Very sorry to hear that.
Here in Exmoor, the Hill Farming Network has been doing valuable work on mental health issues, with outreach at the livestock markets. It’s been really helpful to give farmers ‘permission’ to talk about how they feel and admit when they’re struggling. But it’s not easy!
I’ve spent my (non farming) career supporting small scale farmers in southeast Asia. I have advised governments on designing farm subsidy schemes. I am strongly pro-farmer and pro subsidies! But my concern is about equity & efficiency. We’re on the same side, I think!
It's perfectly reasonable to challenge ministers on N Sea oil & gas as a response to the energy shock.
But this is the exclusive framing for EVERY interview on this topic.
No minister or opposition leader is ever asked if they'll "max out" wind/solar.
It's always framed as fossil fuels v inaction
Yes, there are some good reasons and then there’s habit. Hedges need a 40 yr rotation, with manual labour input (laying etc) which is not viable today without subsidy. But many hedges are flailed too tight, too low and too frequently, which weakens the trees and is bugger all use to wildlife!
Indeed. And unless the state pays farmers to maintain fences, then hedges and banks become eroded, so in a way the livestock and weather do the grubbing out for you…
Not quite true: farmers in agri-environment schemes (SFI, CS) are paid to maintain hedges in good condition. Grubbing up hedges is (mostly) illegal. But that leaves a lot of farmers with no incentive to let hedges grow out, so tidiness - and social pressure - guides behaviour.
Landowners are required to flail the sides of roadside hedges (we do the sides but let tops grow up). Flailing in-field hedges is to make boundaries look tidy. Arguably the smaller hedges allow edge-to-edge cropping (for arable), but for livestock farmers it’s just habit.
Farmers are often wasteful users of diesel (did those field-side hedges really need flailing back in February?), but are so used to their costs being underwritten by the state there is little incentive to change practices.
Ah, the ‘inverse siege of Alesia’ ploy. Very shrewd. Of course Caesar didn’t have to worry about China. Or drones.
We covered an important (and upsetting) story on the last Radio 4 #TheNakedWeek of the series, all about forced adoption and a drug called DES. You can read about it in @theobserveruk.bsky.social today, written by our very own @catneilan.bsky.social.
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/o...
One can imagine a future Democrat President being blamed for their failure to swiftly repair the damage done by the Trump regime. As Labour discovered in UK, blaming the previous lot doesn’t work for long, even if the blame is validly applied.
This cheered me up. Molesworth standard Latin!
Nice article on Indonesia’s increasingly state-controlled economic ‘development’ under Prabowo.
What would we no longer have if fireworks were banned? Terrified pets, yet more pointless plastic released into the environment, antisocial moronic noise. Call me crazy but I reckon we can just about cope with that kind of loss, as a species.
The cycle thief
You can get LB consent for double glazing, not UPVC. However, custom-built timber sash windows are so expensive, that for many homeowners (especially elderly) is there RoI? If <20 years it may be cheaper to live with draughty house and pay more for oil (even now!).
Re-imagining Economy & Society - a Glasgow friend Kim Scott is involved with this, and asked me to share the flyer - events in Glasgow & Edinburgh between 22 and 25 April.
Among the embassy social groups in countries I’ve worked in, it was well known (and subject of jokes) that Brits were on their own if they got into trouble, in contrast to Yanks, Aussies etc. The Hon Consuls do great job to raise morale, but with no budget.
"all the text-bssed social platforms that aren't run by unrepentant Nazis (other than Mastodon)"
You have got to be kidding me
Fuel duty is *already* 34p per litre lower, in real terms, than in 2010
Its been frozen or cut for 15 years
Its cost the Treasury over £200bn in tax - and hugely incentivised people to keep using ICE cars and driving. It's favoured the richest
If anything we should be restoring it to 2010 levels
Just pre-ordered this on bookshop.org and greatly looking forward to it. Hoping it discusses Prussian land bonds, but will settle for reforestation bonds. Wonder if it pairs well with Graeber’s “Debt”?
Please gird yourself for months of shameless self-promotion, mute me on socials, feel free to avoid me in public etc, because my next book — A Fabulous Debt: The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World — is now available for pre-orders. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/750210...
In what world is it okay for the Defense Secretary to make multi-million dollar investments in defense companies:
a) Ever;
b) In the run-up to starting a war in the Middle East
FT has the scoop: www.ft.com/content/744e...
In a functional democracy, he would offer his resignation tonight.
Fascinating read, with a political side-note: once again we see a regulator falling apart due to funding cuts in the 2010s, and the government not paying attention after 2016 because the focus is elsewhere.
Do you think he’s unwell? He seems to be struggling. Perhaps he knows something we don’t? (Which is a bit alarming…)
And dead hedging is a brilliant way to deal with brash and prunings. The old stuff mulches down, creating room for the next layer - perpetual recyling. I learned this in the West Papua highlands, where they build elaborate dead hedges to keep the pigs from eating the taro!
Another reason why we never light fires on this farm. We pile up the logs and make dead hedging with the brash, creating new edge habitats for invertebrates that, in turn, feed birds and hedgehogs. Sadly, other farmers see this as eccentric, even subversive.
'Three men were found guilty in 2025 of dumping 26,000 tonnes of waste at illegal sites (avoiding more than £2.7m of landfill tax). The clean-up is estimated to cost the taxpayer more than £3m. Between them, the men received fines of just £65,000. Only one...received a custodial sentence.'
I still think about this a lot.