We should be shouting from the roof tops!

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Hello, welcome back to the channel.

[00:00:03]Thanks for joining me in another of my monologues. I'm just looking to see if the camera's straight. It may not actually matter in this instance. I think it's a bit wonky. Um, I'm sitting in our new poly tunnel which we have built with wood from the old Christmas trees that were never harvested. It's taken a bit of time to put this together. It's not quite finished yet. We're digging a trench either side. There are um more panels to put on. Um but uh it is where it is. I'm just going to move my tripod leg a little bit to see if that will straighten it up a bit. There we go.

[00:00:40]Perhaps that's all right. Anyway, that's what we're doing on Biggleswick Farm at the moment. And hopefully there'll be another English couple coming out soon that you may wish to enjoy. Um, I want to talk and I must try and keep these shorter than the recent ones where I've been rambling on far too long to get to the point. Um, first thing I want to say, of course, is thank you to everybody who supports the channel. Apologize for uh not getting regular videos out. It's actually because it's the spring stroke summer now. Um, everything has gone ballistic in terms of growing here. And while we don't uh we're not here all the time cuz we commute and um we and sometimes we stay over, it's just there's a billion plants and there's two of us and some of those plants, if not most of them, are plants growing in the wrong place. A lot of people call them weeds. They're not necessarily weeds. They're certainly not weedy. Um and at this time brambles, thistles, grass, um and stinger nettles are growing a huge number and we're, you know, trying to get keep what we've done in the past um last year where we were doing a lot of clearance work sorted.

[00:01:58]Obviously trying to get our growing areas up to speed and those things that are growing. So it's been difficult making the videos. Anyway, so that that's just my excuse for my laziness for a making videos and trying to keep on top of everything.

[00:02:16]I want to I I want to say something about um the country or this land. I I like to refer to it as Britain more than just England. Although we are, you know, we have had this YouTube channel is called the English couple. Um but Britain being an island is is a lovely place. You know, the climate is interesting. It's diverse, isn't it? The geology is fascinating and you don't have to travel very far. And the ge geology changes which has changed over time uh in historic terms the architecture of the land. So that you can go from say down on the south coast a flinty chalky um substrate up over to say the Cotswwells with oliptic limestone and um right up to sort towards Scotland with granite um and many others you know limestone and sandstone peric stone all these different beautiful building materials as well as of course the different trees that we've had which has given this this country a sort of look and feel and over the years um people growing up dealing with farming as a principal way to sustain themselves. Um traditions and customs have grown around. We we we know of course that there were systems in place which a lot of people perhaps now look back on and frown with great land owners. Perhaps some of the big estates not treating its um employees very well.

[00:03:55]Some of them perhaps these people would have not been around if it weren't for these big land owners. How did they get their land is another question and and where how was it taken. 1066 of course comes to mind.

[00:04:12]So these are you know these are things however um the people who have been here for generation after generation after generation have created the customs traditions the festivals um that celebrate the seasons and of course the I suppose you know for the last 2,000 years it's been a Christian principle country my I don't watch a lot of social media now and I obviously don't watch mainstream media. Um but I am aware of course that there has been in recent times um and it seems a deliberate policy to expand if not replace dare I say uh those traditional customs over the last 2,000 years that we have established a way of being a way of addressing one another a way of um caring for each other and morals and ethics that come from or have caused and created a certain type of um way of living that other religions and I don't want to go and name them and and blame or any of that that are coming in and people are very worried and of course there seems to be a lot of um complaining about certain other um types of people who've come to this country and wish to dominate it with their own laws or their own way of life and their own particular religious um uh worshiing places. Sorry, I was a bit uh miffed with the right words. And I and I don't want to sort of get into um the who it is and what it is and why it is. There's a lot of people talking about that. My my concern really is the people who are constantly sort of saying, you know, watch out, this is happening and this is happening and this is happening. What we're not doing, and we do tend to do this a lot, we we moan and complain. Uh you might say that we are, you know, a bunch of complainers in this country. Now, I'm doing that myself as we speak. Napoleon said we were a bunch of shopkeepers. We're now really a bunch of corporate um employees, which is a shame. If only we were the shopkeepers, that would be that would be at least small independent people. But what we do tend to do is talk about the things we don't like. We talk about what the problems are. What we don't do, we kind of take it for granted in a way.

[00:07:00]the things that we either do like or the things that we have. We take for granted the the wealth of history. We take for granted that we've had these customs. We moan that they're disappearing. But what we're not doing is celebrating them. You know, you don't see um English country dancing, for example, being taught in the schools. You don't see people going as much now and and having May fairs with May poles. celebrating people laugh at uh the the Morris dancers.

[00:07:35]We've we've we've moved away from a lot of our traditions. A lot of people don't know what some of these festivals um and things like churches and um all these different times of the year that were given off and people had holidays for or celebrated or the going into the woods and bringing sprigs of not just holly but different um different things at the different seasons, fertility festivals and so on. Most people are unaware of that because, you know, there's um clearly a move not to dwell on what this country once was. And to me, instead of doing the complaining business and saying, "Oh, you know, we're losing it, uh, and it's these people's fault," I think we just should be shouting from the rooftops of those things that we think are disappearing and bring them back.

[00:08:34]I think it's well within our power to bring back the customs, the the morals, the ethics, the festivals and to celebrate them and to support them. I know small villages and fates, sorry, small villages and towns no longer have as many fates and people, you know, feel outsiders to a village and so we should be supporting those events.

[00:08:58]As you may know, I've bought myself a tractor and sometimes there's these um tractor festivals or steam rallies and these sort of things go on. And it's not just nostalgia. It is part of our past, okay? It's a it's a mechanical past.

[00:09:14]It's a farming past. But I think we we instead of complaining about the things that we don't want, we should be getting on and celebrating the things we do. So that that is the noise. So that if if people are coming into this country instead of thinking well they don't care about their country so we'll put in place our stuff. Um that they're overwhelmed by I'm going to use the word patriotic.

[00:09:44]It's not a you know people will say patriotic is a dodgy word these days because it's a bit jingoistic.

[00:09:51]Um, but people who have lived on an island, Britain, ought to be proud, even though there are things they've got right, things they've got wrong, ought to be proud of their history. And the things that we fear are going, we should be, as I say, shouting from the rooftops. We should be ringing the bells in the churches. We should be holding on to those churches and attending them. We should be You know, it's not nostalgia and try trying to claim the past. It's keeping the meaning of what it is to live on this island. And instead of just complaining and moaning, we should be celebrating far far more so that as I say, people coming in go, "Oh, these people are actually very very proud of their country. Perhaps we should go somewhere else." uh where we can instill our stuff. So there is no takeover. Um, I haven't got anything against any of the people who coming in, but if they see basically a desert, a desert of history, a desert of morals and ethics, a desert of customs and traditions, if they see confused people, which is what I think they see, you can't blame them for saying, "Well, we're going to put put our stuff into place." People may have a much harsher attitude to that. Um, but it's certainly true that we don't celebrate the things that we used to celebrate by anything.

[00:11:30]We've become captured by material things, by Netflix and Amazon Prime and mainstream media and gadgets and toys and digital stuff. We no wonder we have lost the the wonders of the old analog world where we were face to face meeting people celebrating in our quintessential British way. And I think that's what's missing and that's how we turn things around by putting our staff on the ground and asserting again who we are and what we stand for. just an opinion.

[00:12:14]You may disagree, of course. You may say it's a terrible opinion to hold, but we all can hold opinions and that's what makes the world go round. Uh, a lot of this type of thing is being talked about in my book, Biggleswick, the town that wouldn't comply. And if you are interested in reading that book, I would um advise you to get in touch relatively soon. and they are disappearing. My first print run and it may be some time before I get another print run together. So, email me richard atves.com and I'll tell you how you can buy one.

[00:12:51]Thank you so much for watching. Bye for now.