Politics Arms

[ommmward]

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Now, pull up a bar stool, and I'm sure one of our lovely staff will be over with a menu shortly.

I am not an advocate of hunting Arse but vermin need controlling. I'd be really interested in how you would tackle the problem on the ground?

Are you old enough to remember Alan Clark Xing? prided himself on being an arch Tory snob and passionate devotee of Thatcher - he loathed fox hunting and, like your grandfather, refused to allow it on his land

Labelling something as 'vermin' because it's a nuisance to us is a human construct Xing

Are cats vermin? They carry disease in their stools and are apparently a serious threat to bird population. Should we hunt cats with dogs?

We had squirrels in Belgium Xing in the garden, but they were reds

I spent my childhood in Canada, Scary, and there were red squirrels there. The aggressive grey ones were the other side of the Great Lakes from us. Sometimes distance is a blessing.

Labelling something as 'vermin' because it's a nuisance to us is a human construct
Like weeds. Dandelions are a great pollen source for bees, but human activity - spraying them with weedkiller - is killing bees.

My grass/lawn says I care about bees. I plant my garden for the bees. I also feed my songbirds and try to deter squirrels and raptors. I live with dandelions. They are a bit like cockroaches, and will be with us long after human existence is over.

Its all about presentation, maybe if fox hunting was re-branded. Change red coats for Kimonos, dogs for baseball bats and you will have the left wing liberal elite all in favour of battering foxes to death.

😂
You're on to something here...!!

XingDog loves chasing cats but has no ability to climb trees, and ostearthritis, so your cat is safe.

Baileys, foxes are vermin. Top of the predator chain, clever, Require control, End of.

I thought it was a very good 24 hours for Boris.
He is indeed statesman like but he is also articulate, positive and funny.

As a labour voter I'll answer your questions silvery
I presume you mean the policies put forward in their manifesto. No, I wasn't happy with many of the policies put forward, and so no I didn't think that the Labour party was electable. The Labour party will soon have a new leader, so those policies won't be relevant any more.

I don't think it was solely Brexit that saw Labour voters vote for the conservatives, but it played a very large part. I suspect that come the next election, if Labour get their act together they will win back a fair proportion of these voters. This of course will be dependant on the success (or not) of Brexit.

Even if I accepted that they needed to be 'controlled', the argument that fox-hunting is that control is completely threadbare. You do not need to ponce about on horseback wearing fancy dress, chasing an terrified animal until it's too exhausted run anymore to 'control vermin'.

It's human bloodlust, no point trying to pretend it's anything other

Dandelion analogy is spot on Baileys

The reds were lovely lily. We had hedgepigs as well, and moles (although the Belgians gas them), and loads of birds, including parakeets, treecreepers, nuthatches, finches, tits of all sorts, a robin, wagtails and two types of woodpeckers, which was lovely. I wasted hours watching the birds, and spent loads of euros feeding them. my mealworm bill was huge.

no huntsman ever is going to eradicate the fox. They are far too quick. And clever, and breed well. Just never think they are cute and charming. Although the cubs are adorable, they grow into foxes.

Same as puppies grow into dogs. What's your point?

No parakeets locally, but my birdtable regularly hosts robins, blackbirds, thrushes, great tits, long tailed tits, coal tits and blue tits, plus a pair of nuthatches or treecreepers (not sure which, dunnocks, wrens , goldfinches and chaffinches or hawfinches. We also have bullfinches who don't frequent the feeders, because they prefer my spring blossom buds, pheasants, jays, magpies and the odd sparrow hawk. Plus assorted pigeons and lots of jackdaws. Please feel free to tell me I am insufficiently supportive of species diversity. Oh and we have green and pied wood peckers, and owls too, if more often heard than seen,

We had hedgepigs

I'll take your hedgepigs, Scary, and raise you skunks, grizzlies and rattlesnakes.

If you are approached by a grizzly, play dead. If you encounter a rattler, back away very slowly and if it's a skunk, run hell for leather. If they spray you, it's off to the hospital for a special shower and you have to burn or bury your clothes.

Never turn your back on a skunk.

Canada. It was an education.

and owls too

I love listening to owls, Xing. It's quite comforting in a way.

The point Arse is that the country is a place where people make a living rearing crops or critters to feed the cities, and there's a balance to be achieved between the two. If you are a paid up PETA member, there's no middle ground. Calves grow into cattle and become beef. What's your point?

Xing We had green yaffles and lesser spotted (the black and white ones with the flash of red). I didn't know what a treecreeper was til I saw this tiny bird shuffle its way up the tree branches pecking away, as if it were attached by velcro.

The parakeets were in a flock. I had 19 of them on the pear tree one day taking turns on the nut feeders. They escaped from a zoo in belgium I think, and there were loads of them in all three houses we were in whilst in Belgium. Odd to see them when there was snow on the ground.

Singing I hate snakes, so yeuch to that one. We had to take Year 8 to Newquay Zoo for a geography field trip, which involved snakes. I warned everyone I would be leaving the building the minute a snake came anywhere near me, and they couldn't believe it when I legged it out of there when one of the keepers brought one out of its glass case to show the kids. My heart rate didn't slow down for ages. I had to go and look at otters and sloths to calm down.

I've been to Canada twice and loved it. No close encounters with wildlife like that though thankfully.

Speaking of N. America, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/05/president-donald-trump-acquitted-bot-articles-of-impeachment-keeping-him-in-white-house/

I love the argument Arse but I don't think we could agree that black is black and white is white,even stood in front of a board.

I appreciate you answering TheSultan and everything you said makes sense. It will be interesting to see what happens after Labour get a new leader.

Off for a zizz now, so nothing further tonight. Sweet dream to all and everyone of you..

Well entirely as predicted, Trump not impeached.

Did you know that we lived so close to the border with the US, we had to learn about both the Canadian and the American voting systems.

Xing, you lived in the States. You must have seen an American voting slip. They are as long as Santa's gift list. You'd be worn out doing that many crosses. They vote for just about everything and everyone.