Apologies to all for missing the January edition, when I am told that one or two people were looking forward to my New Year Resolutions. However, given that I have not got any such promises that I could realistically stick to, I herewith make a few reminders of promises and opportunities that our government failed to do in the previous year…

  1. Ban mobile phones from the classroom. How on earth can teachers do their job when very few are paying attention. On that note, a family in our circle of friends have an ‘app’ which tracks their 14 year old daughter’s usage of social media, and in one week she logged up 21 hours 55 minutes of her time on her phone. That is a terrifying statistic!

  2. Given that 28% of university students now come out with a first class degree, it is patently obvious that universities are in it for the money, which you and I, the taxpayer, are funding. This is the case because very few of our present day graduates are able to gain employment of sufficient quality to exceed the threshold that requires them to repay their student loans. This is a pathetic situation and can only dumb down the quality of further education given to those who really deserve it.

  3. Sort out the BBC who have now become the official voice of left wing mantra and veganism.

  4. Halt the use of political correctness. Are we really developing into a nation unable to express any views that might just upset some snowflake?

  5. Remind the electorate that if the Marxists are let in, unionism will become rampant and life in this green and pleasant land will not be green and certainly not pleasant! Further consider that student unions are now dictating who can use the facilities of which particular toilet – depending on what the individual identifies as. We must be mad! Further, these student unions are demanding which parts of our heritage should be destroyed – when they themselves will leave nothing behind of any worth whatsoever.

  6. Bring back domestic science into all schools replacing that ridiculous subject called “citizenship”, which is reputed to take up one hour per day of valuable learning time.

  7. Take an in depth review into the effect of children being born into one-parent families. Our cities are fast becoming no-go areas in the dark hours and not extremely safe in daylight.

Finally:

  1. Stop wasting time producing legislation in the hope of covering up cracks in society and start by setting an example. The House of Commons, Parliament and the House of Lords are an embarrassment to anybody with any pride in this country.

Having just fallen off my high horse, I now must return to matters of an agricultural nature. When I source lamb and beef to friends and neighbours I make sure the meat has been hung sufficiently. I do not get any complaints. On visiting a local supermarket, the lady behind the counter admitted that most of their “value” product was not hung at all. Hence the texture would not be great. The result – we the farmer spend a year or more on producing it – they the supermarkets spend a day preventing it from attaining its inherent quality.

One last sobering thought on those of you worried about your agricultural subsidies. In one region of Sicily the Mafia has taken over vast areas of parkland from which they are entitled to annual subsidies of 22 billion euros- an estimated 15% of the Mafia’s total income. In one example, a single family could rent 1,000 hectares of land for 37,000 euros from which investment they would receive one million euros each year. No wonder the EU is keen to keep us in the club.

PS. A belated Happy New Year from Management and her assistant.