Anyone have good news to share about the U.K.? ??

suzie the answer is, that I don’t know ( if we will refuse to send live animals abroad) once out of the EU, and nor does anybody else know at the moment.
The important thing is that we could do and I hope that we will do.

We have been in the EU for a long time, if we had been able to influence the trade in live animals for meat exports then we would have done so by now.The other EU countries don’t see it as a problem.

Lemongrove, newer moral initiatives such as farm animal welfare begin among the people not the political regime.Many Europeans including in southern Europe now want better farm animal welfare. Laws follow morality in free countries.

there is currently a post doing the rounds about millions of sheep being killed and buried because we wont be able to keep them when we lose the custom of the EU .I dont know if its true but I wouldn't put anything past this government.The farmers are being given a miniscule compensation award apparently .If I manage to find out the truth of it I'll post here

Fake news paddy ????????

Well, there's certainly good news for some people - though not for most of us:

The I today:

"Artistocrat UK: landed gentry double their wealth in a decade"

The report refers to pioneering research, based on data from the wills of nearly 2,000 title holders. It found that, on average, Britain's approximate 600 aristocratic families are as wealthy as their Victorian counterparts at the height of Britain's empire.

The figures show there has been a four-fold increase in the value of a hereditary title, which is now worth more than £16 million. The aristocracy has prospered during the era of financial de-regulation and liberalisation, introduced by Mrs Thatcher in 1979.

The article states that these personal wealth figures are likely to be much higher because other assets, such as art collections and investment portfolios are held in separate trusts which are not open to examination.

More progressive taxation after the Second World War brought about a decline in the vast fortunes of the nobility. However the 2008 financial crisis reversed this trend, allowing these super rich aristocrats to take advantage of low interest rates to buy up stocks and shares. The article states that since 2008 the average wealth of the nobility stood at £8.9 million - so it has nearly doubled from that time until now.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reported in January this year:

"Research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) found that the average worker has lost £11,800 in real earnings since 2008.

"The UK has suffered the worst real wage slump among leading economies, the union organisation said.

"Workers have suffered cumulative losses in inflation-adjusted pay ranging from just under £5,000 in north-east England to more than £20,000 in London, said the report."

Whatever happens re Brexit (and it doesn't look at all good at the moment) these figures demonstrate a systemic failure of the current system to address the ever- increasing, and vast, disparity between the very rich and the average person.

A diatribe of envy if ever I heard one.
Anyone with money ( you didn’t have to be an aristocrat)
Took advantage of low interest rates to buy up stocks and shares.
There simply aren’t many ‘super rich’ amongst the aristocrats anyway! Far more super rich from the business classes.
What has helped them (moneywise) is throwing open their doors to the paying public, which most had to in order to pay the bills.
Stocks and shares are a huge gamble, you have to be prepared to both win and lose.
The numbers of the very wealthy aristocrats who don’t have to open to the public is very small.

Your reply to eleothan lemon is as usual underwhelming in its understanding of what she was saying, and the many academic reports about this disparity.

I understood it very well thanks WWM2

Those comments say otherwise.

I don’t know where people get the idea that Uk farm animal welfare is the best in Europe. I think the Netherlands , Germany and some Scandinavian countries rank higher or equal. If you think the industrial way of farming is good animal welfare, you must have blinkers on. There are films of terrible cruelty going on in U.K. abattoirs, nothing is done about it by the U.K. authorities it’s sickening, it’s ridiculous to suggest it will somehow get better by not being in the EU. I don’t post them on here but I don’t think anyone will want to see it.

That is why I have sourced a farmer whose welfare standards are as high as possible. The animals are farmed organically and grass fed. They are slaughtered close by and humanely.
The meat comes directly from the farmer.
If you care about how these animals are treated then it is within everyone’s remit to source a farmer who has the highest standards possible.

Milk is my next thing to tackle.

You can if you wish visit the farm to see his farming practices.

The dairy industry is crueller than the meat industry in many ways.

Of course logically I should be vegetarian. But I found a good compromise by eating veg one day, fish the next and then meat.

Oh dear, this thread was about the good things happening in the UK - big and small, political and otherwise.

Why has it morphed into a load of moaning?

Crystaltipps: I don’t know where people get the idea that Uk farm animal welfare is the best in Europe.

Perhaps the good news here is our optimism and aspiration. There seems to be a childish need in this country to ”be the best”, not just in Europe but in the world. For years we have been told that the NHS is ”the envy of the rest of the world”. Yet we learn that certain treatments available elsewhere are not offered here. I have received excellent health care in other European countries. Maternity services in the UK lag behind those in other EU countries. It suits us to forget mad cow disease and contaminated blood transfusions because they taint the picture.

Instead we have been reminded of the Cecil Rhodes quote: ”Remember that you are an Englishman and have consequently won the first prize in the lottery of life”. We could argue this statement till the cows come home. Let's hope they are not all mad.

wildswan16.....you may well ask!
Actually, it was always going to happen as moaning is a great source of enjoyment to some.
The UK has a great deal to celebrate.?

lemongrove True to form, you take personal aim and characterise what I have said as being indicative of "envy". It isn't necessary to have a specifically personal agenda to raise issues that are felt by many to indicate a continuance - and indeed a serious escalation - of conditions creating massive inequality in this country.

For those who are comfortably off - and I consider myself and my family to meet that description - it would be too easy to say "all is well with the world so why do people keep "moaning" ". However, all is not well with the world and, in this case, this country, when significant numbers of people can no longer house, feed and clothe themselves adequately and when public services have been, and continue to be, run down at an alarming rate.

I was pointing out that whilst those with the greatest wealth in our society have in fact hugely benefited from the "light touch regulation" initiated by Mrs Thatcher and the governments that followed her prime ministership, which led to the financial crisis of 2008, the vast majority of people have been subjected to stagnating or falling wages/incomes. At the same time they have been trying to meet the rising cost of essentials such as housing, energy, food, transport, etc. For people on low incomes - and quite often those doing the most essential jobs - this has caused great distress - but maybe we shouldn't mention it for fear of being called "envious".

Eloethan....and true to form you assume I was talking of you, when they were not your words but those of an ‘I’
Journalist.

Plus, in case you hadn’t noticed, this was meant to be a light hearted thread celebrating good news.

The problem is lemon that apart from several major sporting victories there is very little to celebrate at the moment as we watch the political disaster unfold, applauded by the supporters of it. I read and understood the article in the I and I was not envious but angry. You are obviously an intelligent person why do you deliberately misunderstand anything which does not back up your view?

I could say the same of you GillT57
The ‘I’ journalist was trying to stir up class hatred.He or she could have used other means, but ‘Aristocrats’ is the one they chose to go with,and apart from a very few of them, the world of business has far more millionaires and billionaires.
If you don’t feel the UK has anything to celebrate then don’t
Bother about the thread.

Gill, what about the toilets? Good news surely?

lemongrove, I am not envious.

I agree with Eloethan