Editorial

Introducing the new editorial team, childhood memories, sugar beet and birds

Hello again,

Welcome to your New Style Village Pump. I am delighted to tell you that we now have a fully committed Village Pump editorial team. I am continuing as editor but the time consuming publishing role will in future be undertaken by Monika Goetz from Stoke Ferry. Even more good news, Brian Harrison has kindly offered to help with advert design. The more observant among you will also notice a change in format; that is because Monika is a professional where as I have had to learn as I have gone along. Please do tell us what you think of the new style publication; after all, it is you our readers that we have to please. Comments from contributors and advertisers would also help us to continue with the development of your magazine.

I am sure that many of you will be transported back in time, just as I was, when you read the Memories of a Norfolk Childhood provided by Anne Zissler. It was like looking backwards through a looking glass. How innocent our lives were back then and how little risk there was to children learning to live in an ever-changing world. Those were days before Political Correctness when it was not a sin to tell a child it was naughty and it was perfectly legal to have Gollywog symbols on Robertson's preserves. And how well I remember being battered over the head with a piece of Japanese Oak by my woodwork teacher; a sin probably punishable today by several months in the pokey.

I was also dismayed to read in this weeks Lynn News that the newly created Department of Farming and Rural Affairs has asked West Norfolk Council to conduct an assessment of the environmental aspects of growing sugar beet! You might wonder why it is necessary to investigate a crop, which is almost entirely beneficial to wildlife and good arable husbandry. The short answer is because the European Commission requires all member states to produce such an assessment and to show what measures they are taking to prevent environmental problems arising from sugar beet production. How much would you bet me that the European Bureaucrat that dreamt that up has never seen a sugar beet in his or her life? And Tony Blair wants us to adopt the Euro and become full members of the EEC; some hope!

To end on a more pleasant note, the Swallows are back, mixing happily with the Sand Martins, without the slightest scream of racial abuse. We have also been right royally entertained this month by Goldfinches and Chiffchaffs. What a lovely county we live in; we must not allow the politicians to ruin it.

Ray Thompson