! As usual, the genuine public sector workers were let down by the rabble that attach themselves to every one of these gatherings. And they really should change their mouthpieces to retain credibility. Russell Brand was spouting his normal rubbish, prompts scribbled on his hand to avoid overloading his brain. Then we were treated to a Welsh ‘gobalong’ from Charlotte Church, but thankfully she didn’t sing. Finally, we had that man of peace, Martin McGuinness, to moderate any extreme views.  I bet none of them offer open house to the homeless or dip deep into their seriously well-filled pockets!  While disagreeing with his views, it took ‘would be’ Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn to offer balanced views at the march.  Interestingly, none of the protagonists will be around when the UK finally has to go head to head with its debt. Our grandchildren will have to face that!

    Ascot came to an end on Saturday and the changes to etiquette rules regarding knee length dresses and hat sizes were there for all to see.  One rule didn’t become apparent until the champers flowed at post race parties in the car park.  The most recent dress code that Ascot produced stipulated that knickers must be worn, and as beautifully dressed and coiffured ladies succumbed to one glass too many, it became apparent that they had accepted the ruling. The only exception was a Scots gentleman who raised his kilt to join in a foot race organized by the chalets.  Shouts of “get a bigger sporran” were lost on him.

    Some news was greeted with disbelief as we put the world to rights over lunch and cabernet sauvignon at The Yew Tree. (We’re rapidly turning into champagne (almost) cynics).  High court judge, Mr Justice Collins, has ruled that an electronic tag should be removed from a Somali terror suspect because the man feared it contained a bomb. This despite evidence that the gentleman in question had provided support to militant group al-Shabab for many years. His delusional thoughts had grown worse so the tag breached his human rights, stated the judge.  So much for our human rights, as the judge frees an unexploded bomb to walk our streets with no means of monitoring his whereabouts.             

    One of the lads raised the problem of litter in the roads round the villages and the discussion moved on to the way companies in the USA sponsor roads to keep them tidy.  It led to some interesting ideas.

      SSL International, owner of the Durex brand – all the streets in Soho

      The BBC – the left side of streets surrounding Broadcasting House

      Paul Sykes Group Ltd, UKIP donator – the right side of the BBC streets

      The Labour Party – un-adopted streets and dead ends

      The Conservative Party – short cuts and rat runs

      The Chilcot Enquiry Team – roads that meander to nowhere.  RIP Chilcot.

      Ann Summers – roads near to schools, jammed by frustrated mothers’ 4WD’s.

You can probably think of many more and we’d be interested to see your ideas in the comment section.

    Vegan Peta Watson-Smith, the latest member of the RSPCA’s ruling council sounds like a real find.  She likened farming to the Holocaust no less because of the way she perceives the treatment of animals on farms. We await the increase in prosecutions against farmers.  Whilst accepting there will be bad farmers, most of them treat animals extremely well in our experience, and we live among them.  Having viewed the PDSA as a worthy charity in the past, the lady has guaranteed we won’t support it in the future.

    Roger Mosey, ex-head of TV news at the BBC has accused his ex-employer of bias in the way it reports views on immigration.  BBC biased, surely not!!! His comments seem to be based on two events. One, he no longer works for them, two, he has a book to sell.  These Road to Damascus conversions so often follow a similar pattern.