David's Digest

My passport runs out in a few weeks time so, to be ready for a couple of Farmers Weekly study tours next year and to try to avoid the Chistmas postal congestion, I set out to collect an application form to renew it in good time.

First problem, our local Post Office didn't have one. "We're not allowed to stock them these days", the lady behind the counter told me. "You'll have to get one from the main Office in town". So, next time I had to go to the bank I popped in to the Post Office next door to get my form.

Filling it in is simple enough, especially if its just a renewal. If you've lost the old one or its been stolen - that's a different matter. Anyway, I got to the bit about the fee. "For latest information contact our website", the document instucted.

Imagine my consternation when I did so and found that my new passport will cost me £77.50 plus £8 handling fee. If I wanted it quickly for immediate travel it would cost £112.50. And if I were a child wanting my first passport I would have to pay £49. Only if I were born before Sept 2009 (which I was not in case you were wondering) would I be able to buy a new passport for the discounted price of just £35.

I could hardly believe these prices. Is the government trying to make it so expensive to travel out of the country in order to keep us at home? Or are they using an occasional desire to go abroad as another way of raising money for the Treasury? 

I can remember when passports cost £12. And even when I last renewed mine ten years ago I seem to remember it was twenty something. I suppose I shall have to bite the bullet and pay up. Now I have to find someone to countersign my photograph and say I am of good character. It could be an even bigger problem. And when I last checked my doctor was charging about £15 to do that.

Its a sensitive subject round here. What with potatoes and sugar beet being carted from field to store or clamp, tractors and ploughs leaving fields each evening to return to the farmyard and so on. It really is impossible to avoid bringing some mud onto roads.

We do our best to clear up to avoid dangerous driving conditions but you can't get it all and inevitably surfaces are left greasy and dirty. It's good business for automatic car washers but in an autumn like this is turning out to be there are still a lot of filthy vehicles on our local roads.

I was brushing one road beside a sugar beet pad the other afternoon, flagging traffic down with a torch to try to get them to drive more slowly until the job had been completed, when I got a right mouthful from one lady driver. "You ........ farmers shouldn't be allowed to mess up our roads. You're a .........liability and its ........ dangerous", she shouted. I replied as mildly as possible that I was aware of the problem and apologised for her inconvenience but pointed out that I had to get the crops off the land so she could eat and that I was doing my best to clean up.

The last few words were almost ceratainly lost to her as, in a fit of road rage, she revved up through the remains of the mud. splattering me with some of it as she did so. Such people have no understanding of nor interest in what farmers do and shouldn't come to live in the country. But they're here and we have to live with them. And I do sympathise. I just wish they'd reciprocate. 

There seems to have developed among the chattering classes a certain cache about not watching reality TV programmes. The latest to join is Jon Snow, who reads Channel 4 news, who declared with pride recently that he had never seen any of the current batch and wouldn't dream of wasting his time doing so. A bit rich, I thought, for a man who earns his living from the same media. But then again, he did make a fool of himself over the issue of wearing a Remembrance Day poppy on TV so perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised.

Not that I wish to join him in his arrogance but I do have feelings similar to his about The X Factor and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here - which are a waste of time. Strictly Come Dancing, on the other hand, is required viewing in our house. My wife loves the dresses and I'm quite attracted to what's inside them - well some of them. And there can be no doubt that the contestants work hard over many weeks to improve their technique.

In passing I should make clear that I think the Anne Widdecombe joke is over and that its time she went. Even her long suffering partner, Anton du Beke seems to be becoming impatient with her. I'm quite surprised his back hasn't given out already. Other than that (and Bruce Forsyths bad jokes) I think it is good Saturday night viewing.

And I'm reminded of a story I once heard about one of Britains premier agriculturalists and team leaders. He was one of the best educated and sophisticated people I ever met. But every Monday morning he would gather his team around him for the weeks briefing and would often check if they knew what song had been named Top of the Pops that weekend. He wanted his team to have as wide a base of interests as possible and be able to converse with those they met day to day at all levels. It was a lesson I have never forgotten.

And with snow and frost covering the land and temperatures below freezing I am content to be a couch potato in front of a roaring log fire during these miserable November evenings.