Clarkson again

delilah said:

I would say that in comparison to Mr Clarkson we on here are mere amateurs when it comes to hurtful comment :

In an article for the paper published on Friday, Clarkson wrote that he loathed Meghan “on a cellular level”. He said he was “dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her”.

Click to expand...

But that comment is a direct lift from 'Game of Thrones' , which many of us would understand and take at face value. Anyway, given subsequent behaviour , Meghan seems to be more like Cercei [ receiver of the 'walk of shame'] than most of us could have imagined.
I have zero interest in cars or machines , but have thoroughly enjoyed Clarkson s Farm , and perhaps, Delilah , you could just enjoy the programmes for what they are - entertainment with more than a dash of reality and farming thrown in.

Hmmm, seems a lot on here are helping Amazon to make even more money to not pay taxes on.

There was an interview with a lady called Ashley Mullenger on radio 4 last week. She swapped career from office to commercial fishing, wrote a book about it, won fisherman of the year 2022.

She referenced Clarkson farm and I think hit the nail on the head. She said he’s made farming accessible to a lot more people.

Like him or not, he’s gotten people talking and interested in what we do, shown the harder side of things and been quite open that there’s not a lot of money to be made from the actual farming.

The fact that he’s not everyones cup of tea is irrelevant.

I think on balance the effect is positive.

yoki said:

Used to be very anti-amazon, daughter who pays for the prime is very pro-amazon.

But while I won't ever sing their praises, I can no longer argue with her* that they don't deserve our business because I'd be wrong, they do what they do extremely well and have become massive on the back of that primarily.

There must be at least 10 people who use her prime account for buying stuff if required yet we can all have out own name and shipping address on the account and switching between them is so simple and easy it's ridiculous. If government and it's associated agencies could do IT anything like as competently and efficiently it would transform the country.

Couriers and delivery used to be a bit of a fly in the ointment with their service, so what did Amazon do?, ..........................they set up their own bespoke Global delivery network and done it themselves.

In this day and age of failure and mediocrity, it's hard to knock someone or something who does something really well.

* - I got fed up loosing!

Click to expand...

I agree, how come people like Amazon, Ebay, Netflix etc can be so efficient, and yet when government or the civil service get involved, it all seems the opposite.

Would this be written by or about anyone else in agriculture? In todays Daily Telegraph.

Jeremy Clarkson stops growing food in some fields as he makes more from eco handouts​

The celebrity farm owner warned that people are being incentivised not to produce food, so more has to be imported from abroad

Sarah Knapton, SCIENCE EDITOR28 April 2024 • 4:22pm

Related Topics

• Global warming,
• Jeremy Clarkson,
• Farming,
• Agriculture,
• Mark Spencer,
• Healthy food

250



Jeremy Clarkson has warned British farmers are being incentivised not to produce food CREDIT: Amazon MGM Studios
Jeremy Clarkson says he has stopped growing food in some of his fields because it is more profitable to take government eco handouts.
Since Brexit, farmers no longer receive subsidies for producing food, yet they can still get payments for environmental schemes under the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).
Clarkson, who has owned his Diddly Squat farm in Chipping Norton for 11 years, warned British farmers were being incentivised not to produce food, meaning more had to be imported from abroad.
Writing in the Sunday Times Magazine, he said: “I have signed up to the government’s eco-friendly grant scheme and will be planting things that aren’t food in three fields.
Advertisement



Advertisement : 1 sec

“They’re good for the soil and they’re good for my bank balance. But it means I’m not growing stuff people can eat.
“I know one chap who has taken 60 per cent of his farm out of food production and he’s not alone. So yippee. All that stored carbon and all of that fixed-in nitrogen.
“But what if you want some bread? You’ll have to get a loaf made from wheat that was grown abroad. And how’s that good for global warming?”

Clarkson has owned his Diddly Squat farm in Chipping Norton for 11 years CREDIT: Amazon MGM Studios
Under the SFI, farmers can receive money for turning their arable and horticultural fields into bee friendly wildflower meadows, grassland or planting species that can feed winter birds.
The scheme has proved so popular to struggling farmers that last month the government was forced to issue a crackdown, warning that growers could only take 25 per cent of their land out of direct food production for environmental projects.
The government said there was evidence of farmers taking large areas of their land away from food production, with the scheme “being used more than intended.”
Advertisement

Farming Minister Mark Spencer said the initiative: “was always intended to be implemented on smaller areas of land”.
He added: “Food production is the primary purpose of farming and we are taking action to clarify this principle.”
The government has received more than 15,000 applications and issued over 14,000 agreement offers and said the vast majority of land in the scheme continues to produce food “in a more sustainable, resilient way that’s good for both food production and the environment”.

Reliance on imports​

In an interview with The Telegraph this week, Kaleb Cooper, Clarkson’s farm manager, warned there was too much reliance on cheap imports, and not enough support for growers.
He argued that if Britain continues to fail to produce sufficient food it could lead to internal conflict should there be another pandemic or global war.
“What happens? England’s at war with itself,” he said.
The government said it was committed to British farmers producing at least 60 per cent of the food eaten in the country.

Ffermer Bach said:

I agree, how come people like Amazon, Ebay, Netflix etc can be so efficient, and yet when government or the civil service get involved, it all seems the opposite.

Click to expand...

Don't start me!

melted welly said:

Like him or not, ................

Click to expand...

That's the problem, some people just can't get past personal prejudices to view a situation objectively.

And it applies to a lot more things than "Clarkson's Farm".

colhonk said:

Hmmm, seems a lot on here are helping Amazon to make even more money to not pay taxes on.

Click to expand...

That is the Government's problem to sort, and they could.
But it would impact on their Party donors, or on the revolving door between MPs government positions and future lucrative directorships.
So they won't.

Ffermer Bach said:

I agree, how come people like Amazon, Ebay, Netflix etc can be so efficient, and yet when government or the civil service get involved, it all seems the opposite.

Click to expand...

Firstly its an assumption that Amazon etc are efficient secondly people say the government is inefficient because, well Tory newspapers tell us it is. Getting my driving license etc. are pretty easy too. I've had nightmares with utilities etc trying sort stuff and Watchdog is never done exposing poor customer service.

What the tech companies are good at is hollowing out existing business models and making them work by paying less for stuff. Lower wages, more insecure work. UK supermarkets are frighteningly efficient, but you guys aren't fans.

'Government' isn't a business. We could build HS2 in record time like other infrastructure if we could ride roughshod over land owners. A lot of problems are because we won't spend.

Interested in farming said:

Firstly its an assumption that Amazon etc are efficient secondly people say the government is inefficient because, well Tory newspapers tell us it is. Getting my driving license etc. are pretty easy too. I've had nightmares with utilities etc trying sort stuff and Watchdog is never done exposing poor customer service.

What the tech companies are good at is hollowing out existing business models and making them work by paying less for stuff. Lower wages, more insecure work. UK supermarkets are frighteningly efficient, but you guys aren't fans.

'Government' isn't a business. We could build HS2 in record time like other infrastructure if we could ride roughshod over land owners. A lot of problems are because we won't spend.

Click to expand...

Name a recent gov project that’s run on time and budget!? Which party is in power seems irrelevant, the civil servants have zero respect for budgets with no come back when it goes wrong.

Amazon are profitable because they are slick and invested heavily in infrastructure.

If the government had performance pay we may see different results

Doing it for the kids said:

Name a recent gov project that’s run on time and budget!? Which party is in power seems irrelevant, the civil servants have zero respect for budgets with no come back when it goes wrong.

Amazon are profitable because they are slick and invested heavily in infrastructure.

If the government had performance pay we may see different results

Click to expand...

The gormless BBC recently done a hit-job on the cost of Northern Ireland's new transport hub which has risen from £295m to a projected £340m.

But actually, if the BBC actually knew anything about such things they'd realise that Translink have done remarkably well by public sector project standards, especially given that the project was running over a time of huge rises in building materials.

As you say the overspend on public sector projects is generally much, much, higher than that, and with zero accountability of those directly involved.

Bald Rick said:

Had to go and dig the piece out of the recycling box (brownie [can you say that these days?] points @delilah ?) to check I was right … and I quote:

Click to expand...

I think the currently accepted phrase is 'points of colour' rather than 'brownie points' .

Bald Rick said:

“…. I have signed up to the government’s eco-friendly grant scheme and will be planting things that aren’t food in three fields. They’re good for the soil and they’re good for my bank balance. But it means I’m not growing stuff people can eat. I know one chap who has taken 60 per cent of his farm out of food production and he’s not alone. So yippee. All that stored carbon and all of that fixed nitrogen.
But what if you want some bread? You’ll have to get a loaf made from wheat that was grown abroad. And how’s that good for global warming? And will it have been grown under the same stringent rules that we have here? Or will it have been fertilised with human faeces? You face a choice then. Do you want net zero in the U.K.? Or do you want to eat a Mexican’s turd?”

Click to expand...

Good piece (should have left out the human faeces bit though, what with much of our land having it applied too).

delilah said:

Good piece (should have left out the human faeces bit though, what with much of our land having it applied too).

Click to expand...

Wow slowly coming around.

lloyd said:

Wow slowly coming around.

Click to expand...

Been in the sun all afternoon, I think the shock of it has gone to my head.

I thought Mexican Turds were cheap cigars.
But then, we still enjoy Chocolate Brownies here, and we haven't been locked up yet.

delilah said:

Been in the sun all afternoon, I think the shock of it has gone to my head.

Click to expand...

well you certainly haven't been in Wales, rain rain rain here!