Oh to be in England…
I am off today to the memorial service of the master of the local hunt, in the cathedral in Bury St Edmunds. He was a natural countryman and was distraught at the prospect of a hunting ban. Well in practice that has not happened and is now very likely never to happen.
At the Channel 4 political awards dinner last week the actor Jeremy Irons talked rather bravely (considering some in the audience) about the hunting ban, as the Countryside Alliance was applauded for its campaigning activities. I thanked him for his comments afterwards.
That apart, the countryside is changing. There are daffodils in bloom in Suffolk, there are green shoots everywhere and on Saturday morning I actually did some weeding, not exactly a normal January pastime.
So we shall see what the rest of the year brings. But at least the admirable gentleman whose life we celebrate today died knowing that hunting, shooting and fishing (words some love to mock) which he loved, continue as it always has done, despite the metropolitan possessions of this urban obsessed government. Nobody could have imaged that five years ago.