• [slideshow]I haven’t been on my usual walk up to the forest for over two weeks. Things change in that time. New leaves are budding and, as the old leaves crumble away, they seem to reveal quite a bit of rubbish that has been hiding underneath them for the winter!

    At last the celandines are really out and sunning their faces in the fist warm afternoon of the year – the wind is still quite nippy though.

    At the top of the hill I was stopped in my tracks by something NEW! A Statutory Forest Boundary Marker. This must be something very new, as I’ve not seen these anywhere before. If a sheep was to stand where I took the picture, it would be outside the Statutory Forest – that is the Official Royal Forest of Dean as described in Statutes laid down by King and Parliament. It could legally be rounded up and taken somewhere to be given a severe ticking off!

    The Statutes caused problems during the foot and mouth epidemic. The Statutory Forest is officially classed as a farm. Shepherds, known locally as Badgers (coz they have the badge?) are allowed to let their sheep run free in the Forest. Because of its legal position, DEFRA was not allowed to order sheep to be penned up safely or stop people and vehicles traipsing all over the forest spreading the disease. This led to the forest being filled with Gung Ho! types riding around in 4x4s sterilising anything that moved. After weeks of smelling the burning sheep carcasses, the army was called in, everything was rounded up, shot and buried in a big hole in the ground. I still haven’t forgiven Tony Blair for that disaster either.

  • Why do radio and TV pundits all begin their sentences with the word, “so”? Robert Peston and scientists are the worst offenders – (I’ve also noticed that there are a new breed of Robert Peston imitators appearing on the media now). it has a way of making the questioner seem stupid and the person making the statement aloof. Worse than that, it make them sound impatient with the questioner and as though they haven’t really listened to the question – as though they are spinning a line and hope you don’t see the joins.

    Please stop it, everyone! (Now you’ve read this, you will hear it all the time and it will become very annoying for you too!)

  • My daughter doesn’t really get politics. My Wife says she has to vote – people have died so she can. My daughter thinks she might vote Liberal Democrat. My wife says that’s a wasted vote around here – but is it?

    The problem with our system is that the boundaries get re-drawn by each new government to aid their re-election. If a party is in third place in a constituency, it seems like a waste of time voting for them, so the temptation is to vote for the second party in an attempt to unseat the Government. But all this does is give moral power to another party that you do not support.

    It would be possible for the party with the most votes not to form a Government at this election, but they would have a moral majority that would have to cause some kind of change.

    If everyone actually went and voted for the person or party they really want to represent them, then the parties that don’t get power will at least have the moral backup of real voters behind them.