A Time Of Economic Change
You know that last week's visit to this country by your President and his wife has been the most extraordinary success. Why, even the Queen put her arm around Michelle's waist, something she's never done to me.
Out in the countryside, people have been touched. Just over the hill from my farm, a pair of tame badgers have been renamed Michelle and Barack, though to be honest, the male looks a bit more like Abraham Lincoln. And down at my local pub, the old blacksmith Bill Sykes looked up from his warm beer and voiced the opinion that "they seem to be a nice couple". And that at lambing time! The Obamas should be flattered.
Maybe one of the reasons that we were so delighted to welcome them here was that everything else seems to be going to hell in a handcart. Queen Victoria was a mere slip of a girl when she granted a Royal Charter to The Royal Agricultural Show, probably because Prince Albert said it was a good idea. For a hundred and fifty nine years, the show has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors, farmers and even city folks from all over the world. But now the state of the economy has done for it and this year's show will be the last. They just can't afford to mount such a big event any more.
Everywhere in this country, you hear, "We'd love to, but the economy won't stand it." Our automobile industry is thirty percent down on sales, year on year. Shops are closing, businesses are going bust. Hard working people are being fired and we're being prepared for the worst.
Meanwhile, the foreign tourists are back in numbers, now that the British pound has sunk to a level where a couple of dollars can probably buy me as a house slave for life.
Get set for a change of Government here within a year. Our Prime Minister Gordon Brown may have hosted a successful international summit, but the voters aren't impressed and are getting ready to kick him out whenever he calls an election.
And to put a cap on all our bad news, butterfly numbers are at an all time low. The experts say that the lack of these beautiful, colourful additions to the British countryside is because of too much rain. Rubbish. It's the economy, stupid.
By Simon Bates