Apologies if this post starts slowly, but I'm angry and I’m building up to something.
Back in the 1970s, when I was bouncing around on a space hopper and wearing short trousers, there were lots of very rich farmers around.
During the 1980s, when I was a student listening to The Cure and drinking £1-a-pint beer, there were fewer.
And by the end of the 1990s, when I owned quite a few ties and was ensconced in the world of work, there were fewer still.
Now we’re in the so-called noughties and, yes, there are still a few very rich farmers around - but there are lots and lots of poor ones.
I simplify, but you can probably see the pattern. The reason I've been pondering this is because someone's just drawn my attention to an article on The Guardian's website by Julie Burchill.
For years, she’s made her name as a controversial columnist, dispensing her own peculiar form of bitterness on pretty much any topic she’s deigned worthy.
Now she’s lashed out at farmers - branding them, among other things, "reactionary and misanthropic". She also alludes to another old charge: that farmers are feather-bedded.
I doubt, frankly, if the woman's ever been on a farm. Whenever I meet a farmer these days it strikes me how incredibly hard they work. Eighty-hour weeks are pretty standard. How does that, I wonder, compare with your working week, Julie?
They’re also among the most progressive and proactive thinkers I know. And as for the charge of misanthropy, well, that could be why they’re so committed to such obviously misanthropic notions like family and community couldn't it, Julie!
With so many country families experiencing tough times (talk to charities like The Samaritans and they’ll tell you all about rural poverty and suicide), her words are not just ignorant but also insulting.
She dismisses the commitment and passion of tens of thousands of people for the sake of a few column inches. She’s wrong – and I’m tempted to email her and tell her how wrong she is. Although, I'm not going to give her the satisfaction. People like Julie Burchill will always find a way of spouting ill-informed nonsense and bile.
It’s just unfortunate. This is one of the biggest obstacle the countryside has to face: misinformed prejudice.
Rant over. Something light and fluffy next, I promise.
See what people have been saying about Julie Burchill's article on the FWi forums.
I love articles like Burchill's - they make folks (me too) all steamed up and brilliant debate ensues. Let's hope for more really great rebuffs and an abstaining from personal jibes. She can take it.
Well, her working week will probably be sitting on her ar*e complaining about things she hasn't got a clue about and things that she is VERY ill educated on.
She needs to go and meet farmers, see the work they do (especially the conservation work) and then re-think her decision. I have nothing against vegetarian but i bet shes one (and if she isn't, god knows what shes moaning about)
WAT A LOAD OF BULL!!!!!
Have you noticed that the comments on the collum thing on the guardian website has closed - probabloy sue to everyone disagreeing with her and telling her whats what.
a quote i liked -
i think ms burchill makes her point very well. if you're selfish and lazy supermarkets suit perfectly, and hang the consequences.