HS2 fallout. And comfort eating.

 I read this morning about a farmer in Staffordshire whose land was being cut in two by the proposed HS2 line. Five days before the announcement that the northern bit HS2 was not going ahead, some of his land was compulsorily purchased, land he’s been farming all his life. That’s a quarter of his dairy farm land. That’s FIVE DAYS! ONLY five days! The land was down valued and the money he has received is not enough to buy a comparable amount of land in the area. Now that phase two has been scrapped it is possible that they might decide to sell the land. But the farmer will probably not be able to buy it because he will have had to pay capital gains tax on the money he received from the compulsory purchase. There are environmental aspects as well, such as the destruction wildflower meadows! And all this has been hanging over him for the last decade at least!

There’s something wrong there. Once there was any doubt about the continuation of HS2, why did they not put all compulsory purchase plans on hold? Did nobody tell the compulsory purchase organisers, not to mention the people running round encouraging investors in HS2, that it might not happen? And now that it has been cancelled, why can’t he just have his land back? The right hand clearly didn’t know what the left hand was doing! 

On a less serious note, Grace Dent, restaurant critic for The Guardian, cookery programme personality and apparently writer of 11 novels for teenagers, has written a book, it seems, about comfort eating.  Most of us indulge in comfort eating at some time in our lives, and not just when we are pregnant! Some keep it more under control than others. Granddaughter Number Two always has a collection of sweets for when she needs to comfort-eat - her excuse is low blood sugar but I’m not sure that’s really true.  As for me, I prefer something a bit more savoury but I try not to buy snacks - that’s the best way to stop eating them. 

According to the review, Grace Dent’s book talks a lot about food habits in the North West of England. Fair enough, I believe the North West is where she grew up. And apparently it only contains six recipes. Here is a little sample from the review in The Guardian:

“If you are a sweet comfort eater, susceptible to the siren song of malted milk biscuits, Angel Delight, rice pudding or golden syrup, you may find Comfort Eating unfairly weighted towards the savoury. But this is Dent’s book and she has dominion. The main chapters concern cheese, butter, pasta, bread and potatoes, to which she ascribes a God-like status. In fact, in a quintessential Dent sentence, she writes: “Yes, suffering is a natural part of our earthly existence, and everything we love is fragile, but potatoes make all this tolerable.”

My daughter and I were talking about our mutual weakness for potatoes the other day - chips, wedges, baked, roasted, especially mashed in my daughters case - boiled new potatoes with a fried egg make an excellent meal - and so we quite agree with Ms Dent. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!