Oh. Hello. I didn't know we'd invited another The Archers thread round darling. How nice to see you. Discuss Ambridge here.

[PseudoBadger]

As tribute to the best SL at the moment...

I do find it a bit odd that someone like Helen who's not veggie and has been bought up on a farm gets wimpy about the quick death of a wild animal, admittedly not pleasant to see, but then neither are abattoirs. (ducks flames)

The ethics are quite different though, aren't they? Hunting foxes is taking pleasure from chasing and killing an inedible animal. (I'm not particularly pro or anti, BTW, but I can understand why someone would be)

Yes but imo at least the fox gets a chance to escape and hasn't spent it's life in a cage, sometimes in terrible conditions.

Living here in Fr. we get used to the hunt, they do it under controlled conditions more for the skill than the pleasure though.

Helen as a teenager made a decision that hunting didn't go along with her moral beliefs.

Seeing a wild animal hunted, terrified and then torn apart by dogs is different to sending farm animals to the abattoir - where you can at least believe the death is quick and humane. And it is done in a way to reduce terror before hand (as the hormones released can taint the meat).

I think when Helen stopped hunting people didn't try to persuade her to continue, at least not anything like the extent to which Rob is. Rob of course is lying to her and under cutting her moral decisions, which is wrong whatever your views on hunting.

BTW lots of farmers don't like hunting (even in the Archers, they try to keep off Brookfield land).

Last night's episode was superb. Knob's true colours and all that. What a vile piece of work he is. Looking forward to MAJOR fireworks in due course. V. excited about Feedback - will be tuning in to hear the representative of our thread in all her glory!!

It's going to be great to see CuttedUpPear parading around this thread bearing SOC's severed head on a pike.

Yes nauticant but how will we recognise her if there is more than one woman reading out TA related emails?

I think Shula will agonise about her dilemma, hopefully to Jim. If she speaks to Kenton and Jolene about it before they go to Oz then they might recall Rob's behaviour at the stag party and K ending up on a train to nowhere.
The kill and incident are going to be local gossip so people are going to weigh up Rob's version of events in any case.

If the Sab reports it to the police then Shula will be interviewed as a witness, as will Helen. Shula won't lie and Helen will be torn so there'll be enough doubt in their statements for a possible prosecution.

Either way, Rob's got another thing pressing on him and his fuse is getting shorter and shorter.

But mummytime The fox (in it's natural habitat) lives by hunting. That 's what happens in nature. A Wolf would kill it and it kills rabbits etc. That's how it was.

I think Shula will tell PC Plot exactly what she saw. She gave evidence against Simon Pemberton years ago after he hit Debbie - she went on the stand to testify that he had done the same thing to her. She also took a moral stand when the Grundys were going to be evicted from Grange Farm and lost her job at Rodway's as a consequence.

I've listened again and Shula saw Rob land the first punch. I'm not sure how much Helen saw.

I couldn't help thinking that the actor playing the sab was Greg!

The problem I have with this SL development is that I wanted the domestic abuse to be a slow burn story with Helen getting out in a realistic way.

I fear rob being dragged from the house in handcuffs with police helicopters circling overhead in a dramatic denouement involving him really hurting someone.

have FINALLY caught up (again!). work is so busy that i am getting very behind

didn't shula witness him being aggressive at a previous hunt too or am i misremembering?

"BTW lots of farmers don't like hunting"

That's true, I know a few who fought real battles to keep the hunt off their fields. Not only because they don't like the killing foxes aspect (only true for some) but because they don't want a load of snotty-nosed, bone idle poshos scuffing up their land, trailing a load of noisy hounds that scare their livestock.

David is obviously working up to staying put and making Brookside a retro dairy-producing unit which includes an outdoor milking system and also a milk-bottling plant for Ed's Jersey milk (sorry, if this has been mentioned).

Abra I had floated that possibility but you put it much better!

Ah, Mollie, I am never the quickest off the block.

But what would they tell Kenton? Who seems to have pre-spent all his share of the dosh!

I'm wondering whether the Brookfield sale will collapse on the day (next Thursday??) when Kenton and Jolene are due to wing their way business class to Oz, or will it wait until they have amassed hideously large credit card bills on their hol?

see it was never "poshos" that i knew who hunted. it was people with pretty ordinary (though skilled) jobs like pharmacist, teacher, shop owner, builder, who scrimped and saved to be able to afford a horse because they absolutely loved them and it was hugely important to them, and the hunting was part of that community and something they enjoyed. that's separate of course to whether farmers would or wouldn't want a hunt going across their land - i totally understand and support their reasons for not wanting it

I don't know many people who hunt so can't speak as to whether they actually ARE bone idle poshos etc but the farmers who objected to the hunt certainly minded the "acting like they own the place" attitude they saw from the hunters, who thought they had right of way everywhere. This would have been 20 or more years ago though so things might have changed.

It is possible that the antihunt man's camera was still running during the fracas.

Hm - Shula's unsure-sounding response to rob at the end 'I think I did' sounds like she's questioning whether she saw correctly - but if the sab gives his version of events and it tallies better with her own than Rob's then I think that would scupper his attempt to impose his own version on her.

nauticant In my mind SOC is actually another villainous character.

Yeap Farmers didn't like hunting because it affected their livestock, and could wreck their crops. Never mind having sabs trespassing to cause mayhem.

Most farmers would be pretty neutral about it happening as long as it wasn't on their land, unless they hunted themselves. But if you are Organic or "high welfare" you might have a different take.

The occupations of people who took part tended to be, as listed, "middle class" and it was an aspirational "club" a bit like the Masons. Which actually is coming across with all their funny little rituals.

Yes in the wild foxes would once have been prey to bigger predators, but in the UK that hasn't been the case for several hundreds of years. Hunting was not an effective way of keeping fox numbers under control anyway. And it is focused on the countryside, rather than towns where the growth of the fox population is increasing rapidly.

Anyway regardless in the UK it is illegal, and there isn't much chance of that changing.

"aspirational" doesn't really reflect the people i knew who were hunting, they just liked bombing around the countryside on their beloved horse, but obviously i'm sure it would depend on location and group and individual. as i say though, that doesn't mean they're any more welcome on farmers' land