Photographer & Artist who does sums to pay the bills.Life is for living- who knows how long there is left on the meter...neither waste nor regret a minute
Joined March 2010
- Tweets 193,725
- Following 3,590
- Followers 2,554
- Likes 141,153
Photos and videos
Mel D retweeted
As a new Farmer myself who bought our farm 4 years ago, I can’t tell you how accurate Clarkson’s Farm actually is!
We spent £3.5m buying our farm and subsequently in the past 4 years we’ve had to spend at least £527,000 on farm machinery and much, much more on running the farm. We’ve lost money every year since so far, and have had challenges or refusal from local authorities everytime we’ve tried to diversity, or do something to generate extra income. I cannot stress how difficult it is for farmers who have to rely on farming for their only income.
We don’t get any subsidies or BPS payments at all (because we’re new farmers) and the grant system might as well be in Greek! As a CEO and professional businessman of some note, I felt I could easily apply for the grants myself. I kid you not, you’ve never seen a more complicated form - for ANYTHING!
The farm we bought had been in the same family for 3 generations, but it was sold because it was getting tougher to support the farmers growing family and now I’ve been in it for 4 years I can see why.
It’s a crying shame that more and more food is going to be imported and more skills lost because, for some unknown reason, the government obviously don’t value farmers. Sad.
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Mel D retweeted
12h
The TV GAME QUIZ
What is the year -
please repost so others can play.
Tv teaser!
What was the year ?
#monday
#retro #television
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Mel D retweeted
Jun 14
The TV GAME QUIZ
What is the year -
please repost so others can play.
Tv teaser!
What was the year ?
#sunday
#retro #television
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Good morning, #Sundaygreetings🙂👋from #EastKent #viewfrommywindow proper #breezy this morning. Drive home later today.
Have a lovely day 🎁🌹🌿🎁🌹🌿
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Wont get much post in there 🙂🥴 #postboxsaturday
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Mel D retweeted
Jun 12
Everyone knows Dunkirk. 338,000 men rescued from the beaches, the "miracle" that saved Britain.
Almost nobody knows what happened 8 days later, 100 miles down the coast. This story was buried for years, and once you hear it you will understand why.
While Dunkirk was being evacuated, the 51st Highland Division was deliberately kept in France. Churchill wanted to prove to the French that Britain would not abandon them. So 10,000 Scotsmen kept fighting along the Somme while everyone else went home.
They fought well. Too well to retreat in time.
By June 10, Rommel's 7th Panzer Division, moving so fast the Germans called it the Ghost Division, had cut them off from every port. The Highlanders fell back to a tiny fishing town called Saint-Valery-en-Caux, with cliffs at their backs and the Royal Navy on the way.
A second Dunkirk. That was the plan. Operation Cycle, ships waiting offshore.
Then the fog rolled in.
The ships could not reach the beaches in the dark and mist. And by morning, Rommel had artillery on the cliffs above the town, firing down on anything that floated. Men climbed down cliff faces on ropes made of rifle slings trying to reach boats. Some fell. The rescue never came.
On June 12, 1940, Major General Victor Fortune surrendered the 51st Highland Division to Rommel. There is a famous photo of the two men standing together, Rommel grinning, Fortune staring into the distance like he is somewhere else.
10,000 men marched east into 5 years of captivity. In parts of the Highlands, nearly every family knew someone in the bag. They called it the lost division, and for decades many Scots quietly believed they had been sacrificed.
Two details worth knowing.
Fortune was offered better treatment as a general. He refused privileges and stayed with his men for the entire war, organizing care for the sick and keeping discipline in the camps. He was knighted from a hospital bed after liberation.
And in September 1944, the rebuilt 51st Highland Division was given one specific assignment, at the request of its commander. They liberated Saint-Valery-en-Caux. The pipers played in the same square where their brothers had surrendered four years earlier.
Dunkirk got the movie. These men got the long war.
Worth remembering them today.
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Mel D retweeted
Jun 12
In the USA in 1943 they produced a film 'Don't be a Sucker' about fascism.
It perfectly explains Nigel Farage, Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the entire Right.
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Mel D retweeted
Jun 12
1of the hardest hitting parts of today, and worse was during the prior tour where the guide explained how quickly it got to that, from a minority political party.
Don't ever, assume it can't happen again....
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This week's entry for #postboxSaturday is another from Hampshire, playing #hideandseek in the #hedgerow. I nearly missed it tbh, it was that well hidden!
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Good morning 👋🙂, Saturday it is & E Kent for me, still a breeze but calmer. Love to see the ads for 🍓🍓 & 🍒 on the way down yesterday. #summerstuff Hope you have s #sunnySaturday & an agenda full of good things 🎁🌹🌿🎁🌹🌿
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