Edwards insisted that lessons had been learned and that in 2023 National Highways had carried out a full soil survey and a three-month tree analysis.

This revealed they had planted the wrong species in the wrong place, and provided valuable lessons about the most appropriate season in the year to plant a tree, he said.

As someone who has been involved in planting schemes, I can say that this is absolutely bog-standard basic stuff. There is no excuse for this at all. No-one employed as any kind of ecologist should have got this wrong. People should be sued for this at the very minimum.

Since the age of 30? Only when on demos/direct actions - or when patrolling the nature reserves where I have worked. In those cases, since I have had NVDA and de-escalation training etc, I have pretty much relied on that: so remain passive, smile, speak, find common ground, use the drama triangle and all the rest.

To be honest, even before the age of 30 (as an adult), as far as I can remember my only real confrontations as such have been in the same or similar situations.

Obviously, I have ended up being dragged off and arrested a few times at the direct actions, and have been hit a couple of times and also deliberately run down by an offroad motorbike on a reserve. On that occasion, I didn't get much opportunity to 'confront' the guy, really though, beyond diverting his attention from my volunteers.

It is about dealing with damaged or diseased trees mostly, or just reducing the tops to make them safe and so on.

I spent my time climbing trees then hanging from them on ropes while playing with chainsaws. Very enjoyable and satisfying work, but extremely physical.

It depends how you want to count them. Does self-employed (artist), self-employed (IT consulant) & self-employed (tree surgeon) count ad one or three? Especially since all of those overlapped to some extent. And do promotions count?

However, looking at long-term, full-time roles only, then about 5 - most of which involved at least one internal promotion. Probably closer to 15 if you include all the odds and ends. I'm in my 50s and will probably be staying put now until I retire.

My brothers - quite a bit older than me - had one job (including promotions) in one case and two in the other.

Sounds like you should adopt an Official Birthday in a couple of weeks and get a re-do then.

Anyway, I hope it gets better and happy unofficial birthday such as it is.

I have had a lie in and did a bit of gardening. I'll get out for a walk somewhere or another after lunch and maybe settle in for some reading this evening.

• M (1931)
• Duck Soup (1933)
• Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
• The Third Man (1949)
• Twelve Angry Men (1955)
• The Wages of Fear (1955)

We used to have a coal fire when I was growing up, so routinely in the winters.

What do you mean by "what happens"? You get nutrients from the food and you hydrate with the water. You carry on as normal otherwise. Nothing much else "happens".

The closest to me AFAIK is Sealand, but I'd rather not, tbh. I do actually have a passport from Waveland, declared as part of a Greenpeace campaign some years back and based on Rockall, but also not too appealing as a long-term residence.

At one site that I lived and worked on for several years, we discussed declaring unilateral independence on several occasions. It was a shingle spit nature reserve and seemed a promising location, but we never did. Well, not so far.

Overall, the Free Borough of Llanrwst looks a good bet. I have been there and definitely enjoy the area.

There have been studies on this kind of thing. I don't have the links to hand, but the upshot from the ones that I have seen IIRC is that it doesn't generally cause many people to actually change their views from positive to negative or vice versa, but it does keep the issue in the news.

Of course, in the wider perspective, no protests of this kind are ever going to work alone, but then that's not the idea. They are never going to be happening alone either: there are always going to legal challenges, political movements, consumer pressure, boycotts and so on and so on alongside. The question is, which ones drive which others? Which wouldn't happen without the others?

Que sorpresa!

One of the very few that I had to read at school but enjoyed anyway.

I noticed that a new book taking up the story of Manor Farm as a post-Brexit satire has been published just this week: Beasts of England. Obviously I don't expect it to be in the same league as Orwell, but I am actually intrigued to read this, and will get my hands on a copy soon.