“Woe Jeremy Corbyn”. This is presumably the chant going round the ranks of Momentum whose direction of travel has hopefully been halted, if not for good, but for a decade at least. What a great result for the Tories and great to feel at last that the politics of class and envy has been trumped by the politics of aspiration and ambition.

The prime minister now has the herculean task of progressing with his promises and bringing together all parts of society, many of whom are deeply entrenched in their support of the far left. It would be interesting to know who the rabble are who make up the ranks of Momentum, and who pays their wages, because they can’t have much time for an actual job or profession? Further, it is quite amusing to me to witness the Labour Party tearing itself apart from the top downwards. Nobody seems prepared to admit that their leader and shadow cabinet are not universally liked and their policies even less so. Both Corbyn and McDonnell have pronounced that they “came up short”, but neither will admit that they went down the wrong road in the first place. Both maintained on every occasion that their party was democratic, but the truth is that Labour MP’s were kept in line by fear, threats and coercion. Why did only a handful of their MP’s represent their respective constituencies by voting in favour of Brexit?

A problem that will continue to face the Tory Party however, is the predilection of the younger generation and students to support in vast numbers Marxist ideals. Apparently if you are a student with Conservative views, you have to keep your head down for fear of antagonism either physical or mental. Again, not much to do with democracy. I have a theory that with vast numbers of school leavers opting for university, rather than work or take an apprenticeship, they are subconsciously admitting to themselves that they are destined for failure or lack of real progress in the workplace and hope that their futures will be secured by the intervention of the state, fully expecting the grafters, the successful and the inherently wealthy to pick up the bill.

Let us now all hope that the last three years is well and truly behind us, and can somebody please put out to grass Tony Blair, John Major, and Michael Heseltine, whose views now are not welcome and totally irrelevant. Additionally, Justin Welby should stick to trying to keep the Church of England intact rather than preaching to the rest of us. He has actually stated that he is not looking forward to the next five years of Tory rule.

On the matter of putting things out to grass, I believe that current weather conditions are putting both livestock and arable enterprises in a critical situation, with crops not sown or not growing, and grazing land and forage crops too wet to take advantage of. I am writing this article on a Tuesday morning while preparing myself to send 30 grazing ewes to market. Will there be a flood of sheep at Ashford and will the floods have hindered other parts of the county from trading in the usual manner? I will know the answer in four hours time. Management is not happy either – she has not been able to get into the garden for a week which leaves me with the job of trying to keep her entertained!

We both hope you had a great Christmas and, like us, look forward to the future with renewed enthusiasm.