A great day to go out for a walk. The sun broke through the clouds and both jumper and coat came off as Jane and I walked to Horningsea for lunch at the garden centre there. The rape fields were losing their gold colour as the seed pods began to form, whilst there was a strange but pleasant scent from the black and white flowers on a densely planted broadleaf field. We were bemused by the slightly different cow parsley umbels along the way, differing slightly in petal shape and colour. Back home, I noticed a large black and white chequered flesh fly being quite territorial and chasing off the more abundant green-bottles. The stage was an unfortunate small chick that had drowned int he recent rains and ended up on our lawn. I videod the behaviour and wrote a short blog article on the observations here http://www.miltoncontact-blog.com/2017/05/dont-push-me-flesh-fly-chases-off.html. The pond water has cleared even more and this could well be due to the wriggling pond larvae, most likely mosquito, scavening the organic debris and algae. Hopefully these will attract more colonising predators - Jane has already seen a dragonfly in the garden.
President Trump gave a measured speech on Good and Evil to assembled middle eastern leaders. They will heartily agree and continue their fights against whosoever they deem to be terrorists in their own countries.
Brexit news was surfacing again. First with two reports on the potential damage to the UK economy, of which one was the food sector. Nearly half a million overseas and EU workers produce the food and undertake the fruit and vegetable picking that employers cannot find UK workers enthusiastic enough to do. I had not realised that 85% of vets at abattoirs are non UK, because we prefer visiting farms and treating small pets. The memorable quote in the Guardian article was by Ian Wright, Head of the Food and Drink Federation:
“Food is at the heart of national security. If you can’t feed a country you haven’t got a country.”
(https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/21/brexit-coming-food-crisis-seasonal-migrant-labour-eu).
The other warning came from the Centre of Economic Business Research (CEBR), which claims that leaving the single market in services could lead to a loss of between 1.4 and 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) – or £25bn to £36bn a year (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-single-market-services-uk-economy-report-36bn-a7747841.html).
Prime Minister Theresa May promises to begin talks on Brexit just eleven days after the results of the election. This might leave EU negotiator Michel Barnier twiddling his thumbs as he waits for her to catch up as he insisted in the Evening Standard several days ago, that Brexit talks will begin hours after General Election result. Mind you, it could be a short initial meeting as our EU negotiator David Davis said today that Britain will walk out of Brexit talks unless Brussels drops its demand to charge €100bn (£86bn) to leave the EU.
French lawyer Julien Fouchet is perhaps a bit too late:Whether he is right or wrong, he is planning to file a legal call for the cancellation of the Brexit negotiations (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brexit-talks-illegal-uk-expats-british-abroad-not-vote-french-lawyer-julien-fouchet-european-a7745216.html). The argument is based on the fact that certain groups of expats were excluded from voting at the referendum, therefore undermining fundamental rights. Judging by the current trends in the UK, this is now more likely to raise hackles in the UK than garner support, unless there is a cataclysmic event that changes public opinion.
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