bashing bambi

More stalking training clients

2012-02-20T19:35:00.002Z

So another stalking training client turns up having won the battle of the M25. We did the usual training routine and then headed out to the wood to see some deer. Jinx wood struck again, we saw lots of Fallow does along the roadside, so many in fact that we lost track of time. Eventually following setting up the ground seat for tomorrow mornings dawn stalk we went for a wander. Poor charlie was lying curled up asleep in the sun when a Remington .223 55 grain sleeping tablet was injected. Sassy didnt need telling twice or once even;

I was reasonably happy with the effects at 60 yards offhand not a particularly large target and put down with no fuss. Out again in the morning so fingers crossed!

A busy couple of days

2012-02-17T19:03:00.003Z

A stalking course for Darrun who did really well especially on the written test, we had a good couple of stalks in the woods and even got very close to a small herd of fallow does in one wood. Sadly we came across an already dead fallow doe on the floor. As it has been covered by snow for a week it could have been dead for that long at least;
Some investigation showed no rigor mortis so it was easily a few days old and it had been badly gut shot and laid up to die where we found it. The neighbouring wood has a high seat in it so if the stalker hit this deer from there it could only have moved about 100 yards before dying. A sad waste of a fine beast;

With another course to run on monday and tuesday, the shoot clay shoot tomorrow and a trip to a mates place in London on saturday night I am very busy.

Justice UK style 2012

2012-02-13T19:09:00.002Z

Take a look at this folks, I would like you to compare the two cases outlined in the links below;
Orpington Man Tappins set up in a sting operation which may be illegal is to be deported having had his case ignored by the European court of Human rights!
And this;
Abu Qatada a rabble rousing terrorist supporter who may be tortured or have evidence gained from torture used against him.
Christopher Tappin is aged 65 years and if he is taken to the USA may never return and fears that he wont get a fair trial.
Well Call Me Dave put your money where your mouth is and look after your own people and not those who wish to destroy our country and way of life!

Go on Dave grow a pair, even Farage stands up for him!

That man gets my vote next time!

Kitchen Good News:

2012-02-09T14:44:00.002Z

This woman is 51 yrs old.
She is TV health guru Gillian McKeith, advocating a holistic approach to nutrition and health, and promoting exercise, a vegetarian diet which is high in organic fruits and vegetables. She recommends detox diets, colonic irrigation, and supplements.

This woman is also 51.

She is Nigella Lawson... a TV cook, who eats meat, butter, and desserts..... and, she washes it all down with wine!

I REST MY CASE. :)

Flash git or what, your call?

2012-02-09T14:09:00.002Z

Thanks to Clive for this one!

I know its been here before

2012-02-07T15:26:00.002Z

But good ones deserve airing again dont they;

Its only Fecking Snow

2012-02-06T19:51:00.002Z

So we had a drop of the white stuff' the downs did look very nice;

I managed to get a few video clips made;

The dogs enjoyed themselves as did the boys;

Great views;

The Suburban Bushwacker used the time to test his new goggles;

Tams and Alex trying a little sport;

Depth testing;

This is how the SBW gets his shooting practice in;

We spent the morning walking through the snow looking for woodpigeons and squirrels, typically we only saw pheasants and woodcock! Nothing in season flushed and lots of self restraint shown;

Grendel an adventure in 6.5mm

2012-02-03T17:11:00.007Z

The courier delivered Claypigs new toy, it doesnt seem a fortnight since I sent this one off for rebarrelling to 6.5 Grendel, an interesting and deer legal calibre made from necking down the M43 case which is a 7.62 x 39 Russian intermediate round. this one started as a bog standard CZ527 in 7.62 x 39. Owned by Archer it was traded in and I picked it up and sent it off for a new barrel;

At first glance it appears to be a slim sporter profile barrel of 22 inches on the bog standard carbine body. Which it basically is;

The barrel is stamped with the calibre;

No alterations to the reciever it seems and the silver/satin barrel looks nice next to the black of the original;

The extra length on the barrel isnt instantly noticeable or apparrent and it actually doesnt feel too long or unweildy;

The fit of the barrel in the existing furniture is very good and is a close match on the donor rifle so it floats well enough;

So I decided to fit the moderator supplied by Riflecraft, a Spartan by Third eye tactical and nice and light it is;

It does add to the length despite the mod going almost 2 thirds of its own length over the barrel, it is a nice snug fit and leaves no marks on the barrel;

Here it is compared to the original, a slightly newer model fitted with a scope but no moderator;

Side by side no moderator fitted;

Same again but the moderator is close by so you can see how big it is;

Another close up again;

This time withh the moderator fitted;

I suppose you might be interested in my views? Well the barrel is well made and fitted well, service was speedy and everything asked for was delivered and further options were offered. Nice I can recommend Riflecraft their staff were friendly and helpful over the phone and their service was speedy and top notch.
Its nice to get this level of service here in the UK and a good level of support over the phone. The real proof of the pudding will be when we get the scope mounted and ammunition delivered. Then its down to us!

This now means I have a spare barrel so I shall keep that as an original and use the one fitted to mine for threading for another sound moderator. Fun times ahead!

Bens Birthday

2012-02-03T15:26:00.004Z

Ben and I having spent the morning in an armed dog walk spent the evening watching two fairly evenly matched football teams make the usual drama queens of themselves in an attempt to convince the referee that they deserved a penalty and their employers that they deserved their wages! The Crystal Palace versus Bankrupt and Hove Albion match at Selhurst Park was very cold and very late with an 8pm kick off and Southern Railway combining with Network Rail to make the journey home as late as possible. At least the ground looked in good condition during the warm up;

The real and really big eagle mascot/pest controller was on display;

As was the silly looking person in a bird suit one;

The players came onto the pitch;

As did the eagle proving that hunting away fans is exempt under the hunting act;

The Game went on and on ending one all after two dubiously awarded penalties although the Baldy Headed Linesman on our side of the pitch missed little and certainly did a very good job;

A little footage from the game;

Then on the next night we contemplated opening the bottle of 1985 vintage port gifted by bens Uncle Simon at his christening in 1991. He came back to late from the pub so we opened it last night and very nice it was too;

Cocks day

2012-01-31T15:13:00.002Z

Or boundary day in old shooters speak. Ben and I had arranged for an armed dog walk with a couple of beaters and any available guns but in the end it was 11 spaniels and 2 walking guns. The bag could have been 6 Pheasant and 3 Woodcock but despite our best efforts at saluting them we werent underneath each others birds!
Still a few feeders were topped off and a new one put along the top boundary courtesy of Mc Shug!

Roll on the poults.

Last syndicate day of the season

2012-01-28T16:42:00.012Z

Oddly enough despite the truck battery letting me down we managed half a day at Boreham Street on Friday and the dogs loved the chance to work fields rather than woods. Iain looked after us and we were graciously fed and watered here afterwards;

The total bag at our final day wasnt massive, luckily one of the beaters bagged a tree rat which boosted numbers. I suspect thgis is not having all the feeders topped off all the time. A simple solution really!

Now the work starts; pen repairs, feeder repairs, waterers repairs, you get the theme here?

ther is a lot of work to do to keep the remaining birds on the wood and get it ready for next seasons poults!

I do have the end of season walk around on tuesday morning, a sort of cocks and boundary day. Fingers crossed

Europeans fat lazy and workshy, who'd have thought it?

2012-01-25T16:44:00.003Z

Well even the BBC did many years ago when the French Socialists introduced their crazy early retirement age and seemed to be happy for the hard working Northern Europeans to pick up the tab! The protests when Sarkozy took office on a platform of reducing these expensive follies were all about those who may have to work longer rather than those who would now pay for their idleness!
At last the other side of the pond recognises the problems too;
"Chart of the Day: Europe’s real problem – they don't work enough
And they don't work enough because the pensions and benefits on offer are just too generous in the world's ‘lifestyle superpower'. "

Interesting read!

Time for more shooting, today I was over in the wood feeding the pheasants and getting ready for the last weekend of the season, a guest day on Friday, syndicate day on saturday and a combined beater and guns walk up on Tuesday!
Dogs will be happy for the rest!

SNP and defence, not really Wee Ecks Thing!

2012-01-23T15:01:00.002Z

“The SNP wants Trident out and I don’t disagree with that. But they also want to keep the jobs. They can’t have it both ways. Either it is Trident out and we are sorry about the jobs. Or they say the jobs are more important than the ideology.”

An interesting quote from this source which shows how little thought has been given to the massive problems that will come with independance!
Interesting times ahead!

Banks over exposed to the carbon bubble?

2012-01-22T19:57:00.002Z

Citywire again;

"Up to 80% of the assets held by energy companies could turn out to be useless, knock-down sub-prime junk.
Here’s why:
If we are to keep global warming below 2°C – a goal reaffirmed by politicians at December's Durban climate meeting – then between 2000 and 2050 we can get away with emitting 886 gigatons of carbon dioxide (GtCO2) between us. Now, we’ve used a lot since 2000, leaving a ‘Carbon Budget’ of 565 GtCO2 for the remaining years to 2050. But the world’s biggest oil and gas companies have fossil fuel reserves representing potential emissions of 745 GtCO2. "

Now I have always maintained that greenwash bullshit spouted by goverments in the climate change debate (what fecking debate its all one sided) is solely to allow them to tax us and allow energy firms to take the piss in new and more amazing ways.
I'm all for saving my money but not to give it away to govts or energy firms.
Cunts the lot of them and if the piss takers go to the wall then tough! Maybe they can take a couple of banks with them!

Germany to pull out of the Euro?

2012-01-22T19:54:00.001Z

This from city wire says it looks like they may have had enough of bailing out the lazt mediterranean countries
"Germany and the Netherlands are likely to quit the eurozone rather than swallow an indefinite number of ‘unrequited transfers’ to the union’s crisis-stricken nations, according to Charles Dumas, chief economist at Lombard Street Research"

Spelling and Punctuation Matters!

2012-01-19T10:43:00.004Z

I know quite often we all commit such howlers that our friends like to point them out and I remember my mail being returned from my Grandmother a retired English teacher with red ink in the important places! In a similar vein I would like to thank Henry Toombs for this little Gem;

And in further news Granny is seen sucking eggs

2012-01-16T20:43:00.002Z

According to the pro EU BBC;
"The government's official advisers on migration say there is a link between immigration from outside the European Union and job losses among UK workers.
The Migration Advisory Committee said there were 23 fewer UK jobs for every 100 migrants from outside the EU."
However not a peep about whether EU immigration takes UK jobs as collating that sort of info is probably illegal!

Catweazle

2012-01-16T11:42:00.003Z

There's a name to stir the memory cells eh?
No then perhaps the latest recipient of the tag from Grumpy Old Sod will enlighten you;
"The Church of England used to be known facetiously as “The Tory Party at prayer”.
Not any more, it seems.
Under the feeble leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan “Catweazle” Williams, the church seems headed for terminal decline. Probably a good thing too: natural selection and the survival of the fittest requires that the weak and wishy-washy should go to the wall.
Shame about all the nice buildings, though. Who will look after them when all that's left is a mindless, twitching puddle of gutless, liberal-lefty half-baked ideas?
In a rather incomprehensible article published in the New Statesman this week, Catweazle attacks the coalition government, bleating that “we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted”.
What a dim-witted thing to say. Since when did any General Election give us the opportunity to vote for policies? Did Labour voters in 2001 know they were voting for war in Iraq? Did they eagerly put their crosses in a box marked “ID cards”, or “open our borders to all and sundry, we have loads of benefits money to squander”?
In 1983 did we know we were voting Thatcher in to smash the miners? In 1970 did we realise our ticks in Edward Heath's box meant joining the EU? These are rhetorical questions, of course, and the answer to all of them is a resounding “no”. Because that's not how elections work – in fact, it's not how democracy works, unfortunately.
No government is elected with a clear mandate to carry out a particular policy. We simply elect the gang of crooks and chancers we dislike the least, and rely on them to make the decisions for us. Sad, but true.
In 2010 we all went to the polls knowing full well that whoever we elected would have to implement a whole raft of measures to cut the government deficit created by the previous Labour administration.
Whether it was Cameron or Brown made little difference: either would have unpopular decisions to make, and the results would hurt us all.
Of course there are always ignorant, selfish people who believe that cuts are OK provided they themselves are not affected.
If they're in work they don't want to pay more taxes, if they're out of work they don't want their benefits cut. Teachers don't want their spending reduced, and NHS workers want to carry on splashing public money around.
Unions are happy to see cuts, but not at the expense of their members' pay packets. Arty-farty freeloaders can't see why their pet theatre or dance company or hedgehog sanctuary should lose its lump of public money so they can no longer prance about looking important at someone else's expense.
Local government bosses can stomach reduced spending so long as they can keep their exorbitant pensions and cut services to the public instead.
But the selfish and the venal apart, we all knew what had to be done, and expected it. The only difference between Cameron who did get in, and Brown who didn't, is that Cameron was brave enough (or possibly foolish enough or inexperienced enough, depending on your point of view) to grasp the nettle and get on with it.
So, in case poor Catweazle is still having trouble sorting out his muddled brain, let's spell it out as simply as we can ...
• The government is in debt. It owes zillions and zillions of squids, and its creditors selfishly demand punishing interest payments (it's worth pointing out that the Blair government often got into debt deliberately, saddling future governments with colossal obligations in the form of PFIs. It's not just self-employed plasterers from Basildon who over-mortgage themselves with gay abandon)
• We none of us want the government to be in debt so much, and would like something done about it
• In order to cut the debt, the government has to spend less money
• Therefore the things the government normally spends money on, won't get quite so much money in future
• Therefore we must all expect some changes in the way our society and our services operate
• Or, if we don't like it, we could all just dig our heads in the sand and hope the debts go away.
It might happen. A tsunami might come and wash away all the banks and financial institutions, miraculously leaving the rest of us unscathed. Or there might be some new plague, a sinister disease that only kills people who have more than £500,000 in the bank.
It could happen ...
There, Rowan, old fruit! That wasn't so difficult, was it? You get the point now?
Unless we introduce some sort of “government by referendum”, no one votes for policies, they vote for parties.
No government has any mandate except for the mandate to govern. Actually, come to think of it, who voted for you?
And what is your mandate, exactly? Anyway, take our advice and lose the silly beard.
You'll never get a man date if you don't tidy yourself up. “Man date”, get it? It's a joke. Like you.

Have you ever wondered how you get spam?

2012-01-16T11:25:00.002Z

No I'm not talking about the tinned stuff nasty as that can seem until you are hungry. I'm talking about the junk e mails offering you all sorts of treasures if you click this link. The latest ones to get my goat are the on line casinos, I don't gamble, well not with money anyway, I don't have the nerve!
I do frequent facebook but not Linkedin as it constantly demands access to your email address book to "see" if it can help you search for friends on Linkedin!
Well I'm sorry but these sites are all about bragging about your job and educational status and there are very few people I like that use them so No I wont be allowing access.
The latest Facebook scam is to send you an innocent looking message from a friend in Calendar which wont open unless you allow it to access your personal details.
that may be fine if you want everyone to see what you have planned this year etc but I certainly don't want to share my business contacts with the whole of FB!
So think before you click, it may look innocent now but try and unsubscribe from it later!!!!!

First shoot day of the year

2012-01-14T17:48:00.003Z

The lack of feeding caused by illness and injury showed itself and the bag was smaller than expected by half time;
It was nice to see the Woodcock back again and the frost certainly made the place look nice. More dogs than normal in fact more than beaters which was very nice and we had Greg with Bob the Bracco showing us all how to retrieve;

Looking forward to the last syndicate day in 2 weeks time.

Stop and Search isnt Racist! its statistically proven

2012-01-13T14:14:00.002Z

Lifted from the comments secction in Inspector Gadgets Blog;
67 per cent of those caught by police for gun crimes were black.
Among those proceeded against for street crimes, including muggings, assault with intent to rob and snatching property, 54 per cent were black males”.
“… 832 out of 2,882 of male victims of shootings in 2009-10 being black.”Yet- “Just over 12 per cent of London’s 7.5million population is black”
Therefore- “Annual figures show that black people are at least six times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts.”is not unreasonable and certainly not disproportionate, especially bearing in mind that the purpose of stop/search is to prevent the number of victims increasing!
“… one black politician said the black community needed to face up to major challenges.
Shaun Bailey, a Tory election candidate in London and charity worker, said: ‘The community has to look at itself and say that, at the end of the day, these figures suggest we are heavily – not casually – involved in violent crime.
We are also involved in crime against ourselves – and we regularly attack each other.’
”Correct – well said Shaun!
“Critics say the figures merely show the continuing prevalence of racism in the Metropolitan Police.”
Incorrect – and demonstrably factually so!
“The statistics also suggest that police hold black women accountable for a disproportionate amount of violent crime.
On knife crime, 45 per cent of suspected female perpetrators were black.
”No – the stats show that black women are believed to be accountable for a disproportionate amount of violent crime, ie 45 per cent of suspected female perpetrators of knife crime are black!
“Among those women and girls police took action against for gun crime, 58 per cent were black and in robberies that figure was 52 per cent.”
No – in guncrime and robberies committed by females, 58 per cent and 52 per cent respectively were believed to have been committed by black women!

The grinning Spiv strikes again

2012-01-08T17:27:00.002Z

This from the Telegraph. Nothing surprises me but it certainly does upset me, No wonder bankers felt they could get away with ripping the country off when the Dear Leader has his snout in the trough right up to his eyebrows!

engage brain before opening gob!

2012-01-05T22:11:00.002Z

now if anyone feels offended enough to report dianne abbott to the police for offensive remarks of a racist nature they would have to act, wouldnt they?

i doubt it but we could die of old age waiting to find out!

So wee eck, where is the extra 10 billion a year coming from?

2012-01-04T15:00:00.002Z

This piece sent to me courtesy of Daye Tucker in Scotland asks if an. independant scotland will share the UK's triple A credit rating.
Personally I wonder how long it will take to become a bankrupt Euro basket case?

"‘So £13.2 billion of deficit, compared with GDP of £143 billion is about 9% – about the same as the UK is running right now, but way above a sustainable number (for example the uniformly ignored Maastricht limit for eurozone members is at 3%).’
This figure falls to 5% if you add North Sea oil into the equation. But North Sea oil production will fall dramatically. ‘So again, if I’m rating Scotland as a stand-alone entity, I worry what will happen going forwards,’ he says. "
It doesnt loook good!

And in further news

2012-01-03T15:48:00.002Z

After 3 attempts at trials and numerous enquiries the PC World version of events has been accepted and 2 nasty horrid white men have been found guilty of murder!
Now the Hampstead set can chatter happily in peace at their dinner parties safe knowing that it took a Labour political apparatus to change the centuries old principle that you cant be charged twice for the same crime just to prove what we all already knew!
Not that I am defending them, that will be some other scum sucking liberal lawyer sucking at the public teat to pay his cleaners wages in his Dordogne farmhouse!
No what will be amazing and sad yet amusing if not infuriating all at the same time is that the police who cocked it up from start to finish will be dragged through the courts again and proved to be instituitionally incompetent.
Makes a change I suppose!

Welcome please Inspector Gadget

2012-01-03T12:43:00.002Z

The voice of common sense perhaps or just fed up with the inevitable round of talking (dick)heads waiting to be wheeled out.
Any my response was to the point!

" Well as a shooter professional and recreational I welcome the common sense approach and I dont read the printed press so discount them anyway.
As an ex soldier I have worked... with Police in difficult situations and know its not an easy career even over this side of the Irish sea!
Now if ACPO aka the fundraising arm of the politically biased PC World brigade can temper their enthusiasm for more legislation then perhaps some good can come from this.
In fact a cynic would say we should be banning taxi drivers, in fact a sick cynic would say perhaps that removing himself and offspring from the gene pool with firearms was infinitely better and less of a danger to the public than him taking a cab full of drunken geordies down the A1 and into the path of a school bus.
Perhaps he has done us all a favour.
Durham Police get the wally quote of the day though,
“I’d like to assure everyone that Durham Police are in charge and will be innvestigating this case!” Crystal Ball failure? Methinks they have a Ouija board on issue if they are going to find everything out.
You cant legislate against lunacy and the latest PNC flavour shows FAC and SGC holders but without a human to make the link and ask its still an expensive and possibly pointless addition to your armoury.
As for banning guns?
Perhaps banning expressing opinions on subjects people know little about would be more sensible!

as if this sort of thing couldnt get any worse

2012-01-02T18:07:00.002Z

Reports tonight from the BBC I am currently waiting for the handwringers to start calling for bans but lets face it after Derrick Bird it seems that Taxi drivers kill people not guns, perhaps its time to ban them?
I like to quote from the Army Rumour Service next;

as call me dave said you cant stop nutters going off the handle, he could have taken them all for drive in his cab and wiped out a bus full of kiddies as well. In fact him having a gun meant damage was limited to his own shallow gene pool!

Bank Holiday Monday

2012-01-02T14:24:00.004Z

As if the country needs any more time off to recover from doing what it cant afford anymore! A trip to the shoot today to fill feeders was particularly pleasing as our rainwater catchment has exceeded our best expectations. I now need to make an over flow so it will top the second tank automatically;

Full? I should co co! Look at this and remember we must have delivered about 5 tanks worth last year when it didn't rain, who says we have a water shortage, sort out the storage gents and its simples;

Whilst I am bashing Politicians

2012-01-01T16:54:00.003Z

That wholly useless You Gov No 10 Downing Street petition website is a total waste of time, I have lost count of the times it has rejected my petitions which would put an answer once and for all to that other wholly useless Govt item, the Inquiry into sleaze, jobs for family members and allowances scandal.
Now I'm no fan of a return to MP's working for free, albeit a nice thought that would possibly exclude those for whom serving the country would be good for the country.
Now we all know that they receive additional income to fund a home in London, travel on duty and also an amazing set off perks at the commons such as subsidized bars and restaurants.
I have a fairly simple plan for this.
1. They are in service and no longer in power.
2. All travel to work is paid for by themselves bar end of term rail tickets at standard class to home address for themselves and their family.
3. Accommodation equal to existing armed forces accommodation in the capital is provided for which they are charged the same rate as serving forces personnel. Also the same for married MPs but with Married Quarters.
4. Meals are subsidised for them on duty to the same rate as serving forces personnel.
5. Holidays are taken at the same paid amount as every other working person in the country. This would allow constituency offices to be manned and the public servant to serve the public.

Now pick the bones out of that! If they want more money for their jobs then they should work for that money and only be paid based upon the performance of the national economy!

In Power?

2012-01-01T16:18:00.002Z

Politicians eh? You know when they are lying, their lips move! The one point about the whole snouts in the trough system that really grates and there is a huge list which includes free travel, subsidised meals and accom and favoured tax status by HMRC is amazingly the lie perpetuated and supported by the so called unbiased television and other media news people.
Yes I'm getting to it, the whole grit in my ointment is the use of the phrase (or rather misuse) "in power".
Now I'm not sure when those self appointed guardians of our language started to allow its use but it seems to be in common parlance now.
The phrase should be in service as they are serving us the electorate and are therefore our servants elected by us to serve.
Now if that seems too feudal then in office could be a slightly less contentious term but in power never.
Power comes from a wall socket or a dictator!
Stand up for your rights and make those damn servants serve!

Grumpy old sod on Global warming

2012-01-01T13:52:00.003Z

From the website of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, this article by engineer and physicist Andrew Kenny ... It is a year since the so-called Climategate emails were leaked. Since then, we have had freezing winters in Europe and the US, and revelations of gross misrepresentations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The lasting impression is of massive corruption of science.
Leaked from the Climate Research Unit in England, the emails showed the scientists behind the climate scare plotting to hide, delete and manipulate data, to denigrate scientists presenting different views, to force journals to publish only papers promoting climate alarm, to subvert "peer review" into "pal review", and make the reports of the IPCC nothing but alarmist propaganda.
The corruption spread through governments, universities, scientific societies and journals. You have to look back to the Lysenko episode in the Soviet Union in the 1940s (when a crank persuaded the Soviet establishment that agriculture did not follow Darwinian evolution) to find such perversion of science. The worst nonsense after the scandal was this: "Well, some climate scientists committed a few minor transgressions but the basic science is sound." In fact, the basic science is non-existent.
There is no evidence that mankind is changing the climate in a dangerous way. The slight warming of the past 150 years is no different from previous natural warming periods, such as the worldwide medieval warm period from about 900 to 1200AD. Global warming and cooling are closely correlated to variations in the sun, especially in its emission of charged particles. Carbon dioxide (CO²), a harmless natural gas upon which green plants depend, is a feeble greenhouse gas. Its only significant absorption band (15 micron) is saturated, so adding more to the atmosphere has a small and diminishing effect.
Over the past half-billion years (the span of multicelled life), CO² levels have averaged more than 2000ppm (parts per million) but with wild fluctuations, from more than 6000ppm to less than 500ppm. This has had no noticeable effect on global temperatures, which have remained remarkably constant for long periods, pointing to a stable global climate system, without which higher life might not be possible.
This stability probably comes from low clouds, which increase when temperatures rise and have a powerful cooling effect by reflecting away sunlight. In the 19th century CO² levels were about 280ppm, extraordinarily low, putting stress on green plants. Man, by burning fossil fuels and through deforestation, has pushed the levels up to 390ppm. On present trends, they will be more than 500ppm by the end of the century. This will have only one major effect: better crops and forests, and more biodiversity.
The effect on the climate will be insignificant. Talk of a temperature rise of 2°C is not valid. But rising CO² has spawned the new millennial religion of man-made climate change. It has the usual religious themes of sin, damnation and redemption. The sin is naughty industrial man emitting CO². Damnation is soaring temperatures, rising seas, floods and droughts. Redemption is forsaking fossil fuels and building wind turbines. The priesthood has special exemptions. The faithful see nothing wrong with US environmental activist Al Gore telling us to reduce carbon emissions while consuming vast amounts of fossil-generated electricity in his mansion and flying first class around the world.
The ideological reasons for climate alarm are the usual religious ones too: a desire to show how sinful man is, and to control human behaviour. The alarmists yearn to forbid ordinary people from using fossil energy. What is new is the staggering amount of money involved. It is estimated that the US government alone, in the past two decades, has given $79bn to fund climate alarm.
This dwarfs any money oil companies might have given to research. The sinister effect of this political funding is to drive science towards a desired result rather than truth: you will get your funding only if you show that mankind is causing dangerous climate change. The more alarm, the more funding. Harold Lewis, emeritus professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, recently resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) after 67 years. In his resignation letter, he wrote about "… the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave.
It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the Climategate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organises the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion." He refers to The Hockey Stick Illusion by AW Montford, which is essential reading for understanding the climate scam.
The book is about a key part of the scam: denial of the medieval warm period. More than 900 scientific studies confirm the medieval warm period. So does historical record: during this period, the Vikings colonised Greenland and grew crops where it is now too cold for them. The alarmists hate it because it showed the world warmer a thousand years ago while CO² was lower. So they used quackery to deny it. The "hockey stick" graph, first published in Nature magazine in 1998 and then shown six times in the IPCC’s 2001 report and brandished around the world, showed temperatures in the northern hemisphere steady from 1000 to 1900AD (the handle of a hockey stick) and then rising to unprecedented heights in the 20th century (the blade). No medieval warm period! This nonsense was accepted with blind, unquestioning faith by the IPCC and much of the scientific establishment.
They liked the result; they didn’t care about the method. The hockey stick theory was eventually demolished by Steve McIntyre, an expert statistician, who managed to get hold of the data on which it was based and found outrageously wrong statistical methods, deliberate use of data known to be wrong, and other manipulations. The Climategate emails are there for all the honest world to see. You will see a small number of names — Jones, Mann, Bradley, Hughes, Briffa, Schneider, Santer etc. — conspiring among themselves to silence critics and promote climate alarm, which they have done with great success. The climate alarmists are unable to counter the scientific arguments of the climate rationalists so they resort to vilification.
Anyone who questions man-made global warming is a stooge of the oil companies, or just like those who deny the Nazi Holocaust or deny that cigarette smoking causes cancer, or deny that Americans landed on the moon. In May, I attended a superb climate science conference in Chicago. Most of the speakers were the world’s leading scientists, all of whom showed convincingly that climate changes are natural. But some were politicians. One, Harrison Schmitt, gave a passionate attack on the pseudoscience of man-made climate change. He had been a US senator. He had also been a crew member of Apollo 17 — among the crew who were the last humans to walk on the moon.
The GOS says: The mention of Trofim Lysenko is rather apt. Put "Lysenko" in Google and read a few of the pages it finds. These days we are often told, plaintively, that no real scientist would falsify or deliberately misinterpret data because all they are interested in is the pursuit of scientific truth. This is total b*ll*x. As the story of Lysenko proves, scientists are just as capable of perpetrating enormous, dangerous, bare-faced fraud as anyone else.

Delusional and dangerous?

2012-01-01T13:22:00.003Z

Scotland is bimbling along the road to self determination, not something that supporters of the act of the union seem awfully happy about but its democracy and the right of self determination has been enshrined in UK policy if not law since 1945 at least.
Now if I a mere man with a secondary education can find enough flaws in jolly jockstraps plan then how come those north of the border are blind to a madman that wants to lead them into financial oblivion in Europe? My notes are in italics;
"How Scotland will lead the world
Alex Salmond, first minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party, believes small, independent nations will be champions of change
Nov 17th 2011 from The World In 2012 print edition

After the second world war ended the United Nations comprised 51 independent nations. Today that figure has risen to 193. Globalisation has gone hand in hand with a growing desire for nations to take responsibility for their own affairs and make a full contribution as a member of that global family of nations.
I write as the leader of a nation which is not yet a member of that family in its own right, but I lead a government which aspires to that status. Scotland will hold a referendum on independence before the end of this parliament in 2016, and in 2012 we will lay the foundations by wielding the powers we currently have to boost economic growth.
Global focus may be on the BRIC nations, but there is another success story which needs to be told: that of smaller states championing change. In Spain the dynamic regions are Catalonia and the Basque country, which enjoy degrees of fiscal autonomy from Madrid. To the north of Europe the Danes thrive, the Norwegians are world-beaters while Finland excels in many global indicators. None of the success stories listed are in the Euro, read from that what you will!
Scotland on its path to independence is another example of smaller-nation success: with our limited powers we have already set a more dynamic pace than the rest of the United Kingdom. Lest anyone doubt the capacity of smaller nations to influence the global future, a former secretary-general of the UN, Kofi Annan, has cited Scotland’s history in science, technology and economics as proof that our nation has a “leading role” to play in tackling some of the biggest challenges of our age.
Climate change is one such challenge—and Scotland has passed world-leading climate-change legislation, with a target of reducing carbon emissions by 42% by 2020. That is ambitious but achievable, and it will hopefully act as a spur for other nations, large and small, to act now for a sustainable future. More greenwash, after joining the Eu does he really think that he can pay Scotlands contribution with wind power (currently subsidised by Westminster) and Marmalade exports
It is not the size of a nation that is important, but the size of its ambition and of the contribution it can make to the world
The climate-change agenda goes together with the drive to find more sustainable ways of producing the energy we need, and again Scotland is forging ahead in developing the clean renewable-energy technology which can power the global future. We have set ourselves another challenging but achievable target by aiming to produce the equivalent of all our own electricity needs from renewable sources by 2020—and around as much again from other sources. That will allow Scotland to become a significant exporter of energy to our European neighbours.
It is possible because we have a huge share of the whole continent’s green-energy potential. Recent investment in Scotland’s renewable sector by multinational companies is testament to the scale of that potential, and 2012 will see us redouble our efforts. Energy security and the safe, sustainable delivery of power is one of the biggest issues of our time, and Scotland is already playing a leading role in securing that prize. Recent investment from Westminster not Holyrood and its an agenda you may note, an agenda built on flawed and unproven science!
These new technologies, along with our strengths in areas like life sciences and finance, give Scotland the opportunity to continue to carve the distinctive contribution our nation has made over the centuries, from our earliest days as an independent trading nation, through the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century and right up to the present day. Today, more patents are issued to Scottish universities than to any other nation in the world, as measured per head. It was one of those Scottish Enlightenment figures, Adam Smith, who observed that economic progress must, inevitably, be accompanied by social progress—and that holds as true today as it did then, giving us the hope that globalisation can indeed transform the world for the better.
The thorns and the thistle
The age of empires is long gone; even the cold war is now a subject for the history books, and the old certainties which once underpinned international relations have unravelled. In their place we have a more complex, more uncertain world, but also one which is more alive with possibilities for positive change than ever before, where more nations than ever exercise independence in an interdependent world, and where Scotland can and will be a force for good.
That includes playing a full part in the European Union, whose last big expansion in 2004 saw the admission of ten new states—six of them smaller than Scotland, and six of which had become independent since 1990. None of which are financial giants or even capable of holding their own in fact most export unemployed persons who can come here safe in the knowledge that they can always sign on should they fail to get a job undercutting the locals.
As the United Kingdom’s prime minister, David Cameron, conceded in last year’s edition of this publication, the UK is saddled with a large deficit, so size clearly offers no protection or immunity from the vagaries of the global economy. Instead, the countries which appear best equipped to deal with such conditions are those that are nimble and fleet-footed enough to adapt quickly to change. It is not the size of a nation that is important, but the size of its ambition and of the contribution it can make to the world. Scotland is ready to meet that challenge.
Ah yes the global financial meltdown causing a UK deficit used mainly to bail out two major banks, one in the North East and one in Scotland run by a man so reviled that he needed police protection!

Now if I can see all that why cant the Scots or are they being blindly patriotic to the point of jingoistic?
I support Scotlands desire to be independent but Ireland has shown a desire to go back to the Punt and to be linked to the UK financially. If Scotland does enter the Euro it will become a financial mess where its neighbours will go elsewhere rather than trade through more financial borders.
So is he Delusional, dangerous both, neither or just grasping at a means to suck on the Euro teat?
Scotland is a big geographical mass but will never be huge on the world stage without an alliance of sorts, perhaps he wants to walk the world stage as an equal to Merkel and Sarkozy and is willing to sell his heritage to do so!

New Years Eve and

2011-12-31T15:57:00.003Z

Its beaters day on our little shoot, a good first drive with some smart snap shooting taking place by the youngsters meant that by tea break the bag was starting to fill up;

Dave decides to break out the family heirlooms for it is such an auspicious occasion;
By close of play we had managed a total of 11 birds although I suspect the dogs missed the odd runner or two;

Looks like the guns have their work cut out if they want to beat this next shoot;

Happy new year to you all and I hope its as mild as it is here if not warmer!

Shamelssly lifted from

2011-12-29T13:03:00.000Z

An Englishmans Castle
-->
The Death Of The euro
Bill Jamieson: Apocalypse could be now for euro - Scotsman.com
The reports tell of Foreign Office preparations to evacuate thousands of British expatriates and holidaymakers from countries that may be stricken by a break-up of the eurozone. The Ministry of Defence is also said to have been consulted about evacuation plans should UK citizens find themselves trapped in countries which have closed their borders and where bank withdrawals have been suspended.
In the frontline of this preparation is the Treasury, where reports have been circulating for weeks of contingency planning in the event of a disintegration of the single currency. Key arrangements include plans for the imposition of capital controls. Immigration and border controls would also be tightened.
Cross-border emergency evacuations; curtailment of the movement of money; detailed checks on crossing borders: these are the very opposite of the free movement of capital, goods, services and labour that the European single market was supposed to enshrine. The assumption behind these plans is that there would be a panic-fuelled capital flight as a banking failure took hold. The end result could be a freeze of electronic transfers and a halt to disbursements from hole-in-the-wall machines. And if people have no access to their money, those stricken countries in the eurozone do not just have a banking problem, or a sovereign debt problem. They have a law-and-order problem.
The salvation of Europe would, on the contrary, appear to lie in the overwhelming popular preference for people to be governed locally and by their own people, rather than by supra-national constructs. This is the counter-force that the events of 2012 will unleash as the debt and deficit crisis enters a new and explosive stage. That is why next week we will be in no ordinary year, and in no ordinary new era.

Funny but not for the kids

2011-12-27T17:16:00.003Z

Yes you may have seen it before but here it is again!

Now since the very good reception this has had I have been sent some more;

Before you ask I have no idea how, the Tea Lady wiggles her ear lobes and that freaks me out!

Whilst some of us have been enjoying ourselves

2011-12-27T16:56:00.003Z

Others have been telling it as it is;
Thought: A reflection on David Cameron’s vetoSunday 18th December 2011
This open letter from Frederick Forsyth is an excellent – brilliant even in its simplicity and understanding - reflection of the Euro issue and of David Cameron’s veto of the Merkel / Sarkozy proposals.
It should receive as much publicity as possible, so please pass it around. My instinct at the time of the veto was of both concern and relief – concern of the consequences of opening an old can of worms and relief that, by finally opening it, the festering sore between Britain and France (for that is what it in reality is and what has now become all too obvious) would have to be addressed - instead of brushing it under the carpet in an attempt to be good Europeans.
Contrary to the views of some, we are not bad Europeans. I have long maintained that the UK, with its civil service policy of gold plating all European legislation sent to us from Brussels, is the most compliant of all 27 countries in its obedience of the spirit and the letter of European law. The fact that, to varying degrees, the other 26 (notably France) don’t comply properly is one of the reasons for our widespread hatred of the EU – reasonably so. The Euro crisis is a direct result of disobeying the Growth & Stability Pact.
AN OPEN LETTER TO GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL
Angela Merkel backed attack on the City
Tuesday December 13,2011
By Frederick Forsyth
Dear Madame Chancellor,
PERMIT me to begin this letter with a brief description of my knowledge of, and affection for, your country.
I first came to Germany as a boy student aged 13 in 1952, two years before you were born. After three extended vacations with German families who spoke no English, I found at the age of 16 and to my pleasure that I could pass for German among Germans. In my 20s I was posted as a foreign correspondent to EastGermany in 1963, when you would have been a schoolgirl just north of East Berlin where I lived.
I know Germany, Frau Merkel, from the alleys of Hamburg to the spires of Dresden, from the Rhine to theOder, from the bleak Baltic coast to the snows of the Bavarian Alps. I say this only to show you that I amneither ignoramus nor enemy. I also had occasion in those years to visit the many thousands of my countrymen who held the line of the Elbe against 50,000 Soviet main battle tanks and thus kept Germany free to recover, modernise and prosper at no defence cost to herself.
And from inside the Cold War I saw our decades of effort to defeat the Soviet empire and set your East Germany free.I was therefore disappointed last Friday to see you take the part of a small and vindictive Frenchman in what can only be seen as a targeted attack on the land of my fathers. We both know that every country has at least one aspect of its society or economy that is so crucial, so vital that it simply cannot be conceded.
For Germany it is surely your automotive sector, your car industry. Any foreign-sourced measure to target German cars and render them unsaleable would have to be opposed to veto-point by a German chancellor.
For France it is the agricultural sector.
For more than 50 years members of the EU have been taxed under the terms of the Common Agricultural Policy in order to subsidise France’s agriculture. Indeed, the CAP has been the cornerstone of every EU budget since the first day. Attack it and France fights back.
For us the crucial corner of our economy is the financial services industry.
Although parts of it exist all overthe country it is concentrated in that part of London known even internationally as “the City”.
It is not just afew greedy bankers; we both have those but the City is far more.
It is indeed a vast banking agglomeration ofmore banks than anywhere else in the world. But that is the tip of the iceberg.
Also in the City is the world’sgreatest concentration of insurance companies. Add to that the brokers; traders in stocks and sharesworldwide, second only, and then maybe not, to Wall Street. But it is not just stocks.
The City is also home to the “exchanges” of gold and precious metals, diamonds, base metals, commodities, futures, derivatives, coffee, cocoa... the list goes on and on. And it does not yet touch upon shipping, aviation, fuels, energy,textiles... enough.
Suffice to say the City is the biggest and busiest marketplace in the world.
It makes theParis Bourse look like a parish council set against the United Nations and even dwarfs your Frankfurt manytimes.
That, surely, is the point of what happened in Brussels. The French wish to wreck it and you seem to have agreed. Its contribution to the British economy is not simply useful nor even merely valuable. It is absolutely crucial. The financial services industry contributes 10 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product and 17.5 percent of our taxation revenue. A direct and targeted attack on the City is an attack on my country. But that,although devised in Paris, is what you have chosen to support.
You seem to have decided that Britain is once again Germany’s enemy, a situation that has not existed since 1945. I deeply regret this but the choice was yours and entirely yours. The Transaction Tax or Tobin Tax you reserve the right to impose would not even generate money for Brussels. It would simply lead to massive emigration from London to other havens. Long ago it was necessary to live in a city to trade in it.In the days when deals can flash across the world in a nanosecond all a major brokerage needs is a suite of rooms, computers, telephones and the talent of the young people barking offers and agreements down the phone. Such a suite of rooms could be in Berne, Thun, Zurich or even Singapore. Under your Tobin Tax tens of thousands would leave London.
This would not help Brussels, it would simply help destroy the British economy.
Your conference did not even save the euro. Permit me a few home truths about it.
The euro is a Franco-German construct.
It was a German chancellor (Kohl) who ordered a German banker (Karl Otto Pohl) to get together with a French civil servant (Delors) on the orders of a French president (Mitterrand) and create a common currency.
Which they did. IT was a flawed construct. Like a ship with a twisted hull it might float in calm water but if itever hit a force eight it would probably founder. Even then it might have worked for it was launched with a manual of rules, the Growth And Stability Pact. If the terms of that book of rules had been complied with theGood Ship Euro might have survived. But compliance was entrusted to the European Central Bank whichcatastrophically failed to insist on that compliance.
Rules governing the growing of cucumbers are more zealously enforced. This was a European Bank in a German city under a French president and it failed in its primary, even its sole, duty. This had everything to do with France and Germany and nothing whatever to do with Britain. Yet in Brussels last week the EU pack seemed intent only on venting its spleen on the country that wisely refused to abolish its pound. You did not even address yourselves to saving the euro but only to seeking a way to ensure it might work in some future time. But the euro will not be saved. It is crumbling now. And since you have now turned against my country, from this side of the Channel, Madame Chancellor, one can only say of the euro: YOU MADE IT,YOU MEND IT.

Pheasant Hunt

2011-12-27T16:37:00.004Z

The game is damn addictive and I'm getting chilblains just watching the snow!

Happy Christmas

2011-12-27T12:39:00.003Z

Paddy asks mick "what do you most like about christmas?"

"The food," says mick." I love turkey.

"I don't" says paddy.

"We never have turkey, for our dinner we always have Babybels."

Mick looks at him. "Why Babybels?"

Paddy replies: "because Christmas is all about the baby cheeses!"

So now we are sat festering in front of the television playing computor games and generally drinking ourselves silly it is I suppose a well earned break before the New years Eve shoot which for us this year will be beaters day!

I have to agree that the T Lady made an inspired purchase this year!

Christmas eve shoot

2011-12-24T15:36:00.002Z

The day dawned cold and bright, always a good indicator of plenty of birds, there were a fair few saluted too. The bonnet didnt look too full at tea break but it wasnt a bad start;

Dave and Linda laid on a great lunch of game stew, much appreciated and enjoyed by all;

Meanwhile on drive 4 Arthur found a nest over by peg 8;
The final bag wasnt our best ever but still respectable;
Still only 7 days to the new years eve shoot and beaters day!

There you go

2011-12-22T18:00:00.002Z

The final product 53 pounds of venison sausage bagged and ready for the fridge or freezer:

I have kept a couple of large packs by for the shoot breakfast, I'm looking forward to the next couple of shoots, Christmas Eve and New Years Eve!

Why women dont hunt turkeys

2011-12-22T15:26:00.001Z

Ok maybe just not blondes;

sausage time

2011-12-20T22:04:00.005Z

The Mc Shug Venison mountain; Remember this?

so something like 50 pounds of frozen venison put through the porkert hand mincer, thanks to legal richard about 20 pounds of berkshire free range belly was next on the list for mincing
The next day I headed into town for the morning only to be disturbed by this;

I wasnt too sure about Santas little helper, well she wasnt too little and what was Santa doing in the Anne Summers shop anyway?

So after the meeting with the Bank it was home and wait for Mc Shug to turn up and give a hand, I sorted out the minced and herbed venison from the fridge and set up on the dining table in the conservatory;

The sausage skins and stuffer all came from Ascott Smallholdings a great place to buy from and good after sales service. I tend not to buy seasoning mixes annd dont ever use a filler but I do mix my own spices etc. here is Chillie, chillie and chives and BBQ;

The finished article are hung overnight and this time of year the conservatory is cool enough overnight even down here. the excess blood etc drains out and they get packaged up and either frozen or chilled for this weekends shoot breakfast. There is a good few months worth of sausage here for the boys and I and I have kept to one side about 2 pounds of mince for the christmas eve sausage rolls;

A fine way for an old buck to go, the rest is jointed and we shall enjoy a little roast on Christmas day.

A bit sodding Parky here today

2011-12-18T20:38:00.003Z

Today I spent a few hours looking at some very cold places, yes I know its colder elsewhere but the Thames has its own level of cold. We were fairly close to the latest monument to mammon;
Which doesnt look half as nice as the rest of the skyline;

Or seem to affect the christmas shoppers in Channel 4 middle class catering/ideal living world aka Borough Market;

Not a view of the market often seen.
Enough for now I'm too sodding cold to type!

Shoot day at Park Wood

2011-12-17T15:15:00.002Z

Thanks to Steve for the lift and use of his truck for the bag, a much understrength shoot today with many regulars absent and a shortage of beaters too, it didnt stop the birds flying well although we are seeing less Woodcock than usual and also not hitting them;
Thanks to all who turned up, it made a great day from what could have been a lot of hard work for no return.

A couple of days in the city

2011-12-16T19:35:00.005Z

So Claypig and I went to an auction viewing, Holts who descend en masse from their base in Norfolk to Hammersmith, its always a good sale with plenty of lots at various prices from seemingly reasonable to whoa would you look at that. Suburban Bush Whacker had me look at a 6.5 x 54 MS which went in the end for a reasonable 500 pounds;They always have the lots from the sealed bid sale there for viewing and we saw what was sadly a deactivated Bren gun;

A very nice Rigby (one of many) which exceeded its estimate by 100% as did all of the Rigby rifles in the sale despite them not being available to the US market;

An early pre 98 Mauser built into a Rigby;

As expected Rupert in his red trousers made aan appearance;

Not an isolated sighting either;

In fact its an urban camouflage scheme if you are seeking to hide in the auction room;

In fact the early lots of air pistols and rifles were selling so well that I passed my card to one of the collectors but sadly lost his number, if you are looking then this is the article, not mint but in VGC;

So a good sale for some especially if you are on the recieving end of the commission even more if you sold the lot that raised 231 000 pounds!

Sadly all the lots bar one were bid clean out of my clients maximum offers so we came away with a good Swarovski scope to fit to the Grendel project rifle which was collected today ready to be sent for rebarreling!

shock horror Newspapers may have lied!

2011-12-12T22:16:00.002Z

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16146527

Will the Guardian close or be prosecuted? Will it fuck bunch of mealy mouthed double standard wankers! That's all the press by the way!

Channel 4

2011-12-12T20:57:00.002Z

Is it dedicated to middle class pointing at chavs, gyppos and pikeys?
Not sure? Well take a look at the current schedules; middle class angst on homelessness. Middle class cooking lessons on ethically sourced food, middle class ethical home grown christmas?
Middle class pointing at the chav christmas lights and Gypsy excesses!
Says it all really, Channel 4 is a middle class outlet for those unable to feed at the publicly funded teat that is the BBC or don't they fancy leaving Hampstead for Salford?

Snoring Nora

2011-12-12T18:53:00.004Z

That's Sassy giving it full volume, must be her age poor thing!
She only had the normal walk in the woods and none of the work moving feed drums trying to finish before the rain came!

the 40 year experiment

2011-12-09T22:03:00.001Z

in european central control, is it over?

well either way call me dave should give us the chance to put right all those imposed wrongs!

Heads up

2011-12-04T14:49:00.003Z

Mc Shug came round, we set up the burner to boil out a couple of heads and sat there plucking ducks. The burner will be on for a couple of hours yet so I'll do them tomorrow;
So what else can you do on the picnic table in winter?

wow

2011-12-03T16:29:00.003Z

If you couldnt make today for whatever reason then you missed a great days shooting. The bag at tea break wasnt spectacular but by close of play it had all changed, definetly a game of two halves;

After we divvied up the three pigeons, two Woodcock and eleven pheasants we collected the rest of the years feed from Tim's farm and went on our way hopefully very happy with a good days work!

I've still to check the game book but its the biggest bag since November last year when we managed 11 woodcock.

No such thing as

2011-12-01T15:44:00.003Z

Bad advertising?
read on

They certainly arent daft even if they have upset a few locals its hardly going to dent profits.
I'm all for farms surviving through diversificatopn and brewing is great!
After all its not like the press to generate outrage all over nothing now is it?

Public sector unions and strikes

2011-12-01T13:44:00.002Z

Was it worth it? Really now be honest unless transport stops then no one really noticed the strikes. A few people were inconvenienced but really the airports ran smoothly and the only people out of pocket were the ones taking a day off work!
Dont get me wrong the right to industrial action is enshrined in law but with rights come responsibilities so I am aking if the Unions really do believe that George Osborne is lying and their pensions are fully funded then please put the figures out in the open so the rest of the public (The ones who pay for your pensions) can see if and who is lying!
You both cant be right! Its a simple fact that that clown Brown wasted billions in foreign aid and propped up his core electorate with pfi projects that have mortgaged away our future.
Now the coalotion has too pick up the pieces and its a broken mess. Labour gave us the current recession but I have no faith that Cameron will get us out of it. In fact I cant see us being in the clear for 10 years.
Politicians just cant be trusted, in fact the sort of person who leaves school wanting to get into politics shouldnt be allowed to be one!

For those of us who share my age range

2011-11-28T09:18:00.002Z

This is certainly a better ad than the waves breaking on the beach;

Ok so in Russia where this comes from you would think

2011-11-28T09:10:00.002Z

That they might be used to snow by now?

Nope it seems even russia has rednecks!

We didnt do the green thing in my day

2011-11-27T09:46:00.001Z

In the line at the supermarket, the cashier told an older woman thatshe should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't goodfor the environment.
The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the greenthing back in my day." The cashier responded, "That's our problem today. Maybe your generationdid not care enough to save our environment."
He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles tothe shop or off licence. They sent them back to the plant to be washed,sterilized and refilled and re-used. So it could use the same bottlesover and over. So they really were recycled.
But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have lifts and escalators inevery shop and office building.
We walked to the local shops and didn't climb into a 300-horsepowermachine every time we had to go to a supermarket.
We bought fruit and veg loose - and washed them at home. We didn't haveto throw away bins full of plastic, foam and paper packaging that needhuge recycling plants fed by monster trucks all day, everyday.
But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have thethrow-away kind.
We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobblingmachine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry theclothes.
Kids got hand-me-down (mostly hand made or hand knitted) clothes fromtheir brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing shipped fromthe other side of the planet.
But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in ourday.
Back then shops repaired things with funny things called spare parts -we didn't need to throw whole items away because a small part failed.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in everyroom. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief(remember them?), not a screen the size of Wales.
In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't haveelectric machines to do everything for us.
When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a waddedup old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut thelawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power and hand clippersfor the hedges.
We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a brightly lit, airconditioned health club to run on treadmills that operate onelectricity and then drink millions of bottles of that special waterfrom those plastic bottles.
But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a plastic cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.
We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new plastic pen,and we replaced blades in a razor instead of throwing away the wholeplastic razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school orwalked instead of turning their parents into a 24-hour taxi service.
We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of socketsto power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadgetto receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space inorder to find the nearest fish & chip shop.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we oldfolks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a young smartass.

Cheers clive

Order now for Christmas...

2011-11-27T09:36:00.000Z

The new radio1 Xmas CD with the cover versions you never thought you'd hear:
Susan Boyle - Dont you wish your girlfriend was hot like me;
Stevie Wonder - i can see clearly now;
John Terry - Ebony & Ivory
Katie Price - like a virgin;...
Rihanna - hit me baby one more time;
Michael Jackson - the drugs don't work;
Joseph Fritzl - love shack;
Stephen Hawking - im still standing!

Have I left anyone out yet?

If you are going to be stupid

2011-11-25T08:46:00.000Z

You'd better be tough!

Merry Christmas

2011-11-25T08:20:00.001Z

A little early perhaps but lets get them in whilst we can!

More trawling T'web for common sense

2011-11-24T11:33:00.002Z

Shamelessly pinched from Shouting at Cows

The Guardian has become somewhat of a bête-noire at Shouting at Cows towers, after its flagrant hypocrisy, pointless lifestyle tit-bits and it being awash with nepotism and mate’s favours saw it become merely a horrible waste of trees. The latest Guardian article to make us crush grapes left, right and centre, was a piece entitled ‘The 8 types of student’; nothing more than a crass generalisation about how all students are, essentially, bit part characters from The Young Ones.
Now we love a baseless jab as much as the next person, but during a time of an utterly bleak outlook for students with over a million young people unemployed, 1 in 5 graduates out of work and rising tuition fees, perhaps this wasn’t the most opportune moment to release a story which basically indicated that all students are just unemployable fools who don’t want to grow up. Because that’s why they’re unemployed, after all. Because they’re fools. I’m sure they had a jolly good guffaw about it down at Guardian HQ. “These students, eh! No wonder they can’t get jobs!”
I personally would have included a 9th category, that of the earnest student who got themselves into debt in hope of having a better future for themselves but now find themselves fucked, as there are no jobs available and can’t afford to do a 3 month unpaid internship anywhere. But that would require a degree of rationality. And there’s no room for rationalism in a newspaper that printed a story from the pen of Johnny fucking Marbles, about that era defining moment when he chucked a pie at Rupert Murdoch, making the entire opposition to News International look like a bunch of vapid twits who had drunk too much fizzy pop.
Inspired by this, I scratched my head to discover 8 types of people that would actually read the dross served up by The Guardian, and manage to make it through a whole copy without going berserk and scrawling ‘Football Weekly and arbitrary reviews of coffee beans does not a good paper make’, on the walls of their home, in what would be one of the more nuanced, constructive and eloquent mental breakdowns.

1) Champagne Socialists of the Islington Sect
Arguably the core support of the Guardian, and one we have documented previously, these lot give the Guardian its ‘lifestyle bible’ tag. Normally working in such vital industries as freelance B2B consulting, for these people, the paper will tell them what to read, what to wear, what to think, what to like, what to hate and what to sympathise with in order to be a morally sound person, yet at no point will it make them feel guilty for installing a brand new, £20,000 Scandinavian kitchen. It’s the sort of social group who will read it and pontificate about its stories involving Syria and Governmental spending cuts at dinner parties, before the cheeseboard and dessert wine is served.
They like the fact that the paper will give them moral footing, yet won’t be intrusive enough to suggest that maybe, if you really do care about the people that you espouse to, sending your children to private schools and building your own million pound dream house in Putney probably isn’t the most responsible use of your endless amounts of cash.

2) The Downtrodden Partner
Possibly the most common category amongst ‘sensible’ folk, these are the ones who go back to The Guardian time and time again, simply because it’s the least offensive of all the papers. The Telegraph these days resembles nothing more than the recorded utterances from a 1920′s Billiard Room. The Independent has been a farce ever since the Joann Hari debacle. The tabloids provide nothing but tits and cheap holidays to Spain, while The Mail/Express are COMPLETELY FUCKING MENTAL.
The Guardian has been the go-to paper for those who just want to know what’s going on in the world from the least offensive outlet. The problem these people have, is that for every decent story they read, they seen some bit of rubbish about how to knit jumpers for your apples, or the latest serving of complete tripe from Laurie Penny, concerning what quirky shite she’s been up to this weekend, or some baseless rubbish from her about how THE POLICE ARE TRYING TO BLOW UP THE WORLD! Then they read a half decent scoop again, and promise themselves that this time, it’s different. But it’s never different. Ever.

3) Political Hipsters
Everything is a commodity of status these days. Fashion, housing, haircuts, who can wear the most pointless hat; everything. A knowledge of Politics is no different. These people need easily digestible tit bits from the news to wow their friends down some ejjit-ridden pub in Camden, so they can be introduced to people as, “Oh yah, this is Toby. He’s into politics. It’s kind of his thing.” Sounds often heard from these people include, “fucking Barclays, not paying tax.” When you explain to them that GMG (Guardian’s owners) have been privy to the same tax evasion as Barclays, you’ll see their brain began to fry, whilst they get distracted by a passer-by in a particularly fetching pair of spray-on jeans. At this stage, the only way you can win their attention back is to wow their artistic side by doing something zany, like pissing into a biscuit tin and entering it for the Turner Prize. But by this stage the moment is gone, and you’ll probably be barred from the public house for indecent exposure. And require a new receptacle for your custard creams.

4) Painters and Decorators
Having worked briefly as a painter and decorator in Australia, one thing I can say first hand is that it’s a messy job. You require a lot of newspaper. Thankfully, the Guardian is absolutely massive, and allows you to cover everything from your sofa to toaster, to avoid any specs of paint staining it. Proving that everything has a use!

5) ‘Soppy wet, bleeding heart’ liberals
Caricatures and stereotypes are prevalent on both sides of the political spectrum. For every right wing nutter who thinks the homosexuals will cause the apocalypse, there’s some simpering berk on the left, who thinks that we can save the world through veganism. When Bob ‘£145k’ Crow secured a £50,000 a year deal for tube drivers by essentially blackmailing London, the comments section on the Guardian’s story was awash with remarks like ‘Good on you!’, and ‘Congrats! Good to see proper people getting money, rather than the bloody bankers.’ Now, despite the fact that £50,000 is an abhorrent amount of money for a job where all you have to push a button and pull the brake every few minutes, the tactic used by the RMT to get the raises was not too dissimilar from how the bankers secured their ridiculous salaries, by essentially saying, “Fuck it, we won’t work. Probably get a job in another country, tbh tbf imo, lolz.”
The problem though, is that to comprehend this would require thinking. And some people don’t have time for thinking. If it looks left-wing, and smells left-wing, then that’ll do. The Guardian ran a story where they pissed around Crow’s office and talked about his bust of Lenin, despite the fact that Crow is on £145,000 a year, which IS AN AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT WOULD MAKE VLADIMIR LENIN PHYSICALLY SICK! I might just sit in town tomorrow in a beret and Che Guevara T-shirt, counting a gratuitous amounts of £5 notes whilst fawning groups of people come up and shake my hand, congratulating me for ‘fighting the good fight!’

6) Opposition MPs
Life in opposition is brilliant. You can promise anything and everything because you’re out of power. You can’t produce any of it until you get voted into government. It’s like saying, “If I get elected, could I create a third tap on home sinks; hot, cold and 2004 Italian Chianti? Well, there’s only one way to find out.” [Ed: Fight!] After a half decent performance during the leadership debates, The Guardian strongly backed Nick Clegg, who once in power reneged on all his promises, most notably raising tuition fees. The Guardian then got behind the simpering twat Ed Miliband, holding him up a some sort of second coming of Christ, despite the fact that, not only is he not the best MP in Parliament, he’s not even the best MP in his own family. Opposition MPs therefore see the Guardian as this fantastic resource where they can have some mawkish interview about how much they just ruddy, love the poor, before expecting front page splashes under the banner, “Can this person save the economy?” After all, The Media is always in opposition. They can say whatever they like!

7) Alan Rusbridger’s extended family
Families tend to be supportive. My mum still recounts those moments on a freezing cold Sunday morning, where she’d stand and watch me play football with an enthusiastic look on her face, despite the fact that if you asked her what the offside rule was, she’d be left struggling. What with The Guardian being Rusbridger’s little pet project, I have no doubt that he gets a call from a similarly supportive member of his family every day, talking about how much they enjoyed that pretentious review of a minimalistic French film about a dilapidated country house, where not a lot happens, but we all grow stronger for the experience.

8 ) Middle Class Marxists
Possibly my favourite of the Guardian’s fanbase, these are the over pampered, under worked sect of the readership who have read a bit of Zinn and Chomsky, and think that the US are responsible for everything that’s gone wrong ever. Wars, illness, poverty, the cancelling of Knightrider, the death of former Carry On stalwart Hattie Jacques; everything. They have a modern day interpretation of Marxism, where they don’t want to become “Part of the system, Maaan!” but still want iPads and sweet-ass cameras, which sees most of them living with their parents till they’re 30. These people will attended rallies and bemoan police brutality, after the coppers get another tin of paint or piece of fence thrown at them. Whilst they will have no problem generalising an entire police force as ‘pigs’, if anyone dares to generalise a social group that they’re sympathetic with, then they’re just the worst bastards in the Western World.
The Guardian is great for these people, as they’ll print some rabble rousing story designed to stick the fire into easily influenced bellies of the ‘youf’, before printing a sycophantic obituary to Steve Jobs, or an advert for the latest cannon camera with a ‘60s’ filter. Cause it’s vintage, innit. I love vintage. It’s all, like, old n shit.
–
So there you have a detailed analysis of the Guardian’s readership. And it must make you proud, that in this time of the media being dominated by sensationalist reporting and opinionated columns, it’s nice to see that one paper can appeal to such a wide array of people. God speed, Grauniad!

Thanks for this as I wouldnt use the Guardian to line my chicken coop so apart from instinctively knowing when the Vegan, lefty Gay rights types employed as Managers by certain large public bodies are Guardian readers I certainly wouldnt get the chance to share such gems.

Animal welfare?

2011-11-23T20:03:00.003Z

Fucking complete mong I dont know if you are happy with my use of that description but as Ricky Gervais says dont confuse the person in the joke with the target.
This person obviously has no control over his dog, now labs especially untrained ones can be no end of trouble but the problems are usually tracked to the other end of the lead, got a problem dog?
Got a problem with where to exercise him?
Why not let him loose where you can cause the most damage?
What a complete and utter feckwit!
I have a springer bitch that likes deer far too much for her own good, we realised this early on and trained her to the whistle and when we see a deer we put her on the lead!

Whilst we are on this knotty subject whats good for the tree huggers seems to be ok for the Govt in Scotland
Although you can rely on auntie to sensationalise everything as per usual!

Me I'm going to be controversial here, I dont feel one way or the other for the animals as long as its done properly and with the minimum of fuss and stress, personally I prefer culled animals to enter the food chain and I do have a recipe for Badger ham, I dont hate killing, I actually quite enjoy the well executed shot, its just not the be all and end all, its the end of the stalk and the start of the food process!

Race and language?

2011-11-23T19:44:00.002Z

It is a term that offers welcome relief for a very basic need, and is recognised around the world - but not, it seems, in one corner of Wales.
Although the origins of the “WC” abbreviation for “water closet” are English, it has been adopted into everyday usage in German, Italian, Dutch and Hungarian.
Even the French use it, and we all know what they're like about diluting their precious language. But now councillors in Gwynedd, North Wales, are being asked to justify the decision to include the term “WC” on road signs in the area.
The issue is due to be debated at the next meeting of the county council’s “language subcommittee” following a complaint about the use of the non-Welsh initials, which it is feared could become a rallying point for nationalist sentiment.
The dispute hinges on the use of the abbreviation on a sign on a roundabout on a new £35 million Portmadoc bypass advising motorists about a nearby public convenience. And it's a particularly annoying dispute for two reasons, both of which assume a depth of stupidity in someone or other.
The first is that the “WC” sign is an internationally used and recognised symbol, and to object to it is to suggest that Welsh people are too ignorant and insular to know what it means.
The second is that the alternative Welsh word is “toiled”, and to suggest that English tourists won't be able to guess what that means is also pretty thick.
Let's face it, English visitors soon realise that Welsh is not a real language at all, but a made-up one which borrows words from French (“eglwys” = “church”, or “ffenestr” = “window”) and English (“dim bikio” = “no cycling”, “dim dympio” = “no dumping”, “trowsus” = “trousers”) with gay abandon.
Mind you, Portmadoc is no stranger to absurd and unnecessary controversy. Recently there was a row about a £650,000 bridge (“pont” - not French at all) over that very same bypass. The bridge was built to help bats cross the road.
Clearly there are no budget cuts for wildlife in Wales. In England and other civilised places, of course, bats can fly. Welsh bats would have to be different, wouldn't they?
On the University of Wales website there's an online translator which renders “bat” as “bat”. Can't think why we bothered to look it up, really.
Meanwhile a bit further south in Aberystwyth council chiefs are planning to fly a gypsy flag on the promenade. The plan will mean either removing another national flag from the display, or splashing out on a new flagpole.
Aberystwyth prides itself on the 52 flagpoles which grace its seafront, all flying European or other national flags. But town councillors have now provoked a row by agreeing to include the Romany Gypsy flag.
Supporters of the move say they want to mark the area's 'long tradition of gypsies'. But councillor Aled Davies suggested the move was a waste of money, saying 'Those flags are supposed to be for small nations, and the gypsies don't have a nation as such.
Should we really spend money on a flag and flag pole during the current economic climate?' The flags along the promenade are all either flags of the minority nations of Europe (so not gypsies, then), or flags of other EU member countries (so not gypsies, then), or flags of countries which send significant numbers of visitors to Ceredigion (ah. Now there's a clue. But ... a country?).
The GOS says: Please would you Welsh speakers not write in and tell me I've got it all wrong about Welsh because you had all those English and French words first. You didn't. That's bollocks (“bwlllwcs” - not a Welsh word, but one belonging to an ancient indigenous language I just made up. Rather like Cornish, actually).
The Welsh language was invented for a bet in 1973 by two men from Bridgend. The Welsh for “bet” is – you've guessed it - “bet”.
Welsh national dress was invented by Augusta Hall, an Englishwoman who objected to the Welsh habit of flitting round the mountains in the nude (“noeth”). The thing about gypsies reminds me of the most annoying aspect of the Dale Farm débacle: the claims that evicting the illegal travellers is “racist”.
Travellers are not a race. Gypsies are not a race. You and I aren't a race. Travellers, gypsies, you, me, we belong to the human race, but we have no right to invent little subdivisions and call them “races”.
Our DNA is 99.9% identical, we move, breathe, walk, eat, shit and fuck identically, whether we live in a condominium or a caravan, whether our parents came from Rawalpindi or Rochdale.
If you want to make yourself feel separate and special, or if you want to invent some reason why you are being discriminated against, then you need to use an expression like “ethnic subdivision of the human race”.
Then you can claim that people are being ethnically subdivisionist towards you. Or alternatively, you can invent yourself a special language and demand that everyone recognise it. But I think we've already dealt with that.
With thanks to the Grumpy Old Sod for injecting some common sense into the debate!

2011-11-19T16:56:00.001Z

Another sunny day dawned, more guns dropped out again due to personal problems etc but the 8 that turned up certainly seemed to have had a really good day of it, breakfast provided by Mike H and despite my best attempts at cremating both sausages and bacon we set off for the first half in good spirits. The bag at tea break was reasonably impressive even if the squirrel and pigeon took a lot of shots to bag;

On drive 5 Richard as usual bagged Charlie, at least this time he had loaded his gun, perhaps the amount of birds remains we find will lower in number. Anthony retrieved the dog fox from Sassy who had decided to retrieve it herself making a half decent job, Brush is in the soak now;

The finally tally was an impressive 3 Cock Pheasants and 3 hens, 3 pigeons, 3 Squirrels, 2 woodcock and 1 fox, quite the varied bag;

We decided to not count the cartridges this time but next time we will try and do a quick pound in lotto for the shots fired total. Joe certainly will be going for a high number.

Mc Shug hits the nail on the head

2011-11-18T19:12:00.002Z

a busy day at the office;or as we see here approximately 120 pounds of rutting fallow buck we recovered the bullet 150 grain soft point .308 from under the skin on the far shoulder;
a grand day out, more deer seen but not taken!

Been a bit quiet in here,

2011-11-17T13:45:00.003Z

Well thats because the phone hasnt stopped ringing, you know what its like, project teams get close to the end of the financial year and decide that they must use up the budget rather than carry it over to next year as the latest project management strictures that we have tied ourselves up in make moving money close to a capital crime!
So there I am busy looking at the various job offers when Neil pops this over to me, an old familiar friend and one I'm sure rings true;

lest we forget

2011-11-13T11:30:00.002Z

or youth today;

"absolutely pissed off! Spending the morning at a bowling tournament in Tolworth wankers couldn't even turn the fuckin rap music off for 2 minutes and when asked why spent the whole 2 minutes arguing between themselves! Youngsters wearing poppies! Fucking clueless! I won't be coming here ever again Charrington Bowl Tolworth you should be ashamed you bunch of cunts!"

Sale on, the cuts must be biting

2011-11-11T08:42:00.000Z

Thanks to Mr FMT for this one!

Where's Wally?

2011-11-08T17:57:00.002Z

To students of modern light rail or industrial history working where I was yesterday shouldnt be too hard even if I took the long way back;

Here Piggy piggy piggy

2011-11-07T09:25:00.002Z

Thanks to the Kiwi for this;
I cant post it or embedd it so click, let it load and play!

Thanks to Phil for GOS

2011-11-07T08:38:00.002Z

This is a revelation, perhaps I am not alone. Ok I know I am not but Phil sent this to me over the weekeend and whilst recovering from Beating and Sciatica I had a good read, the section on the referendum gets reproduced below completely;

"So, David Cameron. It's all fine and dandy to help the Libyans win the right to self-determination and democracy, but when we ask for the same thing at home it's a different kettle of fish.
Or should that be a different barrel of oil, perhaps?
It feels very odd to say this, given that in our opinion the Daily Mail is the worst newspaper in Britain – even worse than the Sunday Sport, which doesn't make any pretence to be a serious newspaper, but we must: the Daily Mail's strangely unattributed commentary on the recent Commons vote on an EU referendum is spot on, and accurately reflects both the facts and the mood of the majority of voters.
Basically, we've been sold down the river by successive governments. Nothing new there, then. In the Daily Mail's own words ... How's this for a starkly unequivocal promise? ‘The European Union has evolved significantly since the last public vote on membership over 30 years ago. Liberal Democrats, therefore, remain committed to an in/out referendum the next time a British Government signs up for fundamental change in the relationship between the UK and the EU.’
Such was the solemn manifesto pledge made to the British people by every Lib Dem candidate who stood for election less than 18 months ago. Yet on Monday night, guess how many of the party’s 57 MPs stood by that promise and voted for a Commons motion approving the principle of an EU referendum that would include an in/out option?
The shocking answer is just one — Adrian Sanders of Torbay — a solitary honourable man in a party of puppets. As with tuition fees, the other 56 apparently thought nothing of breaking their word to the people who voted them into power.
Or how about this for another unequivocal manifesto pledge? ‘We will be positive members of the European Union but we are clear that there should be no further extension of the EU’s power over the UK without the British people’s consent.
We will ensure that by law, no future Government can hand over areas of power to the EU or join the euro without a referendum of the British people.’ So said the Conservatives, every one of them, before that same election in May 2010 — and all praise to the 96 (out of 306) Tories who mounted the biggest rebellion in their party’s modern history on Monday night, keeping their word to their constituents and defying their leader’s orders to vote against the motion.
But given that manifesto pledge, what in the name of integrity possessed David Cameron to impose a three-line whip in the first place, instructing his MPs to breach their electors’ trust on pain of losing their government jobs or their hopes of promotion to the front bench?
And how profoundly depressing and unedifying to see those lifelong Eurosceptics William Hague and Michael Gove wriggling like maggots on a hook as they betrayed every belief about Europe they’ve espoused throughout their political careers. Cameron seems to think that running a country is like running a PR campaign.
It is not. Truly, there is something hideously wrong with the state of democracy in Britain today, when candidates say one thing to the electorate, only to be told by their party leaders to do the direct opposite when they are voted into the Commons.
Nowhere, of course, has that deficit been more glaringly apparent over the years than in the political establishment’s contempt for voters in all matters touching upon Europe. Indeed, the entire history of the relentless expansion of the EU’s powers since we joined what was then the Common Market in 1973 has been a tale of brazen deceit, broken promises and disenfranchisement of the electorate by all three major political parties.
Remember Labour’s 2005 manifesto pledge on the new European Constitution? ‘We will put it to the British people in a referendum.’ Nothing, surely, could have been more unequivocal. Yet when it came to signing the Lisbon Treaty, in which the new constitution was enshrined, Gordon Brown conveniently forgot about it. Or, rather, he fobbed off the public with the monstrous lie that Lisbon (referred to in official documents as ‘the Constitutional Treaty’) was not, in fact, a European Constitution at all.
The Tories and Lib Dems were no better. Both promised explicitly to put the Constitution to a referendum. But as soon as they were in a position to do so, they smirked and said: ‘No point now. Lisbon’s been signed.’
Wherever Europe is concerned, there’s always some snivelling shyster’s excuse, some weasel-worded legalistic technicality seized on by the politicians to wriggle out of their commitment to give the public their say.
And these days, when all else fails, there’s always that catch-all standby: ‘Sorry, old boy. The Coalition agreement won’t allow it.’
So it is that, one by one, the ancient powers of Britain’s once sovereign Parliament, paid for by the blood of our ancestors, slip away to Brussels — into the hands of unaccountable European Commission, where voters will never be able to touch them again.
And how can we boast of the West’s belief in liberal representative government while that abomination against democracy holds increasing sway over every aspect of our lives, from immigration control to working hours? Meanwhile in the Continent’s capitals, the Europhile political class pushes its ambitions ever further, enmeshing one nation after another in its anti-democratic web. Today, on the streets of Athens, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome and Dublin, we are seeing the disastrous consequences of those political ambitions.
For the slow-motion car crash of the euro — long predicted by wiser heads who understood the economic madness of a one-size-fits-all single currency for countries as diverse as Germany and Greece — is bringing misery and unemployment to countless millions.
Let the Mail lay all its cards on the table. This paper has no desire for Britain to pull out of Europe — and particularly not at a time like this, when withdrawal would add immeasurably to the uncertainties threatening our recovery and rocking the confidence of the markets.
For the same reason, we earnestly hope EU leaders will find a solution that saves the euro from disorderly collapse.
Inevitably, we believe, this will mean rewriting the EU constitution yet again, to bring the countries of the Eurozone under a single economic government, with more uniform tax and spending policies — almost certainly to be dictated by Germany.
Whether this can work in the long run is anybody’s guess. The Mail doubts it. But in the depths of this crisis, we see no other way. Herein, of course, lies great danger for Britain. For as a leopard never changes its spots, so the Euro empire-builders will surely seek to extend any new fiscal and regulatory powers beyond the Eurozone, with their eyes fixed firmly, as ever, on the wealth of the City of London.
But here, also, lies a golden opportunity, perhaps never to be repeated, to redefine our own relationship with the EU in a way that sets democracy back on its rightful throne at Westminster.
For what the Mail wants passionately — and we believe the overwhelming majority of Britons share our wish — is to reclaim powers over such matters as immigration, social policy and business regulation, which should never have been conceded to Brussels and which are daily threatening our ability to compete with developing super-giant economies such as India and China.
We have no illusions. Yet again, the Europhile élite will seek to introduce its constitutional changes in a way that leaves a loophole for the Coalition to duck out of its statutory obligation to hold a referendum on the transfer of any new powers to the EU.
So the Mail has a simple proposal: let there be a single-question referendum, asking the public if we wish to reclaim powers from Brussels, yes or no. True, it will not satisfy those who wish to withdraw altogether. But for them, better this than the nothing they will otherwise be offered.
As for the timing, let the referendum be called the moment a new treaty is drawn up. Or if it becomes clear that the new rules are to be introduced on the sly, without a treaty, then let it be held within 12 months from today.
There can be no more lies, no more deceit, no more creeping federalism without consent. This time, those unequivocal manifesto promises must be honoured. Only then will our political class redeem the disgrace of Monday night — and begin to reconnect with the people they were elected to represent.
Well said, that editor. And reporter Jason Groves went further to explain which powers we should be fighting to recover from Brussels ... Crime and Immigration Brussels was handed sweeping new powers to interfere in the British criminal justice system in the run-up to the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force in 2009 when some 90 new powers in this area were given over to the EU. They include the creation of a controversial European arrest warrant, allowing foreign countries to issue arrest warrants to Britons and try them in their absence, and the creation of a new, over-arching EU judicial body called Eurojust.
British judges and ministers are now barred from blocking the extradition of UK citizens to other EU countries — even where the charges appear to be trumped up. Eurojust already has the right to demand sensitive personal data about British citizens. It potentially has the power to investigate them directly, and even to initiate criminal investigations in this country.
The measures also allow for the UK’s DNA and fingerprint databases to be shared with other EU countries. EU rules on the free movement of labour are directly responsible for the unprecedented levels of immigration to the UK from Eastern Europe in recent years. It is questionable whether Prime Minister David Cameron can meet his pledge to cut net immigration to under 100,000 without breaching those rules.
The Lisbon Treaty will end Britain’s veto in many areas of immigration and border control, and ministers are now fighting an attempt by Brussels to repeal a law allowing Britain to deport asylum seekers to the country where they entered the EU. There are mounting concerns, too, about EU plans for ‘burden-sharing’ on immigration, which could see Britain forced to take more African immigrants arriving in southern European countries like Italy and Greece. EmploymentBrussels produces an endless stream of politically-correct social and employment law, which is blamed by business for crippling Britain’s international competitiveness and driving up unemployment.
The think-tank Open Europe estimates that EU employment legislation introduced since 1998 alone has cost the UK economy £38.9?billion. The controversial Working Time Directive — which limits the working week to 48 hours and places restrictions on shift patterns — is thought to cost Britain more than £3.5bn a year. It has played havoc with working practices in public sector organisations such as the NHS, and has resulted in a massive rise in the number of employment tribunals, which themselves impose a crippling burden on business. The number of tribunal cases soared by 56 per cent to 236,000 last year alone. One quarter of them stemmed directly from the Working Time Directive. Brussels’ obsession with employment rights has resulted in a new EU Temporary And Agency Workers Directive which will give one million agency workers in the UK the same rights as permanent staff, costing almost £2bn a year.
Brussels has already granted full employment rights to part-time workers and those on fixed-term contracts. Small firms cannot afford to give part-time workers these rights and are put off taking on new staff and growing their businesses for fear of being sued. Other legislation in the pipeline includes proposals to increase fully-paid maternity leave from six weeks to 20.
Economy Brussels is assuming ever-more control over the regulation of financial services, and is now pressing for a new tax on financial transactions which could cost the UK more than £15bn. The new transactions tax would deal a devastating blow to the City, which is by far the biggest financial centre in Europe. Protecting the City from the dead hand of Brussels is seen as a key Government priority. There are major fears, too, that further political integration among the countries that use the euro could allow them to force through protectionist changes to the single market that damage Britain.
Even the Lib Dems are worried that the upheaval in the Eurozone could result in new moves that would disadvantage British businesses. Britain contributes almost £4bn a year to the EU’s failed regional development programme, which recycles taxpayers’ cash into local economic development projects.
The UK gets back barely a third of what it puts in, and huge sums are lost to bureaucracy. Repatriating the cash would allow ministers to target it on British priorities. Over the seven-year cycle of the current EU budget, Britain will pay in almost £90bn but get back just £40bn — a net loss of £50bn.
Our net contribution is bigger than those of France, Denmark and Spain put together. The biggest beneficiary of the EU’s largesse is Poland, which will get £56bn over the period.
Human Rights The Charter of Fundamental Rights is having a deep impact on life in Britain. It was included in the Lisbon Treaty and has given EU citizens more than 50 new rights — including a wide-ranging right to strike.
Labour claimed it had negotiated a ‘protocol’ that meant the Charter would not apply in the UK. But recent rulings by the European Court of Justice suggest this so-called opt-out is worthless. In particular, the ruling that insurance companies can no longer offer different premiums to men and women based on gender — which will send premiums soaring for women drivers — appears to draw heavily on the Charter.
Other controversial rulings, such as the order to give prisoners the vote, stem from the separate European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This post-war convention, on which the Human Rights Act is based, is not strictly an EU measure, but many experts believe it would be almost impossible for Britain to quit the Convention without also leaving the EU.
Fishing The Common Fisheries Policy handed control of Britain’s once plentiful fishing grounds to Brussels. The policy is blamed for the destruction of Britain’s proud fishing industry, with the loss of thousands of jobs and billions of pounds in revenue. Britain’s annual cod catch fell from 300,000 tonnes a year when Britain joined the EU to a low of just 7,000 tonnes in 2007. Fishermen blame the dramatic decline directly on EU mismanagement.
Non-EU countries like Iceland have retained booming fishing industries and healthy fish stocks by keeping out competitors, like the Spanish, in a way that membership of the EU’s Fisheries Policy makes impossible. Withdrawing from a system that gives every EU country — including landlocked nations like Austria — a say in managing our fishing grounds is seen as essential in restoring them to health.
Farming The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which pays subsidies to farmers, costs £38bn a year — equal to almost one-third of the entire EU budget. The policy levies high tariffs on food imports, pushing up food prices in Britain and costing the average British family about £500 a year. The CAP’s damaging impact on exports from developing countries far exceeds any benefit from the EU’s foreign aid budget.
The scheme is also a byword for bureaucracy, with the average financial claim by an individual British farmer costing £742 to process, even for amounts as small as £5. The unfairness of the CAP was the basis for Britain’s EU rebate — but we still get back barely half of the cash we put in. Britain is already the second biggest net contributor to the EU budget after Germany. But this position is set to worsen dramatically in the coming years following a decision by Tony Blair to surrender much of the historic rebate secured in 1984 by Margaret Thatcher.
The GOS says: All jolly good, quite agree. And why won't any of this happen? Here's a clue: Mrs.Miriam Clegg, wife of Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg, has just got a job as “independent adviser” to Acciona, the world’s largest provider of wind farms.
The company, which specialises in energy, construction and services, was recently awarded a contract to run Britain’s first desalination plant on the site of the Thames Barrier.
Acciona has also built four wind farms in this country. Mrs.Clegg's day job is as a partner at DLA Piper, a London-based law firm, where she is in charge of international trade and EU law practice.
Before that she worked for the European Commission, where she met Nick Clegg who was an aide to Leon Brittan, the then-EU trade commissioner.
You see where I'm going with this?
The EU is a colossal gravy-train. With the companies that service it, tender to it, pander to it, feed off it, the whole mess is a giant trough of lucrative swill in which all the politician piggies and lawyer piggies and bureaucrat piggies can snout and snuffle as much as they like.
That's why we can't have the referendum we were promised. Because most of the politicians who control the government have got an eye to the main chance. I mean, they've got to have something to look forward to when the shine rubs off Westminster, haven't they, and a cushy job with the EU or one of its satellites companies will fit the bill rather well.
Bastards."

Deer ok but badgers Not

2011-11-06T08:45:00.004Z

So in Scotland the Govt wants to allow Civil Servants even more access to private land to cull deer where it feels deer cull numbers arent being met, now this is solely to protect trees, yes trees. I have no qualms personally about killing deer provided they end up in the food chain but with the DCS using helicopters to drive deer to waiting marksmen and then not letting on if the deer made it into the food chain or not is a bit hypocritical!

Lets face it the same Scottish Govt alond with the Welsh and The Main Govt when Benn was Defra minister denied farmers in TB stricken areas the right to cull badgers to improvine Bovine and then Human health!
I dont know about you but I doubt even hugh Furry Eat them all has a recipe for Caledonian Pine!
Wheres the logic in that? Oh the logic is the deer are property of absentee landlords from England (or so they say) and Badgers (I challenge anyone to encounter a Badger and describe it as cuddly) are infecting Cattle belonging to rich land owning farmers (or so they say). Perhaps its time for a change. Yes I do have a recipe for Badger ham!

Shoot day

2011-11-05T16:20:00.006Z

Despite doom and gloom forecasts of torrential rain the hardy few amongst us decided to turn out and face the extreemly mild weather. Breakfast was superb despitte the BBQ Charcoal being damp the boys did well to keep it hot enough! The day went well with lots of birds flushed in front of the guns and for once a fair few were hit! Tea break saw the bag building up; The post tea shoot session went very well, and the final bag was;

3 Cock Pheasants, 4 Hen Pheasants and 6 woodpigeons. A good day after all!

The end is nigh?

2011-11-03T15:51:00.001Z

The end is nigh

for those amongst us

2011-11-02T20:22:00.001Z

Not convinced about the no aetheist in the foxhole argument!

Shamelessly nicked from a mates facebook page, cheers Dippy!

Concise enough for you?

2011-11-02T12:25:00.002Z

Thanks to geezer 466 from the Army Rumour Service for this one;

So basically this deal involves a voluntary haircut that nobody volunteered for, the use of some money that won't exist when it's needed to leverage up 4-5 times by borrowing off a country that isn't going to lend, and agreement to be bailed out by a country that um, doesn't agree to be bailed out unless it votes to be

You've got to hand it to Merkozy. It was a stroke of fucking genius, this one.

Need explaining?

come on call me dave

2011-11-01T22:07:00.002Z

if the greeks can do it so can we http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15526719
Is it that the birthplace of democracy is asking for a referendum on its future that's upsetting the French and Germans or the risk of it ending the huge unelected social economic experiment with our money?

those craaashzy dutch

2011-10-29T17:16:00.002+01:00

As seen on the A259 this morning, for once the use of the descriptive phrase "a complete shed" is not only apt but true!

My work here is done

2011-10-24T09:09:00.001+01:00

Here being here someone suitable to hand the torch over who will unfailingly illuminate those for whom Mummy dressing them is still a regular event.
I can rust in piece knowing my work is done.

That said he seems to hunt urban versions but as I wont be at as many events as in previous years it may be a thin trophy wall for the rural set.

cutting it fine but the frost was late

2011-10-23T15:05:00.003+01:00

the tea lady picking sloes, now we have had a frost!

5 pounds ish of sloes picked and stalked, now we have had the frost. Its not the spirit that counts as much as how you use it! I put pound for pound sugar for sloes and pour in any clear spirit, gin, vodka or rum. Agitate daily etc then after a few months decant. Don't chuck away the fruit, pour over some cheap port and leave for a few months. Decant and seive out the stones, mix with catering chocolate into a mold leave to set (you can add nuts) and enjoy!

Another day on the shoot

2011-10-22T16:44:00.003+01:00

Not the biggest bag in history and although smaller than last year I suspect this is down to the mild temp and lack of promised wind.

Still early days yet and we still haven't had our fall of Woodcock yet!

Shamelessly pinched from a mates

2011-10-21T20:46:00.001+01:00

facebook page, so now you know what they think!

Been busy

2011-10-20T13:38:00.002+01:00

There were a few alternative logo's but I settled on this one, now to get it off to the printer!
Where's wally should resume with a vengeance over the next two weeks, at last!

Whilst sat doing techy type stuff

2011-10-18T13:07:00.002+01:00

In an attempt to earn a crust, I was searching the web for some minor humorous distraction and the great army rumour service came up with the goods in a thread called african infantryman;

That said all is not lost or wasted on being a surf bum, I have created a website for the local bowling league and also updated a load of measurement charts from my original construction QA and measurement manual which dates back to 1997. Time for an update and also to make it useable for users to purchase and download.

I've been busy

2011-10-16T15:27:00.000+01:00

So apologies to those expecting more than just words. I have been keeping up on the trapping front but so far this week has been quiet.I have deciided however to donate a rifle to the cause. The cause being a .17Hmr slaughtering instrument.
I have a suitably shot out greener take down in .22 rf which comes apart enough to allow fitting of a pistol grip vice the butt and rebarrelling with a suitable pipe. I also need to moderate this to make it quiet. I have no evidence of the minimum length I can go to to get the sound accpetable so testing will be fun.
Picture will come when I get the go ahead to build it as a section 1 and not a section 5.
until then I will hope my letter to the old bill finds favour.

our opening day

2011-10-08T20:26:00.002+01:00

not the biggest bag ever but certainly not the worst for us on our first day. The birds flew well enough but there was no wind and it was still very warm!
Afterwards a trip to Balham to bag another fox saw off a long day. Stalking in the morning perhaps?

Paul

2011-10-06T14:44:00.002+01:00

aka Claypig, for it is he told me he has played wih a certain south Amnerican one of these;

With a nod to Mr FMT and acknowledgement that our season opens on our shoot on saturday!

For those unable to view the recent pics

2011-10-03T16:38:00.003+01:00

This was the fox we believe was after our hens, either way he wont be bothering the kennels again;
Good looking and covered in his winter fur;

the clients trap in Balham had this young vixen inside the first night;

Like the rest she ended up with a .17 Hmr sleeping tablet and the brush in the bath;

This mornings efforts;

Talk about an early start

2011-10-03T08:30:00.003+01:00

Any earlier and I'll need a job as a milkman or night baker. 4 am this morning we are woken by a dog fox barking. Its barking because there is a vixen in the trap. Job 1 despatch the dog fox, after being hit with the .17hmr in the bonce he did his breakdancing routine and died. I then nipped the one in the trap, two tails in the tanning bucket;

A busy sunday already

2011-10-02T13:38:00.003+01:00

The pups were in the kennel Friday night when a fox disturbed them so back indoors now. I was heading up to South London to deliver a trap so on getting home on sat I set one on my front drive and this morning there he was. One .17 hmr sleeping tablet later;

A good sized dog fox with full winter fur, his brush is in the bucket now;

After cleaning up I get a text telling me that the Balham trap had worked, I set off. On getting there I could smell fox as I got out of the truck, its a true infestation. This young vixen of about 9 to 10 months was in the trap;

Not a happy teddy, brush is in the bucket;

So the long drive home begins and thoughts turn to cooked breakfast and walking the dogs. Its patently too hot to walk them so a trip this evening to the beach for a swim will be in order. Its only fair for them to have a break;

Even hotter today

2011-09-30T20:11:00.000+01:00

Dear BBC

2011-09-30T09:37:00.002+01:00

It may have escaped your notice that some of us viewers (or are we customers now?) live in the real world away from the airconditioned studio. I know you are doing the big outside live broadcast nowadays and even standing outside a darkened school at 1030 at night to prove it but its still pish, here yesterday the mercury hit 41 degrees centigrade, yes even in Eu money its fecking warm;

So I went stalking and spent most of the evening sat in the shade of a big oak swatting the midgies and avoiding the sheep poo!

How unlucky is that?

2011-09-28T19:30:00.002+01:00

Picking up an excited cocker whilst his siblings are bouncing around trying to get into the truck proves the point about small dogs big poo!

unseaonably warm weather

2011-09-28T14:13:00.000+01:00

for this time of year but who am i to complain!

Todays humour

2011-09-20T08:57:00.000+01:00

PARAPROSDOKIANS

I had to look up "paraprosdokian". Here is the definition: "Figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation."

"Where there's a will, I want to be in it," is a type of paraprosdokian.

1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.

3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

5. We never really grow up; we only learn how to act in public.

6. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

8. Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening,' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

10. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

11. I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.

12. Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says, 'In case of emergency, notify:' I put 'DOCTOR.'

13. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

14. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.

15. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

16. Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.

17. You're never too old to learn something stupid.

Normal blogging will resume shortly.

The Midland Game Fair 2011

2011-09-19T13:13:00.004+01:00

So trailer loaded and ducks lined up ready, must be the final show of the year, thank god for that one!

The Tea Lady had the stand in good order in no time, The Suburban Bushwhacker came along and had a wander round, the weekend topped off by meeting Ghost Rifle, on his feet after being unwell;

The showground filled up quickly as usual on the saturday morning, as per usual there were plenty of examples of what some people thought might be suitable attire, yes it was trying to rain;

Nice Boots;

Well boots are good and the legs went a long way;

More nice boots;

1st evening and we lit the Ozpig, a few beers and some venison meatballs later;

And focussing became a bit harder;

The next day dawned bright, even the solar panels charged up the batteries for a while. Then the dreaded or celebrated red/pink cords put in an appearance;

Plum coloured here, almost a match for the Burgundy throwing dummy;

The ice cream van seemed to be a popular spot to ambush the wearers;

Bright;

The pink sweater was watching the dog scurry run offs, it attracted a fair crowd, would have preferred them spending but at least they kept the flyball idiots and their schreeching announcer.out of the arena;

Where's wally?

2011-09-14T18:23:00.002+01:00

Well apparently here today! A quick break before a job interview which went well!

Chatsworth House country fair 2011 part 2 the positive side

2011-09-05T16:27:00.012+01:00

On the drive in through Matlock we saw a nicely classic converted forward control camper;

2 hours work and the trade stand is built, left setting up the racking and display till the next morning;

A quick set up the next morning and the day was spent wandering around the grounds, having spent the best part of £500 to be there somehow another £13 to look at the waterfall was a bit of a pisstake, still plenty to see as folk were setting up;

A Daimler Dingo? being delivered;

Ah a saracen, been rattled around in one of those, West Belfast circa 1983;

The Musical ride of the Blues and Royals getting some rehearsal time in;

Opening up for business on day one, overcast skies and not many punters;

The clay pigeons get bigger every year;

Some punters start to roll in;

The showground starts to fill up but very slowly;

On the plus side Sassy came along to be a reluctant model;

Fortunately not a reluctant demonstrator, it always amazes me how many gun dogs cant do simple retrieves and have no patience to wait for the go command;

Well I suppose the positive side is that we are back now and getting ready for the final event of the year, the Midland at Weston Park. I will leave the final word to a fellow trader;

"Trader (holding pheasant dummy).."morning sir"

Joe Public "What's that?

Trader "A pheasant Dummy"

Joe Public"I'm not a dummy I asked you a civilised Question!!!

"Trader" No sir its a pheasant dog training device I throw it for the dog to retrieve"

Joe Public " That's cruel it must hurt"

Trader (puzzled irritated but polite)"Hurt what sir?"

Joe Public"The Pheasant"

Trader (bewildered)"But its dead"

Joe Public" Well it would be if the dog got it"

Trader"Right Sir" (retires before a sarcastic reply gets him thrown off the site)"

Says it all really!

Chatsworth House country fair 2011

2011-09-05T16:14:00.002+01:00

Well for the second year running we attended, this time it was chaos personified, 6 showers and 6 loos of which 4 of the showers worked to luke warm and were only switched on on day 1 of the fair, what on earth the folk who have been building trade stands all week are supposed to do god knows, a little diesel spent on the generator creates a lot of good will.
Chatsworth is in many ways a typical country fair, a big arena with a few things taking place which the vast majority of folk strung out in the trade stands dont get to see. Typically you are ranged randomely in lines with very limited space at the rear to admin your business and strict limits on movement and access. The show has gone the way of many over the years, away from the main arena and the £5 burger stands the trade seems to be dominted by car dealerships and jacuzzi sales.
Now the show does stand out for its remarkable gun dog events but surely the gun dog events would have a mini gun dog traders village alongside where competitors and spectators can buy the specialised items from traders. No we were told, it would be too exclusive!
so exclusive like the craft tents or the food halls?
I'm sorry Chatsworth but if you want the fair to have any country feel left in it and not become the same as the other big money making efforts on the circuit where the countryside is only driven through to get to an overpriced ticket booth for an expensive mall of housewares and market stalls then you need to put a real emphasis on the gun dogs and have main arena displays with the commentry pointing out that the displays are actually showing what tthe competitors are doing in the 3 or 4 arenas near the river.
Also how can the competition winners pick their prizes if it means spending an hour walking around the show looking for the sponsors stand?
Come on Chatsworth get a grip.

Another day in the woods

2011-08-30T13:49:00.004+01:00

Filling feeders, checking birds and putting new feeders in place. Over 40 put out now, when I get around to renumbering I suspect it will be close to 60. No excuses for straying birds this year:

Logging on?

2011-08-27T17:11:00.002+01:00

Things have been a bit hectic and busy here the last few days but not so bad that I couldn't get a delivery out of the door;

So that's what a ton of firewood looks like!