Tag Archives: show

Three Acres And A Cow – Canon Frome Court – Ledbury, Herefordshire – 13/05/18

Tickets from: http://threeacresandacow.co.uk/canon-frome

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/259116747963577/

Join us for a Sunday afternoon show at Canon Frome Court. Tea and cake will be for sale in the interval and the show will be followed by a tour of the farm.

BBC ‘In Our Time’ on the Highland Clearances (51 mins)

I’ve posted links to Melvyn Braggs ‘In Our Time‘ podcasts/radio shows a number of times on this website but it has to be said that I’ve always been a little weary of them… something about the fact that the large majority of the guests are Oxbridge academics and the number of massively posh accents always leaves a little bell of warning ringing somewhere that I’m getting the official ruling classes imperial spin on history.

I remember having a post show email disagreement with one of Melvyn’s academic guests after their ‘Putney Debates’ show managed to completely ignore the issue of land during the civil war period which still seems a critical oversight from other things I’ve learnt and read.

I’ve had a number of people email me the recent episode on the Highland Clearances (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09tc4tm) which seemed quite revisionist to my mind when I listened to it. I thought nothing more of it at the time, but then someone posted a fine response via Bella Caledonia which I think is worth bringing to your attention: http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2018/03/11/in-our-time-but-not-in-our-voice/

Three Acres and a Cow – The Three Sisters – Edinburgh – 04/04/18

Please note, this show is mainly focused on England with some Scottish and Irish history, we have been invited to Scotland to showcase the show with a view to supporting the creation of a new Scottish work with a similar spirit.

Tickets from https://threeacresandacow.co.uk/edinburgh

Facebook event page – https://www.facebook.com/events/591089014574073/

Three Acres And A Cow – Caroline Street Social Club – Shipley, West Yorkshire – 16/03/18

Advanced online tickets from https://app.etickets.to/buy/?e=15929
Facebook event page – https://www.facebook.com/events/530431097340364/
High res poster image for printing – https://threeacresandacow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/shipley-poster-high-res-1.jpg

 

 

A cheeky selfie with Peter Linebaugh

We had the privilege of sharing a stage today with a hero of ours, the historian Peter Linebaugh… Here is a cheeky selfie of us in front of the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest.

Peter was a student of E.P. Thompson’s in the 70s and has written some wonderful books including ‘The Many Headed Hydra’ which I hope many of your will have read or know about…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Linebaugh

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/jan/27/historybooks

BBC Radio 4 farming programs on CAP and Westminster

There is a good series on BBC Radio 4 at the moment called ‘Against The Grain’. They are 15mins each and worth a listen.

Below are links to two of them i listened too and a few of my notes and comments

>>>>>>against the grain – farming westminster – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08bb9wk

new labour = defra – word agriculture removed from government department – upset a lot of farmers and people who lived in rural areas
90s – grain mountains and food lakes – BSE – foot and mouth – farming perceived as a problem – farmers go on a PR offensive
farming a more important sector for french politicians even though it is still relatively small 2-3% of population
UK agriculture is tiny = 0.7% GDP produced by farming even though 70% land is farmed

an EU perspective – problem with UK is voting system first past the post leads to very little coalition government so marginal votes and voices such as farmers cannot make a difference

>>>>>>against the grain – the CAP years – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08bb202

professor tim lang
1840s repealed corn laws fixing corn prices – decision made to import cheap food from the empire rather than support our own farmers = farming declined
WW1 shock can britain feed itself then 1920/30 recession again + WW2 – WTF
By 1947 never again – let’s support our farmers – subsidies = protecting farmers via productionist approach
over generously – horrific surpluses of food – export subsidies to get rid of the stuff
CAP bundle of contradictions – good vs bad
1960 70 80 bad for nature
since then = paying farmers to do some nice things whilst allowing them to be brutal

professor allan buckwell
CAP stop market intervention
change to pay farmers to provide things market wants but doesn’t pay for
CAP has kept people on the land longer – moderating or slowing rate of out flow from agricultural sector
to keep UK competing in the world commodity market you need scale no a few tens of acres

a tale of two halves
farmers given money for things they produce even if this is a disaster for nature
separating subsidies from production – environmental land management

CAP encouraged specialisation which brought problems around environmentalism and sustainability

CAP holds back the forces of consolidation and industrialisation

danish are farming mink – raised for fir – need high quality feed – dry warm nest

CAP to stabilise farmers income and prevent corporations taking over

small farmers are the lifeblood of the countryside

Tony Benn and Roy Bailey’s show ‘The Writing on the Wall’

roy and tony

Tony Benn and Roy Bailey used to tour a show called ‘The Writing on the Wall’ which has much overlap with the spirit, content and format of ‘Three Acres And A Cow’.

There is a newspaper review of one of the shows here and it can be found on iTunes, Spotify and many other virtual and real places… You might be able to stream it from the player below if you are lucky!

More info on Roy Bailey’s website but he has sold out of cds! http://roybailey.net/shop/items/writing-on-the-wall


thewritingonthewall_cfcd405