CONKERS!

CONKERS!

Great word, always reminds me of the Carry On films, as it has the potential to cause a titter whenever heard. You can almost visualise Sid James saying it and chuckling in his irrepressible way. However the reason I mention it is far from tittersome, in fact, it is most serious. On Sunday Ady Hurrell from Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire took the World Conker Championship beating France in the final of the 43rd championships in Ashton, Northants. The event drew more than 300 participants and was surprisingly sponsored by an organisation, which I had not previously heard of, called the Institution of Health and Safety. Fortunately, there was no need for those involved to wear hard hats and goggles or protective gloves but I’m sure this will be standard kit one day. I am sure England beating France at conkers was just as exciting as watching England beat France at rugby….

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog my visit to the wonderful village of Lacock. The journey to Lacock from my home must be around ten miles by road and a large part of this involves travelling through unspoilt countryside with views of the downland so common around this part of North Wiltshire. But the enjoyment had from this view is tinged with a certain sadness as an increasing amount of this land is taking over with building plots, a new housing estate here, a factory there. This is of course fantastic news for those involved in the building trade but we live on a relatively small island and therefore the capacity to build on it is limited. Scotsman Gordon Brown wants to build millions more houses here, why do we want them and where are they going to be and with a social infrastructure already buckling under the weight of immigration how are we going to cope? There is an ever larger voice crying out for Britain to close the door on further immigration, but is it too late and if it is, what hope is there for the true British people?

Having mentioned a Scot I thought I would mention the unease that I and many other English people have with the amount of Scots involved in the political scene in England. I am most definitely not anti-Scot, I have good friends and family who are Scottish. However, I cannot seem to understand why there is a Scottish Parliament for the Scottish people in Scotland run by Scottish MSPs, yet there is not a similar structure in England for the English. Yet, the leaders of the big three political parties, well, until the Sting of Ming, were all Scottish, as are our local MPs Michael Ancram and James Gray. The SNP tells us that they can go it alone and don’t need the rest of us. If that’s the case why are there so many Scots here? The Scottish people have benefits that we in England don’t have, for example, free university tuition. I should also say that I am also a supporter of the Union and would not wish to see it break up, but when the English are the poor relations within this Union there seems something sadly amiss. The English, Scots and Welsh should all receive the same benefits. The British nation was once the greatest nation in the world and that was because we all worked together to make it so. We will never be Great again unless we are truly united and work together once more for the common cause rather than as a group of smaller countries.