Marie Antoinette is alive and well
The outbreak of avian flu on the Norfolk/ Suffolk border has caused anxiety and financial stress to local farmers, especially those who rear turkeys.
Some 20 miles south of the affected area is the Ickworth Hotel, part of the Italianate Ickworth House, former home of the Hervey family. The local view is that over the generations the male members of the Hervey family (title – Marquess of Bristol) have not exactly lived up to the standards of the house, whilst the female family members have made very positive contributions to the local scene. In any event it is now a grand and luxurious country house hotel of the utmost splendour.
It is a very ill judged place indeed for 30 DEFRA civil servants supervising the avian flu outbreak, to instal themselves. Room prices are equivalent to the Ritz or Claridges. Perhaps they struck a more favourable deal on the price! But even so, had they had the merest modicum of commonsense and judgment, they would have installed themselves much closer to the affected area, and in more modest surroundings. When we all discovered where they were staying, they rapidly moved out, encouraged by some pretty direct comments from me in the local media.
Those in receipt of the public shilling need to practice restraint and sensitivity. Staying at the Ickworth Hotel simply confirms the view that taxpayers money is being squandered on a wholesale scale in this country, with no effective control. Very un-Presbyterian indeed.