Lionel

I'm told they were useful when we brought up the grand kids but I've never seen the necessity for them. Like much else people were sold in a miasma of advertising hype.

Good enough Wilf. Most commercially available wines are not priced according to their quality but what the shop thinks it can get for it! In the very early 70's when I was in the London wine trade and a non drinker there was a tasting of a bottle of Chateau Latour 1944; grown and bottled under the German occupation. The label was over stamped with the swastika. My desert spoonful tasted foul. Glad to spit it out! In those days that bottle was valued at nearly a grand.

'Because I am prepared to own my views and stand up for what I believe.' Meaning what? Are you adding insult to injury dear boy?

That support you herald hasn't appeared yet. Where is it?

As a farm stockman for 25 years I know a lot about bull crap. So do you it seems.

TrudyLS, you're so right. I was in farming for 25 years. I know how disease is imported into this country. There's still a big question among sheep farmers about foot and mouth from 2001. So many, like me, believe it was a deliberate EU import. Much the same with the over blown case of BSE which is tetanus in cattle, otherwise known as the staggers. Europe had it and then suddenly we had it. Not we didn't. The Staggers has been with us since before I can remember and I'm an old country lad. Nothing new except the number of cattle who succumbed. Imported beef on the hoof from Europe. No accident then.

That's the second time you've asked my name and whereabouts. Isn't my name, Lionel, sufficient? It is my name. Will you insult me further by insisting on another name? And my whereabouts? Why do you want to know? Tell us all why you want to know where we live. Local press? You at least gave me a smile! But that's another story you needn't know.

You really think the worst bits of the CAP have been fixed? What are you? A French farmer. Stop kidding yourself.

Pip doesn't answer questions, Wilf, he makes statements from published EU documents and website.

A good wine is the one you can't afford.

Providing for one's funeral and letting one's wishes be known is vital. But so is the wording of any will. My last surviving parent, my mother, left a will leaving half of her estate to each of her two children. Two people with a huge age gap between them and who could not ever agree which day of the week it is. The trouble that caused is unbelievable. In the subsequent 20 years we haven't had further contact. Be specific and detailed in the will; allocate to individuals as you wish, but be clear. Give detail. Leave no room for dispute. There'll be plenty of rancour and trouble after one's death as it is. No need to add fuel to the fire.

Would I get a loyalty card as a frequent visitor? Don't think about a group booking!

Ouch!

How on earth would we spend a penny?

They're serious allegations. You would be more credible if you posted sources and a brief biography so we know who we're taking to. So many trolls sign up for a single issue and disappear. You wouldn't be one of those would you?

The answer is clearly NO! Given medics have made rigorous checks on each child for allegories and other contras potentially affecting the outcome of such vaccination, then it must go ahead. It is for the good of the population as a whole. Normally, with anything state sponsored I'd be very sceptical. However, where the life of a child, and other children it may come into contact with, is jeopardised then preventative action must be taken. Very sadly such apps as Facebook etc., lead to much disinformation on which young parents so often base their judgement. So many young people have set aside any ability for rational thinking and just follow the herd. That being the case, some decisions must be taken over their heads.

Case in point: Our local bank branch in a small market town which is always busy has installed a new 'BTM'. To you and I that's Bank Teller Machine. It will take over most functions of counter staff - if we use it. Talking to a middle aged bank teller today I asked how many jobs will be lost to the branch? 'Two, including mine,' she replied. There's only three staff in the branch! Is automation a good thing? Ask that lady.

Automation of itself is not the problem. It's the way we use it's possibilities. So many local services and facilities, particularly in rural areas, have now been annhilated by machines that, as Yodama rightly says, there is for us less and less human contact. We have an online prescription service - it's yet to work! Online banking, well that's a good joke, isn't it? Secure as a fools mouth. Automatic supermarket checkouts - watch your change, if you use cash. But worse, much worse, automation is reducing job opportunities. It's re-shaping the job market and work place. New opportunities are not springing up as promised. Far from it. And what about over fifties who do not wish to, or are not able, to retrain? Re-train for what? Not everyone can become a computer service tech. It saddens me to say the country has become an absolute free for all. Profit, profit and more profit. People matter so little these days yet we are our own most valuable resource, not one to be squandered like confetti.

The whole lot of them actually. I make no distinctions, they're a rabble.

I wanted to add politicians and politics but these days little surprises me, part from a small kindness from a stranger.

Petitions? When has a modern times government taken any notice of public opinion, whether they asked for it or not? Cameron was a PR man before entering politics. He knows every which way to schmooze the population, to lull them into a false sense of security, to make them feel heard. Hence, online petitions. IDS made a very sound point to Sky News Adam Boulton. He said the people are sovereign. They lend their sovereignty to Parliament for a period and then it is returned to them. This fact, written in the 1682 Bill of Rights I believe, has been wilfully set aside ultimately to the cost of the ruling classes. Until our governmental system has the confidence of the people it is acting illegally. Will Brexit happen? Yes. It is now a matter of the means by which it is achieved, fair or foul.

No case then! Another Europhile lame duck.

"We fought two world wars not to be ruled by Germany..." I'm a Jewish man. I lost family in the Holocaust. I lost family fighting for a free Europe. Make your case.

Not a very principled thing to do, is it? My wife knows she's quite safe from my intruding into her privacy. My knowledge of mobile phones is a minus factor. I have one, somewhere, can switch it on and ... zilch. The battery is so often flat through lack of use, I'm told. Give me an Apple computer to sort out and I'm right at home.

The outrageous price of any fuel, but especially diesel.

Seems like sales of Wensleydale are dropping off Billy. They've tried so many variations this last couple of years but even my Collies won't eat them. I was never greatly fond of it preferring Cheddar or Stilton but if they can find a market for hot cross bun flavoured Wensleydale, or even Christmas pudding let them try. I'd like to see my local Co-op's manager when I ask for hot cross bun flavoured cheese next Christmas! I'll report back nearer the time.

I was a farm worker for many years. Totally agree with you.

That's Hereward.

The heart of Hereford the Wake lives on. (OK, he was a Saxon) That Saxon is alive and well in my neck of the woods too!

Let's be nice to ourselves. It's real wisdom ... the sheer luxury of being able to say, 'I don't know and guess what? I care even less.' Now that's wisdom, Billy, keeping out of it.

Velvet Revolution as in Czech 1989? Did the job!

Beats me Billy. If ever you get an answer let me know, oh, and there's a fair few other things I don't understand either.

If we addressed the elephant in the room - a population crisis - then we'd need far fewer new house and the wild life wouldn't be excluded from Britain. But let's call it a housing crisis instead. Makes us all feel better doesn't it?

Well, it seems to me our options are limited. I rather favour a 'Velvet Revolution' as occurred in Czech Republic in late 89. Civil protest, passive resistance and even the police and military laid down their weapons and joined in. Having stayed in Czech a good few times I've talked with many many people who took part (there were over half a million at any one time). From places in the east - Brno, Ostrava, Hranice, -,to the west - Prague, Pilzen - and elsewhere the answer was always the same. Too much uncertainty in the country so nothing else we could do but paralyse the state until it suffocated. (my words). If 5% of UK population took the the streets of central London, trucks and cars choke the main arterial routes and set a stranglehold on Parliament and the administration they must listen. Require of them that to a man they resign and not even seek the office of parish councillor. Like Belgium in the early 90's we forego an administration and just let matters work themselves out. I deeply believe the next administration would be ultra careful in power because the next uprising might not be so peaceful. Calls for treason trials etc., are a mistake. That just makes martyrs. No, let all government people and the top third of the Civil Service region in utter disgrace at the shambles they've created.

Polls favour the will of those who pay for them.

Yes, companion a book to The Moon's a Balloon. Both good reads from an indifferent actor. What about this latest twist in the shambles of Brexit? Many leading lights turning their backs on 17.4 million voters? Careers blighted never to be seen or heard of again.

Bring on the empty horses.

It is votes that count.

See Hansard

None of the above is of any relevance whatsoever. The result stands.