Manifesto for Wildlife

Just published, Chris Packham's A Manifesto for Wildlife. He asked 20 people what their "top 10" measures would be. His choice of people was obviously highly selective, and as a result a lot of the document seems to be a front for "anti-hunting and shooting" / "anti-farmer" / "more laws, bans, taxes and Big Government" leftist types. Wildlife often seems to get a little lost among the political axe-grinding. But the following picks would be my do-able practical measures from the document, in no particular order:

"Hedgerow trees to be celebrated and replenished – today they are almost uniform in age, and are not being replaced as they die."

"Focus on increasing domestic fruit and vegetable production with special support for small-scale producers."

"Identify no-dig Root Protection Areas (RPAs) around valuable trees and protect them."

"All new-build estates must have a pond".

"In areas designated as nature reserves, dogs – with the exception of assistance dogs – to be banned. On areas or footpaths adjacent to nature reserves, dogs should be on their leads at all times. ... [serviced] dog-walking hotspots should be established to attract owners away from a wildlife-sensitive area".

"A small increment on benefit payments (from universal credit to pensions) in return for hours worked on local wildlife conservation" or litter picking in green spaces etc.

"Every primary school in Britain to be twinned long-term with a farm".

Either give up and "downgrade all National Parks to Upland Nature Areas", or else give them real powers to actually protect and boost nature. Such as by robustly excluding damaging human activity (e.g, motorbikes, trail bikers, mountain-bikers, dog walkers, cars) from key areas.

National Allotments Week, starts 13th August

The National Allotments Society has a National Allotments Week, Monday 13th August to Monday 20th August 2018. Nicely timed for the easing of our very dry summer.

The drenching

After all the hysterical weather-warnings from the Met Office over the last month, here comes the real thing at last. The drenching begins 8pm tonight, with torrential thunderstorms rolling in over the weekend and set to be especially wet on Sunday.

Doing fine

Convoluted legal attacks on pro-Brexit campaigners are backfiring in a big way. Instead of a £20,000 fine being something to fear, it turns into a means of raising money for the cause. Darren Grimes was fined £20,000 effectively at the behest of the EU (on what sounds like very questionable grounds), but this fine fellow now has £42,000 raised to cover it — and there's still a month to go.

Update: he raised nearly £95,000 and totally won his case, being fully exonerated and with the judge ruling there was no case to answer and therefore no fine to pay. The Electoral Commission left the court in disgrace.

Buxton Community Farm saved

Buxton Community Farm has been saved, for now. The local Council still want cash for the site, but it appears that the option of community-ownership will now be given first refusal.

National Garden Festival badge

Lovely enamel badge, produced for the National Garden Festival in Stoke-on-Trent.

Kempthorne Docklands

Kempthorne bloody Docklands. Seriously? Which idiot thought that one up?

I suppose we should be thankful it's not Brendan Nevin Bunkers.

Maplins off the map

It's a pity to see Stoke's Maplins electronics shop close down. The similar PC World store on Festival Park has also been gone for a year or two now, and that's still empty. But I can't imagine that the same fate will befall the former Maplins, what with the shop space being on a prime town-centre site opposite Sainsbury's. Let's just hope we don't get even more dubious hippies setting up on that stretch.

Maplins and PC World were both nice to browse the aisles of, if only to keep up-to-date with what was available in affordable tech and gadgets. But I guess those days are gone, and the best options now for Stokies are:

1) For electronic widgets, sockets and wires too big for the letter-box, eBay's arrangement with the Sainsbury's Argos facilities. This allows the buyer to collect eligible small-packages from Sainsbury's Argos counter in Stoke. Although the time-out on that can be a bit tight, and if you don't get there sharpish after you order then you'll find "it's been sent back, duck".

2) For basic things like a new computer mouse and keyboard, and the occasional January Sale blink-and-it's-gone bargain, the nearest best option is probably the Office superstore on the eastern edge of Festival Park. (Update, it closed in spring 2019.)

3) For PC owners and courier-phobics, who need something more substantial and delicate (a new hard-drive, monitor or even a new PC), the best local alternative option is probably now Overclockers in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Overclockers are a well-regarded national PC-centric gaming hardware company, with HQ and public counter and display-space on the outskirts of the town. They make some good value gaming PCs, and have just this month taken the plunge into making well-reviewed graphics workstations for home office-based artists, graphic designers and 3D animators.

Ponies by the yard

You couldn't make it up. 13 year-old girl in Stoke-on-Trent orders a 'free pony' on the internet. Said pony actually arrives, and is left in the back yard of her Nan's house in Ford Green, giving the girl's Nan quite a surprise. Pony gets named 'Melvin'. And presumably, but the look of him, gets a bit of a trim and a wash.

Hopefully they can do a crowdfunder now, to pay for the vet's bills and a nice field.

Update: Melvin has now been taken in by Penny Farm Horse rehabilitation centre, near Blackpool.

On the stump

The Labour loons at Sheffield City Council "decided to destroy 17,500 trees, half the city's total" by felling, on the grounds of "health and safety". Now the latest news reports that "the entire enterprise has been suspended" — but only on the grounds that Council workers might get hurt and sue the Council. You couldn't make it up.

The Councillor and Cabinet Member for Environment responsible has just resigned, though, so there may now be some slim hope that the mad programme will be halted for good.