Across the pond

In my new life in the country I did, yesterday, what English country folk have been doing for centuries, paid my respects to the Lord of the Manor at Forde Abbey. And, also of course, taking advantage of the opportunity to roam his estate and goggle at his house and the contents. This being the twenty-first century the Lord did not provide all this largesse for free. The occasion is now called an Open Day and you pay when you go into the car park. The proceeds go to the farmers’ benevolent society, because in 2008 land-owning in the country more likely to yield a loss than a profit. The real money is made in the city and on the web; the farmers are not much richer than the peasants. And in constant danger of going bankrupt if they get their sums wrong.

The present owner of Forde Abbey is not even a Lord. He is plain Mr Roper, but a gentleman, who is concerned to maintain his inheritance and also do his bit for people living in the country. It is not an easy job but we should not weep for him too much, because as you can see from the pic at the top, he is not short of space to put up his relatives and friends and he is living in a pad, which Prince Charles might give his kingdom for. It is built in the style of architects he loves, like Inigo Jones. Much more substantial than Norman Foster with his wobbly bridges.

It was a great day. But, at this point, I should come clean. I went because it was a dreary rainy day, and my concern was to keep the grand-children amused.

Mr Roper delivered. There was Punch and Judy, cut short by a particularly heavy shower, but replayed later. There were lots of dogs and some donkeys. And a display by drum majorettes, for those childern who watch too much US television. There was a brilliant falconer, who is also finding it hard work to adapt to the modern age.

As you can see from my pic, his son, whom he wants to continue the family tradition, looks quite as much at a loss as the owl, which took his father years to train.

The display of old cars by the Taunton lot was a great hit with at least one of the fathers, as you can see from another pic below.

The cream teas, alas, were sadly lacking in cream and the scones tasted more like Macdonalds than Devon, Dorest or Somerset.

But my day was made by the Riverside Jazzers, see video clip below, if it works.

In conclusion, I should give you a few facts.

Forde Abbey was created in the twelth century, not by American consumer capitalism, but by the Cistercian monks, in one of those periods of history when God and Mamon worked together in perfect harmony. At that time the monks owned the whole of Charmouth, including the land on which my bungalow stands.

The British yeoman families who grabbed the lands in the years after Henry VIII had freed us from the Papal yoke lost much of it by supporting the wrong side, when the Duke of Monmouth challenged James II in 1685.

That’s ancient history.

But it lives with us now.

New Labour, which was governed by Tony Blair, whose politics were decided by his wife, a convinced socialist and also a Roman Catholic. Blair soon and very happily made his peace with American consumer capitalism, and later with Roman Catholicism and the Pope.

His successor, Gordon Brown, who was of the Scottish protestant heritage, has made a terrible mess of things. Historically he is on the side of Monmouth, who fought the kingdom of James II, who was a Catholic. But in power, as the main ally and boss of economics for Tony Blair, he befriended American consumer capitalism.

He took power, when Blair reluctantly resigned, just at the time when American consumer capitalism was in dire trouble. The poorish American people who have followed it, and bought their own homes on mortgages which they cannot afford to pay, are in trouble. As is the US economy.

So the US wants a change from George W Bush. The UK wants a change from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. And the world most definitely wants a change from Bush/Blair/Brown.