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Dealing with Social Conservatives

Thursday night is farmer's night, tonight was a bit unusual at our local, we had a fistfight, the real thing too.  It all started because we were raising a toast to the wedding of one of my neighbour's daughters.  It went well until one guy asked the groom's name, and of course, the name was not a bloke, but a lass.  The farmer who asked the question decided that it would be a good idea to throw his beer to the face of the farmer (glass and all)  who was celebrating his daughter's wedding. 

Now context, everyone around here knows that his middle daughter is gay, everyone, we've all met her wife several times, they have their own farm, where they raise sheep, about 300 miles away.  The guy is not a local, he got the farmer to buy him a drink, and flung it in his face, with some rather unpleasant words. 

What happened next was tremendous, all these welly-wearing old conservative guys started kicking his ass.  Eventually, the constable showed up, and it was reported that the guy had two cracked ribs and a broken nose.  The culprit, a 75-year-old farmer, ex-SAS clearly took great offence.  We all maintained that the guy fell in the shower.  We are sticking to that story!

After that, we regrouped and had a pleasant evening.  By the way, the farmer never got a chance to punch the guy's lights out.  What are friends for anyway?

The topics of conversation were varied, they did centre around the weather.  Several farms suffered heavy flooding, but generally, it was nowhere near their buildings.  The winter wheat is a complete write-off, thank god most farmers have insurance.  Several asked me how the high tunnels were doing, and I had to admit that our fruits and vegetable operations were unaffected by the weather, although it is rather cooler than it should be in February.  

There was a conversation about fuel prices and especially the crazy inspection farmers are getting about red diesel.  To the point that inspectors come to the farm and check petrol tanks with special devices.  On our farm the diesel spigots are made for farm equipment that has far larger spigots so it's not a problem.  

Another issue is the treasury, many farmers are being audited, one said that his 2022 audit led him to reduce his taxable income because there were deductions he had not known he could claim...

Politics is no longer much of a subject, everyone knows that labour will win, the issue is how this will affect British farmers.  

A eventfully Thursday nigh




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