Coffee and punctures Tales from the Vale

10 November 2021

Coffee and punctures

Great new coffee house in King’s Stag attached to the Green Man pub with an attractive almost Scandi-minimally-decorated interior.

I was going to say that the outstanding feature is the enormous map of Dorset, dating from 1890 which covers an entire wall. It must be 20 x 8 feet – couldn’t keep my eyes off it as I sipped my Flat White (not entirely sure what a Flat White is).

But it’s not the café’s finest feature: the outstanding attraction is Catherine, the charmingly bespectacled manager who is warm, welcoming and efficient, as are her staff, Jade and Kim.

The coffee is excellent and the baguettes and pastries, made in the pub’s kitchen, look enticing. But among the goodies on sale is something I’ve never seen

in any other coffee house, and it’s probably not made in the kitchen; puncture repair kits for cyclists.

‘We’re in the middle of a hugely popular cycling area,’ Catherine explains. It makes perfect sense. There’s been real thought behind this new business – well worth a visit.

The wiser sex

My mate James near Okeford Fitzpaine has got a new girlfriend, Sophie.
This, in itself, does not come as

a surprise as he’s mailed with similar news many times. ‘Come over for a coffee and meet her,’ he suggested. This is Man Speak for: could you check whether

A – She is the most gorgeous, charming, elegant, witty woman in the world
B – I’ve made a disastrous

mistake
And he generally wants an opinion within 10 minutes of me meeting the new girlfriend.
Now, this could be a little tricky, me blurting out a decision about the lady while she is actually with us so, we’ve developed a totally foolproof and brilliant formula for me stating whether it’s answer A or B.
If it’s answer A, after 10 minutes I’ll take a big swig of coffee and say, ‘A bloody good brew that’ or similar, but the first letter of the sentence is an ‘A.’

And if it’s answer B I’ll say, ‘By ‘eck, James, that’s good coffee.’ Clever stuff, you’ll agree: and as hard to fathom as Germany’s ‘impenetrable’ code during WWII. So, I went over and after 10 minutes I put my empty coffee mug down and said, with particular emphasis, ‘A bloody good coffee that.’

Sophie immediately laughed and said, ‘I’ve passed the mate test, then.’
James and I were astonished. ‘Oh God,’ Sophie said, highly amused at our embarrassment, and not in the slightest put out, ‘women do it all the time. The only difference is that we’re just that bit more subtle about it.’ James, suddenly remembering

‘a coffee’ a week earlier with Sophie’s mate, said, ‘did you do that with me when Anne came over?’

‘Didn’t you know?’ Sophie asked with incredulity.
James and I were too discombobulated to ask how women organise their mate tests (full report next issue, as they’re coming over for supper).

We should have learnt from history: the German code was broken early in the war and they had no idea. Germany was astonished when the fact was announced in 1974. The Germans should have got an all-women team to devise their code – we’d still be working on it.

A bridge too far

Big mistake in the original version of the previous mag about Lt Salkeld who won a Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny (as it’s called if you’re a Brit) or (if you’re Indian) the First War of Independence. One man’s rebel is another man’s freedom fighter.

I told the Editor, Laura, that there was a mistake. She reminded me that I wrote the article, so that’s enough on that subject!

But it leads me to…

The proud ‘Coward’

…a great obituary many years back in The Times. A big cheese in the City had an excellent
war record as he received two (bloody two!) Victoria Crosses. We know how grudgingly these prized medals for the highest, almost insane, levels of bravery in the face of an enemy, are awarded.

His elder brother also fought in the war. And he did very well. Yet, his nickname in the City was ‘The Coward.’
It says a lot about English humour that he didn’t mind this epithet.
He was given his nickname because during the war he only got one Victoria Cross!

Chutzpah

There’s a definition of chutzpah: it’s when having been convicted of murdering your mother and father, you apply to the court for clemency because you’ve recently been orphaned. Sometimes chutzpah is funny, sometimes it ain’t.

‘Mike,’ a DFL (Down From London) booked a pub restaurant

table for four on a Saturday evening – prime 8pm slot at the pub’s busiest evening.
In the meantime he read a review of another place and booked a table there, without cancelling his first choice.

It is courteous, and in diners’ own interests, to arrive at the booked time. But times are hard, and the first restaurant kept the table until 8.30 before releasing it – too late, and they lost four covers.

You don’t need to be a genius to understand that hospitality operates not just on a knife- edge, but on fork and spoon- edges, too. ‘Mike’ didn’t like the second restaurant, so next time the selfish DFL booked his first option again. And the idiot did it in his own name. The proprietor told ‘Mike’ exactly what he thought of him. Good for the boss. The customer is not always right.

Lockdown inanity

We’re fortunate in that our garden (I prefer to think of it not so much as ‘woefully neglected’, but ‘natural and organic’) we enjoy a lot of bird life.
At one time during what many refer to as the ‘summer’ (playing fast and wild with the English language) we had three young wrens who would caper excitedly just outside the French windows. You’ve got to give names to regularly-visiting birds. We called them René and Renata, but struggled for a third wren-based moniker, until a lightning strike of pure brilliance came to me – Renoir.
So that’s what we called them, until another appeared for a few days, the three Rs seemed to accept her (or him) and then he (or her) vanished. So we refer to it as Renegade (Kae’s idea).
For a week or two we had a tiny robin – Robbie was too dull. I suggested that our new friend was too small really to be called a robin, he was more a robinette.

Kae immediately said, ‘we’ll call her (or him) Tap.’
Well, that threw me so she explained the French for a water tap is ‘robinet.’

Continuing our inanity, we needed names for the pigeons: again, always seeking originality, ‘Pidgie’ simply wouldn’t do.
Our first pigeon we named him Walter (after an old actor, think he was in the Archers c.1873). For our second, we went for Lieutenant Pigeon (there was an amusing band in the 70s called this which issued a bizarre song called ‘Mouldy Old Dough’ that inexplicably went quite high in the charts. If you want a real laugh YouTube Stevie Riks impersonating Freddie Mercury singing this song (no need to Google, I did it for you. There’s three minutes I’ll never get back – Ed.).
And we needed a name for our other pigeon. Obviously he was soon Second Lieutenant Pigeon. Then in late summer came the crows: the first was, of course, named Russell. The second was Sheryl (we sort of think Sheryl Crow is an American singer but can’t be bothered to Google her in case she isn’t).
Then we just gave up.

by Andy Palmer

Dorset’s first woman driver | Looking Back

Editorial team

10 November 2021

She was Dorset’s first woman driver, and she documented her motoring adventures in a diary written almost 120 years ago. Roger Guttridge shares the story of Mary Farquharson.

The diary – hand-written and unpublished – describes the eventful travels of Mary Farquharson, wife of village squire Henry, of Eastbury House, Tarrant Gunville. During her first year on the road in 1902-03, her 10-horsepower Panhard-Levassor took the ambitious motorist as far afield as Oxford, London, Lincoln and Dublin. But it was never
plain-sailing. Punctures and breakdowns punctuated every trip and Mary’s mechanic, whom she refers to only as
‘Black’, was required to follow on his motorbike to deal with any problems. ‘I believe she was not only the first woman driver in Dorset but in the south of England and possibly the whole country,’ her son, Peter, told me in 1991, when he was 80.

A wedding in Oxford

Mary’s first diary entry on July 1, 1902, describes a trip to Oxford for a wedding the following day. ‘Marcia and I were ready to start at 10 o’clock,’ she writes. ‘We waited an hour and then found out the pump would not work, so Black was wired for. ‘We eventually started at 2 o’clock and met Black on his bicycle. We then stopped for the pump to be done.’
The travellers resumed their journey only to hit trouble again as they approached Melbury Abbas: their brakes weren’t working. Wisely, they decided not to proceed down the steep hill into the village and sent to Shaftesbury for help. Two hours later, five men arrived and lowered the car down the hill on a rope. Mary writes: ‘We went on to Shaftesbury and stopped one hour there while the brakes were seen to. It was 7 o’clock when we left there, we having been five hours doing 10 miles.’ At Salisbury the 1901 Panhard had a puncture and the novelty of a car undergoing roadside repairs attracted a crowd of curious onlookers.

When the roofless vehicle finally left the cathedral city at 9pm, it was ‘quite dark and pouring with rain’.
Mary and Marcia reached Andover at 10.45 and stopped for some supper and a change of clothes, but at 11pm were ‘turned out (closing time) having only had a few mouthfuls’.
The diary goes on: ‘Andover to Newbury in pitch darkness, and we did not know the way, was not a very enjoyable ride.
‘The brakes are again not acting, and we came to some steep hills, and once the car got out of control.
‘We occasionally woke up a cottage to inquire the way. We reached Newbury at 2.30 and were stopped by a policeman, who wished to take our names, as we had only one lamp burning, the other having just given out.’
They managed to give the officer the slip by driving off when he popped into a hotel to write down their names.
What was left of the night was spent at another hotel but by 6am they were off again.
Two miles from Oxford the countershaft bracket broke, forcing the travellers to abandon the Panhard in a barn and complete the journey in a hansom cab.
They reached the wedding venue with barely an hour to spare.

Horse not required

A week later, during a trip to Maidenhead, the brakes failed again – this time on a hill marked ‘Dangerous’.

‘The car was fast getting out of control,’ says Mary, who was with husband Henry and Black.
To avert disaster, they ran the car into a bank, where it became firmly stuck.

‘We enlisted some haymakers, who lent us a horse to endeavour to extricate the car,’ writes Mary.

‘The horse proved utterly useless and did more harm than good, as it only proceeded to kick.
‘The men then managed to pull it out themselves and with great difficulty we got down the hill and pushed the car into Romsey, with both tyres badly punctured.’ Returning from a trip to Lincoln, the car collided with a horse and dogcart driven by a small boy. The Panhard’s hubcap was bent but Mary fails to tell us what happened to the boy and his horse and cart.

Thrill seeker

Mary’s most ambitious journey during her first year as a motorist took her to the famous Gordon Bennett motor race near Dublin in 1903.

On this occasion Black was required to leave early in the slower 1898 Daimler luggage car. They crossed the Irish Sea from Anglesey with more than 50 other cars on what must have been one of the world’s first car ferries.

Mary, whose husband held the dubious honour of being the first driving to crash a racing car at Brooklands, noted of the Dublin event: ‘To see the cars thunder by was most thrilling, the speed being terrific.’

by Roger Guttridge

Fighting for (or with!) our footpaths

Editorial team

10 November 2021

My husband looks more like Indiana Jones than a rural dog walker, always armed with secateurs to hack back bully-boy brambles and nettles or to rescue my hair from a tangle of overgrown thorns. What I’d regarded as just an irritating inconvenience became much more alarming when a lovely blind chap we know had his cheek slashed open by head-height brambles overhanging the main footpath into town. His trusty guide dog had no chance of alerting him to that.

Who is responsible? Currently, Dorset County Council is conducting its statutory 10-year review of the Rights of Way Improvement Plan (RoWIP), with the public recently invited to share concerns. The plan sets out management and development of an improved right of way and greenspace network for the next ten years. Dorset’s rights of way network is huge – 4,700 footpaths, 1,700 bridleways and 37 byways, all totalling nearly 3,000 miles in length. A new RoWIP will be drafted this summer, with public consultation on the new plan held between Octpber and December 2024. Rights of Way improvement plan – Dorset Council

This was one of countless footpaths we have encountered this year – it goes directly ahead. When you’re six miles in, you can’t simply turn around – usually this requires sourcing a hefty branch and simply beating our way through, dealing with the stings, the scratches, the hard work and the inevitable delay this entails – Ed

Path protection

Jan Wardell is the Dorset Area Footpath Secretary for Dorset Ramblers, which has over 1,400 members. She welcomes the current consultation. She said: “There is a mixed picture of the state of public rights of way across the county. Generally, in the north west of Dorset and on Portland, footpaths are predominant, whereas in the centre of the county bridleways are prevalent. Footpaths require more maintenance, not least because of the path ‘furniture’ such as stiles.”

When a footpath is defined across a crop correctly, it becomes a joy to walk on. Image – Laura Hitchcock

Founded in 1935, the Ramblers Association has been at the forefront of protecting rights of way. Its aim is to protect and improve paths, both by practical work on the ground and through law. A network of volunteer path maintenance teams and Rambler footpath officers go out in all weathers to keep paths clear, install way markers and replace stiles. Working with landowners and local authorities, they prioritise paths most in need of work. They help claim new paths for walkers and many volunteers campaign on a local level.

Reporting issues

Jan Wardell: “The best way to ensure that public rights of way are kept open is to use them – this helps keep down up-growth on paths. Also be sure to report any problems encountered to Dorset Council.”

No walker wants to tread on a crop, but when a path isn’t left, there’s not much choice. Image: Laura Hitchcock

Visit http://www.dorset-ramblers. org.uk/rights-of-way/ on how to report path problems to Dorset Council. Jill Crouch, Engineer, Highways Dorset Council advised: “Most Parish and Town Councils have a portfolio holder or a Rights of Way Liaison Officer to whom footpath issues can be reported. You can also use the online service which only takes a couple of minutes and has an interactive map.”

See this facility here https:// mapping.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/ rightsofway/reportproblem/

Footpaths through farmland are trickier. Jan Wardell explains: “A perennial problem is ‘ploughing and cropping’. If you’ve ever tried to cross a field of maize through which the public right of way has not been re-instated, then you’ll know what I mean!” David George, from the South West National Farmers Union told us: “Farmers recognise the importance of the public rights of way network, especially now when people need to take extra care of their physical and mental health. It’s a landowner’s responsibility to keep rights of way unobstructed and available for use as well as making sure gates and stiles are in good working order.”

He added: “If you’re following a right of way that goes across the middle of a field then you’re entitled to continue along it. If you’re following a marked right of way, bear in mind that this doesn’t necessarily grant you access to the land around it, so if you stray off the path or let your dog run free then technically this could be trespass. Take care to stick to the path; you won’t make yourself popular by trampling over crops. We urge people to follow the Countryside Code.”

Leaving a path through maize is essential – fun and otherwordly when it’s correct, and a miserable battle when it’s not. Image – Laura Hitchcock

If you’re planning a walk and are unsure about your right of access, the Ramblers Organisation has lots of useful hints and explains on the different types of rights of way including off the path in areas known as ‘open access’.

As to the secateurs scenario? The Ramblers Association advises that if you come across a blocked path you’re allowed to cut back as much overgrowth as you need to get by but make sure you’re definitely on a right of way.
I’ll let Indiana know!

What are a landowners responsibilities?

Every walker knows that brambles and nettles soon shoot away in summer if it’s not a well-trodden path, and most are happy to accomodate a little undergrowth. But how much is reasonable for you to be expected to deal with? Farmers or landowners are required:

to keep rights of way open and useable; this includes providing and maintaining stiles and gates and making sure they are safe and easy to use.
to cut vegetation that could obstruct the route (at least 3m is required for bridleways and 1.5m for footpaths unless they are crossing a field).
Paths that run on the field edge must not be cultivated, and cross-field paths must be reinstated correctly after field operations.

You can see the full list here.

by Tracie Beardsley

Sherborne Antiques Market’s changing face (and windows).

Editorial team

10 November 2021

“We’ve been in trouble” admits Craig Wharton as he shows me the broad window displays of the new Sherborne Antiques Market on Cheap Street. “But that’s the point. It needs to intrigue you, excite you, or shock you”

Sherborne’s former Edinburgh Woollen Mill finally re-opened its doors this summer, reborn as an antiques market under the experienced and talented eyes of dealer Craig Wharton and Phil Traves, formerly Duke’s Toy Expert who ran Duke’s General Saleroom.

The two men had a long-held ambition to open their own antiques market, combining their long years of knowledge and expertise to create the perfect location for vintage shopping. When Edinburgh Woollen Mill closed its doors early in 2021, the pair decided it was too good an opportunity to miss; a complicated series of events followed to track down the owner of the property, and persuade her they were the right business to take on the lease.
Thankfully they succeeded, and Sherborne Antiques Market opened its doors this summer. “It almost didn’t – 24 hours before we opened there was an apparently blocked drain right under the front of the shop. We thought the floor would need to be dug up.” said Phil “In the end it was fine – but it was a stressful start. What was wonderful, however, was how everyone reacted. It felt like a disaster, but all the dealers simply said ‘we’re here to help, what do you need?’. It was amazing”

Craig & Phil in the window of Sherborne antiques market

It’s never gin o’clock

That unexpected spirit of cheerful community infuses the entire building – those stunning and witty window displays may lure shoppers through the door, but it is the atmosphere of fun, the genuinely warm welcome, the disarming comfort and of course the fascinating contents that keep people inside, exploring ever deeper.
The shop floor is divided up into ‘rooms’, each filled by an independent dealer. Along with the standard legal requirements such as PAT testing and no pre-1947 ivory (how do they date ivory, I wondered? “the style, the patina, the colour… it’s where experience tells. And if it feels wrong, we refuse it”), there are some basic house rules:
• no Harry Potter boxes
• no fake vintage ‘gin o’clock’ signs
• kitsch is fun, but tacky is bad. What happens to any ‘tacky’ that might make it to a dealer’s shelves? “We remove it!” came the swift reply.

A forbidding reputation

From two esteemed and well-connected industry experts, you might be forgiven for expecting a serious antiques shop – filled with expensive, precious items where a casual browser may be afraid to loiter and explore. And you’d be right – Sherborne Antiques Market is filled with serious antiques.

But it’s also filled with items for every pocket, and every style. Thanks to their rigorous accessibility testing (“a friend in a wheelchair and her assistance dog came shopping before we opened, and we made sure she could access everywhere”), the space is uncluttered and airy, with a surprising atmosphere that seems to invite you to slow your pace, to idle, to chat, and to sit on the strategically welcoming furniture.

Eclectic collaboration

There are currently 42 traders displaying antiques within the market, including three TV experts – Timothy Medhurst (Antiques Road Trip), Paul Atterbury (Antiques Roadshow) and Debbie Serpell (Dickinson’s Real Deal). Breaking yet another misconception, the youngest dealer is 21-year old-Tom Hurst, an expert in African Art, and Country House items. “We’ve created an eclectic mix” explained Craig “Every dealer decorates their own space, but it all works together so well.” Elegant furniture is laid out in minimalist fashion on beautiful flooring, while another space is billowing with the colours and textures of vintage soft furnishings.

Harshly lit cabinets of Saxon and Roman coins sit adjacent to the soft pastoral scenes of local painter James Budden. Phil said “What’s terrific is that the dealers are already starting to work with each other – one furniture dealer has offered his wall space to an art dealer. The vintage clothing dealers don’t compete – instead they have opted to be side-by-side to create a personality-filled corner that complements each other. It’s working better than we could have dreamed.”

Sherborne antiques market filled with curios

Dr Frasier Crane

When asked what is their current favourite item in the market, both looked around uncertainly. Craig said “the trouble is, there’s so many things – but they all move on so fast! Oh, it has to be Dr Frasier Crane – he’s a crested stuffed South African Crane. We both adore him. And the pair of William Yeoward lamps – I’m surprised they’re still here. We have them at £1,600 for the pair – in London they’d be more than that each.”

The two experts are clearly enjoying their new venture, and are brimming with plans. Phil said: “we’re not going down the obvious ‘coffee stop’ route – Sherborne has so many fabulous independent coffee shops, we’d rather offer our customers a voucher to pop into one of them. We do have a huge, untapped upstairs space – it’s so useful. It needs a lot of work, but one of our plans for next year is to run courses; from pottery to furniture restoring.”

Those window displays

In just a few months the Sherborne Antiques Market has established an enviable reputation for its window displays, making the most of the huge double-fronted shop display. From a life-sized Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in front of a wryly-placed antlered stag head to ‘live windows’ with gogo dancers launching the new Jo Burt Album, the windows have quickly become a talking point, and a staple of Sherborne’s Cheap Street experience – and are clearly doing their job to intrigue, excite or shock the passersby into walking through the door.

Sherborne Antiques market owners Philip Traves and Craig Wharton, with Evie in the middle

Sherborne Antiques Market is on Cheap Street, and open 7 days a week: Monday to Saturday 10 to 5, Sundays 11 to 4 (Market Sundays 10 till 4). Phone: 01935 713760. They rarely use Facebook, but their Instagram account is busy and beautiful here.

(Editor Laura investigated more new shops on the block in thriving Sherborne – from vintage clothing to gourmet delicatessen here)

By: Laura Hitchcock

Notes From An Epicurean: A winter’s truffle

Editorial team

10 November 2021

We are now fully into the autumn/winter truffle season – my July column discussed summer truffles it is only fair we look at the winter varieties.

The black varieties at this time of year have a much stronger flavour but look the same as their summer cousins. There are two main varieties; Tuber Uncinatum or Burgundy truffle, and Tuber Melanosporum, usually known as Périgord truffle. More expensive than summer truffles, they are best eaten raw or added at the end of the cooking process so as not to lose too much of the incredible flavour.

The truffle price

The Burgundy truffle is milder in flavour than the Périgord, and cheaper at about £850-£900 per Kg – about £40 a truffle.

The Périgord truffle comes into season slightly later than the Burgundy, and you can expect to pay £1,500 per Kg or more, depending on availability. That is about £50 per truffle; but a little does go a long way.

Tuber Magnatum

The king of all truffles is the White truffle or Alba truffle, Tuber Magnatum, found in Italy (pictured above). These are one of the most expensive foodstuffs on the planet, currently priced at more than £2,500 per Kilo. One white truffle will therefore cost you about £100 – and will only be edible for about one week; after that they go squishy and are unusable. They should only be eaten raw – just freshly grated over scrambled eggs or pasta.

Record truffle

The largest white truffle discovered so far was found in December 2014 weighing in at 1.786Kg and sold at Sotheby’s, New York for $61,250 (£39,154)

Truffle oil warning

One interesting thing to remember; truffle oil does not contain truffle. Originally of course it was truffle-infused olive oil, but invariably modern truffle oils are now just oil flavoured with a synthetic chemical that mimics the truffle aroma.

Storage

Another thing to remember when storing your truffle, keep them wrapped in paper tissue in the refrigerator, never store on rice as this will draw the flavour from the truffle.
My personal source of all things truffle is The Truffle Hunter, based in Gloucestershire. www.trufflehunter.co.uk.

By Simon Vernon

Garden jobs for November | 2021

Editorial team

10 November 2021

Here are this month’s jobs from Sherborne gardener Pete Harcom for you to get on and do in the garden before the Christmas rush!

• Clear up for the winter!

Clear faded and dying annual climbers such as sweet peas from their supports.
Clear up fallen leaves and put them in plastic bags or in a heap to rot down as leaf mould ( may take a year or so) and then can be used as a mulch.

• Watch the compost heap

Keep on top of the creation of the compost heap by turning it regularly. Keep it moist, and mix well with shredded paper. Nettles and some weeds can be composted (if the heap gets heated well), but do not compost ‘difficult’ weeds such as bindweed, ground elder or docks.

• Mind your beds

When clearing up flower beds try to keep off of wet soil to avoid compacting the soil – use wooden boards to spread your weight.

• Birds enjoy your seedheads

It is a good idea to leave your plants with attractive seed heads, such as Rudbeckia, Sea Holly (Eryngium), Teasels, Love in a Mist, any ornamental grasses etc. as these provide valuable food for birds in the winter months and can be used in flower arrangements. Cut down the old seed-heads in Spring, when the new growth appears.

• Last chance for bulbs

There is still time to plant spring bulbs and bare rooted trees and shrubs before the colder weather.

• Winter mulch

Cover and protect agapanthus plants with mulch or garden compost. Straw can also be used for protecting half hardy plants. Alpines planted in the garden can have a gravel mulch, or if they are in containers will benefit from covering with straw or bring them into the greenhouse for the winter.

• Look after your acers

Acers are a particularly good show this time of year with their autumn colours. Japanese maples are acers, and they can be either planted in the ground or in pots now. They will benefit from being placed in sheltered semi shady spots in the garden.

• Time to sow

Sowing seeds in a cold greenhouse is a nice job to do this time of year. Some of the favourite seeds to sow now are Sweet Peas, Ajuga Reptans (really good for ground cover), Cornflowers, Astrantias, Corydalis Solida and Allium Sphaerocephalon. Eryngiums (Sea Holly) are particularly attractive and can be sown now in a cold greenhouse. They can take a while to germinate, but they are worth it and they are attractive for bees.

After all that is done, have a cuppa tea and browse through your seed and garden catalogues and plan for next year!

by Pete Harcom – Head Gardener at Sherton Abbas Gardening

Here comes trouble | Farm tales

Editorial team

9 November 2021

Ever since Brexit was confirmed, Britain has been slowly careering toward a meaty iceberg, ominously bobbing in the sea. The Government, for now, has managed to avert a meat crisis – but your Sunday roasts aren’t safe yet, says Andrew Livingston.

If you hadn’t heard, the current crisis involved pigs – and the lack of people able and willing to kill, cut and process the animals for them to be available on our shelves for consumption.

In a Post-Brexit world, all the skilled workers that usually perform this work are of European nationalities and unable to work here.

Backlogged Pigs

The Government knew this was an issue and last month created 5,500 working visas for the poultry sector to try to save Christmas.
Pigs meanwhile were ignored, and left to sit on farms without the skilled workers to kill them. This led to a backlog of 150,000 pigs that we close to being slaughtered on-farm – meaning that their meat would be unable to go into the food sector. Worryingly, the Government’s stance was that it would hopefully solve itself and British workers would fill the position (even though it takes 18 months to train to take on one of these positions).
The Government’s attitude was typified by Boris Johnson in an interview when he stated that “culled pigs would have died anyway” – completely missing the reason farmers nurture and grow their animals.

The solution sees prices rise
Since then, 800 six-month visas have been granted to clear the backlog of pigs needing to be killed – but this issue will not go away.
After this six months is up European workers will be required again – the British public frankly don’t have the desire to complete this skilled work. One food processing plant put leaflets through the doors of their local town advertising working opportunities in their business – 15,000 leaflets generated three phone calls and no interviews.
And it’s not just butchers that are needed. In the summer, workers are needed to pick fruit, veg and flowers in the fields. Vast sums of money can be earned per hour by picking – however you are paid by the amount you pick, rather than time spent in the fields. This incentivises fast, hard workers. During the ‘Pick for Britain’ campaign last summer, farmers were having to top up wages for local workers to meet the minimum wages.
It’s not a new issue – in 2018 when talking to the Independent, Stephanie Maurel, the chief executive of Concordia, a recruitment company that supplies workers to about 200 British farms, said they had virtually zero Brits apply. “We’ve had two applications out of 10,000,” she says. “It’s statistically quite damning.” When asked why this was, she suggest early hours, long days, physical toll, seasonality, lack of affordable transport, “and, quite simply, the farms aren’t in places with high levels of unemployment.”

The Government has called on the agricultural sector to make its jobs more appealing to the public. Undoubtedly this will happen with increased wages, but higher wages will only inflate the cost of the food or reduce the price paid to the farmer (the middle man never takes the brunt), heightening the want for cheaper foreign imports on our shelves.

Crisis averted – for now

Covid taught us that we need to be self-sufficient at feeding the nation – food security. We must move forward from cheap foreign imports to feed our population and begin to back British farming.

The British Titanic is slowly turning and looking like it’ll survive this winter with the help of European workers. Unfortunately, if attitudes don’t begin to change then all we are doing is moving deck chairs.

by Andrew Livingston

Sponsored by Trethowans – Law as it should be

Kicking out racism in football has missed the grassroots

Editorial team

9 November 2021

Gillingham Town midfielder Eboni McCann reported he was racially abused by a spectator during a match against Bridport on October 9; Gillingham walked off the pitch in support of McCann and the game was abandoned, but the Dorset FA later charged the club with misconduct.

Talented midfielder Eboni McCann recalled his experience at the recent match where a spectator suddenly made a
racist remark during the game. Gillingham Town walked off the pitch and were later charged with a £150 fine for abandonment. The Bridport players also walked off in solidarity and the referee, who heard the insult, abandoned
the match. The fan was identified, removed from the ground and banned for life. Dorset Police say an investigation is ongoing after a 74-year-old man attended a voluntary interview.
Until I spoke to Eboni I had naively made an assumption that this type of incident just wouldn’t happen at a local game; certainly not in Dorset. But how wrong I was. Eboni explained how it made him feel. “Mostly I felt just shock and disbelief. And I was angry. It just came out of nowhere. I went over to speak to the person and he just thought he was allowed to say what he liked.” Speaking to Sky Sports News about the abuse, Eboni said: “The referee was giving a player a yellow card at the time it happened, so I went over to the referee and said ‘this spectator’s just said this’ and he replied ‘I’ve heard it’. I then went to the guy who said it ‘you can’t say that’ and he just replied ‘yes I can’. “He was so brazen about it, no remorse.”

Long lasting effects of racism

It may have just been a remark but the damage that racism can do is well documented. Racism has physical and psychological effects on people that can be damaging. It might be ‘just one comment’ but it can lead on to other problems such as children copying adults, bolder antisocial behaviour and more.

Standing up to racism

A lot has already been done in football to stand up to racism, but there is clearly still a long way to go. Eboni highlighted an issue that is very relevant to places like Dorset where there are lots of grassroots level clubs.
“I feel a lot has been done in the top tiers of football. There is face recognition at matches,and an established process of bans for example. In the lower leagues and at grassroots level, not enough has been done. No one has really challenged racism here. I hope the focus will soon be on the lower level leagues.”

Signalling

There’s also a perception of inconsistency between the leagues on racism. Eboni continued: “There are mixed messages with the FA as well. During the Euros, England could walk off the pitch. But when Gillingham walked off
they were fined.” A spokesperson from Dorset FA outlined the rules when players walk off the pitch. “If an England
player was racially abused and the team walked off they are still charged with abandonment. It’s the same for everyone.”

Education is not just for schools

I was curious to know what can be done to stamp out racism in the modern game, and approached both Dorset
Race Equality Council and the FA-funded Kick It Out, ‘football’s equality and inclusion organisation’ for comment.
Neither responded. Eboni gave me some insight into his thoughts: “To be fair, there is a lot more awareness, which
is good. In schools there is a lot of education now into racism awareness. But, some people and some of the older generation have grown up with some of this behaviour. More needs to be done to raise awareness there.”
A glance at the education resources on the Kick It Out website revealed some excellent material for schools and colleges. There is, however, nothing specifically aimed at the more mature generation who have grown up in an environment where some TV shows and other areas of popular culture broadcast in the 1960’s and 70’s would not be acceptable today. The man found guilty of racist abuse towards three black England footballers in the Euro 2020 finals was a 54 year old. That’s not to say that everyone in the older demographic is racist – far from it. Most people know that racist behaviour is unacceptable in today’s society; but perhaps more needs to be done to raise
awareness in places that have not previously been an area of focus. And all of us have a duty to stand up and call out racism.

UEFA’s new three step rule:
• The referee halts play and an announcement is made over the PA system, demanding that the behaviour stop
immediately.
• If the abuse continues once play restarts, the official will suspend the match for a “reasonable period of time”,
while both teams will return to the dressing rooms.
• The third and final step sees the referee abandon the match entirely.

By: Rachael Rowe

The Dorset MP who voted with his conscience

Editorial team

9 November 2021

This week North Dorset MP Simon Hoare was one of just 13 Conservative MPs to defy three-line whip in Commons vote on Leadsom Amendment.

This week Conservative MPs were under a three-line whip – a strict instruction to attend and ‘vote according to the party’s position’ – to vote for an amendment to reform the Commons Standards System. It was a move triggered by the findings of a Parliamentary Standards investigation into Conservative MP* Owen Paterson. MPs were expecting on Wednesday afternoon to approve a six-week ban from Parliament for the North Shropshire MP, after the investigation found he had lobbied on behalf of two companies for which he was a paid consultant, paying him over
£100,000 a year. The Leadsom Amendment to the motion for Paterson’s suspension, which the government whipped its MPs to support, instead voted to set up a new committee to investigate the standards regime and the
specifics of the case: pausing the suspension of Owen Paterson and effectively overthrowing the findings of a Parliamentary Standards Investigation.

Rebelling

Of the 357 Conservative MPs voting, only 13 defied the party whip to vote No to the amendment; one of them was
North Dorset MP Simon Hoare. I spoke to Simon the morning after the vote to understand why he chose to breach the three- line whip and instead apparently vote with his conscience. Just before we spoke the news broke that the
government had announced a U-turn on the vote after facing the public’s fury. “The U-turn felt inevitable” said
Simon “I feel as though the government were blindsided by the public reaction. The feeling was that this was simply a ‘Westminster Bubble’ issue – no one seemed to expect the instant backlash that ensued. At the vote yesterday I have never known the Commons like it, even during the Brexit debates and votes. It’s the biggest rebellion I’ve seen. One agonised colleague showed me his social media feed directly after the vote – he had obeyed the whip in the vote, but with an exceptionally heavy heart. In return he was receiving a steady stream of vile abuse. “I cut my teeth fighting my first election on South Wales in 1997. At virtually every door I knocked on I was asked ‘how many brown envelopes have you had? How much are you earning out of this?’.

This week I was terrified that we were returning to those terrible perceptions of ‘Tory Sleaze’ which so many of us have fought for the last twenty years. “The fact is the Standards Committee is working. Rules were breached, and so they investigated, and then sanctions were enforced. With this Leadsom Amendment we were in danger of slipping into a tiger trap of our own digging, making up rules as we went along. The simple facts are that if the report had exonerated Owen then there would have been no amendment. If the report had been against an
MP from any other party, there would have been no amendment. If the sanctions had been below the trigger for a recall, there would have been no amendment. These are politics that are not to my taste.

It’s not brave

Combining the no votes with the abstainers, the government’s majority was reduced to just 18 – a further 97 Conservative MPs abstained from voting. I wondered if the abstainers simply weren’t as brave as Simon
in defying the whip – which he immediately refuted. “It’s not about bravery. Nobody goes against a three-line whip
lightly and abstention absolutely does count. To vote against your own party is the nuclear option – an abstention is the semi- nuclear, if you like. It is the same message, and a huge number of my colleagues took a stand yesterday. But no one did so with a glad heart. Simon repeated that his decision to defy the whip was not brave
and certainly not grandstanding. “Nine times out of ten I vote with the government. I would love it to be ten out of ten – I am not a rebel by instinct. My rubric is that my constituents are decent people, and they want their MP to
use his judgement, not just follow where told. I want to be able to ook in the mirror and say ‘above all I tried to do the right thing’. I owe it to the people who voted for me, and who placed their trust in me to do just that. “There is no handbook to being an MP, no ‘ten steps to getting it right’. We all carve out our own way. I will always support
the government when they are right, but when I feel they are wrong I will say so. That is the job of an independently minded backbencher.

*At time of writing Owen Paterson was an MP; he has now resigned.

By: Laura Hitchcock

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