Sunday 9 August 2015

Two Contrasting Visions of the Future of Britain: Prince Charles and Jeremy Corbyn




From BBC Radio 4, this morning:

On Your Farm, HRH The Prince of Wales on Biodiversity

"When His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales first visited Transylvania nearly 20 years ago, he was captivated by the region's "timelessness", and said it reminded him of stories he read as a child. Bears roam the forested slopes of the Carpathians, mountain pastures tinkle with the sound of cowbells and farmers scythe their hay meadows by hand. But for Prince Charles it wasn't just about storybook images - it was biodiversity at its very best. He saw a landscape teeming with wildflowers, cacophonous with insect-life and untouched by modern farming methods. The Prince has been spending holidays in Transylvania ever since and, for this special edition of On Your Farm, he invites Charlotte Smith to join him. He talks passionately about biodiversity - a word mistaken for a new type of washing ingredient when he first started campaigning for its preservation in the 1990s. He is open about his fears for the environment and, with a little help from Robert Byron, describes the natural world he wants his grandchildren and all future generations to inherit. We also look at environmental projects The Prince of Wales is supporting in Romania and back home in the UK" (Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced, in Transylvania, by Anna Jones).

Prince Charles quotes Robert Byron (video clip)

Express article

Royal Special: Prince Charles on the Future of Rural Communities (BBC Radio 4, On Your farm)

Telegraph article, 3 August 2015:


Charles brings back legions of lost apples, Sunday Times

Shepherds' huts, Western Morning News

*****

Jeremy Corbyn, A Profile - "Suddenly everyone's taking Jeremy Corbyn seriously. Dismissed by many as a fringe 'unelectable' figure in the Labour leadership campaign, a bearded vegetarian lover of Latin American revolutionaries, Commons rebellions and allotments, he's now making the running. Chris Bowlby explores what's shaped him, what sort of leader he'd be, and whether he really wants the top Labour job".

Update, Guardian editorial on Labour Party leadership

From The Sunday Times, Anne Applebaum

Which would you rather preserve, wildflower meadows and apple orchards (with rare apple trees), or a steady diet of programmes from the "objective" TV channel Russia Today?


A book for a Prince:

Eden Philpotts, A Dish of Apples (illustrations Arthur Rackham)

The apple harvest, from "In the Cider Orchard" by John Read ("Cluster-o-Vive", Somerset Folk Press, 1923):

"They poured out the richly tinted apples into heaps beneath the trees, and left them there to mellow until the time of cider-making: a chromatic confusion of Royal Somersets, Captain Libertys, Mary apples, Bloody-hearts, Nurdletops, Bitter-sweets, Sugarloaves, Greasycoats, Jerseys, Kingston Blacks and many other sorts dear to the heart of the old-fashioned cider-maker."










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