Bananas

[RonnieBird]

I worked at Cardiff Docks , and the only decent banana we imported was an Israeli one as was all their fruit in fact , which was all bonded away, its all about the quality.

I once had relatives who had a farm and i'm not RB

Careful, because that nutter used to work as a filing clerk at DEFRA and he knows everyone with farms. He can start phoning farmers up in different parts of the country asking whether anyone knows a farmer called Mr LifeonMars.

He doesn't work there any more of course because he was using the office records to stalk people on message boards.

If he did start phoning farmers up asking about their neighbours I wonder how many times a day he'd be told to **** off.

On a serious note, Geest was based in the same place as Mrs Steve R rather than Cardiff, but that was many years ago.

[cyril evans awaydays]

No, not at all. That's what they're for.
When I joined I left it blank but then a bunch of people who don't like WB started claiming I was him. You'll have seen that I reasoned with them and I filled in the profile really to make it obvious that wasn't the case.
The reason I said he's a WB nutter is that he's trawled through that profile in order to pick up things, ( in this case the fact that I had a farm before I retired), then use them to try and catch me out. He won't because I've never lied here about myself ,WB or anything else.

Re your own comments about whether your sane, well I expect you like a laugh etc but you equally don't seem fixated on a false idea that I'm WB and you don't troll me about that all the time

I know you haven't been a board member for very long so it may come as a surprise to you that on a laptop part of your profile (the bit that says you live in East Anglia) loads for each message you post. You might be even more surprised to realise that it was your post #25 where you stated "No, I'm in a very rural location and although I'm retired now I did used to own a fairly big farm, so I must have been very lucky to get away with my poor knowledge of agriculture" rather than any trawling through your profile.

You later clarified that the farm in question was not in East Anglia but a mixed livestock holding in Scotland. As someone with an interest and experience in agriculture, though more from policy rather than practical application I am happy to discuss your reflections, particularly in a thread called "Bananas".

I am happy to give you the benefit of the doubt on your assertions that you are not Wales-Bales. It would take a massive lack of self-awareness to continue with the pretence of inventing a like-minded chum and keep that going for a few weeks, even going to the length of replying on your behalf from his account. Not that I think that is beyond him but it would be very sad even for him.

Still you seem to have hit the ground running. Not that you care but I like others have WB on ignore to avoid my confusion more than anything!

[RonnieBird]

Well that's fairly sensible and conciliatory so fair enough.
I'd forgotten that I'd mentioned that in another conversation, but if you want to take anything from it, might I suggest consistency ?

Farming to me means hard work and constant frustration since the subject arises and it's the last thing I want to chat about now I don't have to do it, particularly the form filling , grants and ear tagging parts. If you wanted to know about breeds of cattle or sheep or something that'd be different if I were in the right frame of mind, but not as part of an interrogation about whether I'm some big liar.

Now, it's true to say that bananas are a kind of farming / agriculture and in fact I've seen the groves of trees in the West Indies, but it's not anything related to agriculture in this country so of course I know no more about growing them than you do. My comments upon the subject were from a political and economic point of view.

Anyway, I'll take that post as being sensible and well meant , and in that spirit I thank you for it.

[life on mars]

Careful, because that nutter used to work as a filing clerk at DEFRA and he knows everyone with farms. He can start phoning farmers up in different parts of the country asking whether anyone knows a farmer called Mr LifeonMars.

He doesn't work there any more of course because he was using the office records to stalk people on message boards.

If he did start phoning farmers up asking about their neighbours I wonder how many times a day he'd be told to **** off.

On a serious note, Geest was based in the same place as Mrs Steve R rather than Cardiff, but that was many years ago.

yes Geest were at Barry , but they had bonded warehouse facilities at queen Alexandra sheds and banana shipments , huge shipments of fruit from Israel , big .awful spiders in the bent bananas as well , mainly bound for M & S , big trade with the Malaysians boats in every month as well .


Loved working on the docks , ,such a vibrant time /place then with jobs and the off spins of Bute Town life .

[cyril evans awaydays]

Well that's fairly sensible and conciliatory so fair enough.
I'd forgotten that I'd mentioned that in another conversation, but if you want to take anything from it, might I suggest consistency ?

Farming to me means hard work and constant frustration since the subject arises and it's the last thing I want to chat about now I don't have to do it, particularly the form filling , grants and ear tagging parts. If you wanted to know about breeds of cattle or sheep or something that'd be different if I were in the right frame of mind, but not as part of an interrogation about whether I'm some big liar.

Now, it's true to say that bananas are a kind of farming / agriculture and in fact I've seen the groves of trees in the West Indies, but it's not anything related to agriculture in this country so of course I know no more about growing them than you do. My comments upon the subject were from a political and economic point of view.

Anyway, I'll take that post as being sensible and well meant , and in that spirit I thank you for it.

No problem. I accept this in the same spirit that you called me a "nutter" in post #52! Anyway back to bananas. You must have been horrified to find out that the devastation of the Jamaican banana industry that you care for so passionately was mostly down to America First big business interests (give or take the odd hurricane) rather than the evil EU empire ripping up colonial roots. Have facts changed your perspective?

[Wales-Bales]

Interesting take on a little joke that I would make to anyone on the forum

Haha, nice joke, WB and I really appreciate your humour!

[Wales-Bales]

I fully understand your angst about people thinking you are a 6ft 4 inch white rabbit called Harvey who hangs around with Wales Bales. I just want to talk agriculture with you!

That sounds like a decent chat up line, I'll have to try it sometime.

[Mrs Steve R]

No, not at all. That's what they're for.
When I joined I left it blank but then a bunch of people who don't like WB started claiming I was him. You'll have seen that I reasoned with them and I filled in the profile really to make it obvious that wasn't the case.
The reason I said he's a WB nutter is that he's trawled through that profile in order to pick up things, ( in this case the fact that I had a farm before I retired), then use them to try and catch me out. He won't because I've never lied here about myself ,WB or anything else.

Re your own comments about whether your sane, well I expect you like a laugh etc but you equally don't seem fixated on a false idea that I'm WB and you don't troll me about that all the time

I don't care who anyone is, answer the post not the poster

Haha, nice joke, WB and I really appreciate your humour!

[Wales-Bales]

I don't care who anyone is, answer the post not the poster

Sorry it was a slip of the finger, R and W are very close together on an ASCII keyboard, I meant to say RB and I really appreciate your humour!

[Mrs Steve R]

Sorry it was a slip of the finger, R and W are very close together on an ASCII keyboard, I meant to say RB and I really appreciate your humour!

[RonnieBird]

No problem. I accept this in the same spirit that you called me a "nutter" in post #52! Anyway back to bananas. You must have been horrified to find out that the devastation of the Jamaican banana industry that you care for so passionately was mostly down to America First big business interests (give or take the odd hurricane) rather than the evil EU empire ripping up colonial roots. Have facts changed your perspective?

Well I apologise for calling you a nutter, but in fairness you were pretty much calling me a liar at the time, so let's just draw a line under it.
Now, you take a particular view of the matter of Jamaican bananas and whilst I don't necessarily agree I can't see anything to be gained from debating it so far after the events. The fact remains that at this point in time it would be quite possible in a post Brexit market to rebuild both the Jamaican banana industry and our trading relationship with that country.
Having said this, my point was rather wider than just Jamaica and included all commonwealth countries - I think I specifically mentioned the oil refinery in Trinidad , but I think I also said that I could think of many other examples.

You refer to the "evil EU empire" , but that's not really the point here. In point of fact I would regard that phrase as quite apt since you raise the matter, and I would expect that you would not. I do hope that discussion of that question will soon be one of historic and acedemic interest only, but that's for another day.

I think the more pressing issue is the future of world trade as far as Britain is concerned, since we are in my opinion going to be leaving the EU one way or another, and it's only a matter of how much more fuss there'll be before that happens .

It's only to be expected if you're a former civil servant that you'd take a certain view of present and previous policies and stances, but they are all essentially political aspirations , whether they arose in truth from politicians or Whitehall mandarins. Of course they are backed with rational sounding justifications because so many are employed and given so many resources to produce them.

In fact it's a very civil service thing to quote previous postings with numerical references to prove points, and I don't knock you for that- I merely note it to demonstrate that you may come from a particular angle because justifying public policy is probably as habit forming as anything else.

However, and given that such policies are fundamentally political , they don't often correspond with the realities or practicalities of the world . Politics don't solve problems you see, they nurture them because they are the raw materials with which they manipulate the public consciousness to produce personal advancement and power.

It's no good then writing essays which justify such policies or protect the reputations of the people and departments who produced them because that can only perpetuate the harm they have done in the real world and impede the solutions . At some point we must DO something to take advantage of the opportunities which Brexit will provide because simply predicting various doomsday scenarios about it won't get us anywhere.

So, whether your post was fact, opinion , spin or a mixture, no it hasn't changed my perspective upon a much wider issue which is actually more about nationalism than economics , but nonetheless presents huge economic and social benefits to Britain and its people.

[RonnieBird]

Haha, nice joke, WB and I really appreciate your humour!

Very good, but I don't know whether that'll work a second time WB.

[cyril evans awaydays]

Very good, but I don't know whether that'll work a second time WB.

I don't know. One minute you are bemoaning anyone who accuses you of being an echo account and saying how tedious it is and the next minute you think its all a jolly jape when the person in question starts some predictably self-indulgent games. Is this the self-proclaimed consistency you seem so proud of, #54 if you need a quick reference.

[RonnieBird]

Now come on, you're either one of the WB conspiracists or you're not. You can't have it both ways.

WB is a very naughty man and the way he's chosen to taunt the local nutters has also been a nuisance to me.

What I'm saying there is that this isn't the first time he's made a 'deliberate mistake ' knowing that those with an IQ below room temperature will think they've spotted a clue which proves what he wants them to believe.
I can't be bothered to find that previous comment and give you the number, but I'm sure you can look it up.

Thing is though, I've got a sense of humour and I therefore can't help chuckling inwardly at the way he's pulling some peoples chains even though I suffer the collateral damage from his shenanigans.

[cyril evans awaydays]

Now come on, you're either one of the WB conspiracists or you're not. You can't have it both ways.

WB is a very naughty man and the way he's chosen to taunt the local nutters has also been a nuisance to me.

What I'm saying there is that this isn't the first time he's made a 'deliberate mistake ' knowing that those with an IQ below room temperature will think they've spotted a clue which proves what he wants them to believe.
I can't be bothered to find that previous comment and give you the number, but I'm sure you can look it up.

Thing is though, I've got a sense of humour and I therefore can't help chuckling inwardly at the way he's pulling some peoples chains even though I suffer the collateral damage from his shenanigans.

Might come as a shock but expressing drooling admiration on a message board may not be everybody's definition of chuckling inwardly.

[RonnieBird]

I'll have to risk it then. I'll mark you down as a WB detective then , after all. Everyone needs a hobby.

[cyril evans awaydays]

I'll have to risk it then. I'll mark you down as a WB detective then , after all. Everyone needs a hobby.

I wouldn't call sycophancy a hobby myself but if you are comfortable sucking up to someone who many feel is a bit of a self-obsessed irritant I certainly won't get in your way!

[RonnieBird]

I don't judge people by what others say. I make my own mind up.

In any case I might well disagree with WB once I know what his opinions are. I haven't sat there trawling through anyone's previous posts as you appear to have done.
All I know about him is this issue of me being an alleged clone of him, and the fact that he's clearly about twice as intelligent as the gang who appear to hound him, based upon the way he's run rings round them on the matter.

I don't know what the name Wales Bales means actually - is it a reference to cricket or Gareth Bale ?

I'll tell you this much objectively, he's having a bloody good laugh at you and the other pack of dogs barking up the wrong tree and putting so much effort into it. He's also not the one stalking me like a lunatic and trying to do subtle interrogations to reveal something that's simply not there

[cyril evans awaydays]

I don't judge people by what others say. I make my own mind up.

In any case I might well disagree with WB once I know what his opinions are. I haven't sat there trawling through anyone's previous posts as you appear to have done.
All I know about him is this issue of me being an alleged clone of him, and the fact that he's clearly about twice as intelligent as the gang who appear to hound him, based upon the way he's run rings round them on the matter.

I don't know what the name Wales Bales means actually - is it a reference to cricket or Gareth Bale ?

I'll tell you this much objectively, he's having a bloody good laugh at you and the other pack of dogs barking up the wrong tree and putting so much effort into it. He's also not the one stalking me like a lunatic and trying to do subtle interrogations to reveal something that's simply not there

Ouch. Not only do you share a similar educational background as you previously stated but a similar thinness of skin. You would have thought wandering the highlands of a bleak winter's night looking for a lost Aberdeen Angus would have toughened the hide but it would appear over-sensitivity abounds!

[RonnieBird]

Interestingly enough, and I know you said you're interested in chatting about farming, cattle are in sheds during the winter and Anguses don't tend to wander from the herd. Surprisingly enough you keep them in enclosed fields during the summer so they'd rarely have the opportunity, and you wouldn't know if that happened during the night.
If you lost one they'd all follow and I can assure you that someone would let you know about it very quickly.

I think you must be thinking of little bo peep and her sheep or something.

In any case, I only had the farm after I'd retired because I was a very different kind of civil servant myself for a long time and then a lawyer before I endulged myself with what I thought would be an idyllic life on a farm. There you are, there's two more things you can question me on !

I don't think I'm thin skinned either actually. Perhaps you're over estimating how much I give a **** about the antics of the amateur sleuths desperately trying to prove that black is white ? It's an amusing diversion , that's all really. In a sense I'm perpetuating it by arguing I suppose.

[cyril evans awaydays]

Interestingly enough, and I know you said you're interested in chatting about farming, cattle are in sheds during the winter and Anguses don't tend to wander from the herd. Surprisingly enough you keep them in enclosed fields during the summer so they'd rarely have the opportunity, and you wouldn't know if that happened during the night.
If you lost one they'd all follow and I can assure you that someone would let you know about it very quickly.

I think you must be thinking of little bo peep and her sheep or something.

In any case, I only had the farm after I'd retired because I was a very different kind of civil servant myself for a long time and then a lawyer before I endulged myself with what I thought would be an idyllic life on a farm. There you are, there's two more things you can question me on !

I don't think I'm thin skinned either actually. Perhaps you're over estimating how much I give a **** about the antics of the amateur sleuths desperately trying to prove that black is white ? It's an amusing diversion , that's all really. In a sense I'm perpetuating it by arguing I suppose.

Guess your right. There are people in another thread who reckon all this is bullshit and you are that self-awareness lacking uberego that is Wales-Bales. I'm afraid that I might have been silly by indulging you and best to wish you well (or at least you get well)!

[RonnieBird]

Well there are people who reckon the earth is flat. Thanks for the very rude little tirade but please don't do me any favours, and it might be better for your mental balance to stop worrying about the personal characteristics and business of people you don't know.

The fact is that you were trying to display what you considered to be your superior intellect and, drawing upon your experience as an EO in DEFRA or something, crack the case open for your daft chums. Didn't work for two reasons, your intellect isn't superior and there's no case to crack.

If you really want to think I'm the same person as WB , you might as well do that. I couldn't possibly have done more to disprove it , ( which I shouldn't have to) , and there's no logic in your erroneous theory, but you can't let it go because it shows your powers of judgement to be very weak.

Either I'm Wales Bales or you and the Cluedo Club are a bit stupid...... Well I'm afraid to tell you that I'm definitely not Wales Bales.

[Eric Cartman]

Well there are people who reckon the earth is flat. Thanks for the very rude little tirade but please don't do me any favours, and it might be better for your mental balance to stop worrying about the personal characteristics and business of people you don't know.

The fact is that you were trying to display what you considered to be your superior intellect and, drawing upon your experience as an EO in DEFRA or something, crack the case open for your daft chums. Didn't work for two reasons, your intellect isn't superior and there's no case to crack.

If you really want to think I'm the same person as WB , you might as well do that. I couldn't possibly have done more to disprove it , ( which I shouldn't have to) , and there's no logic in your erroneous theory, but you can't let it go because it shows your powers of judgement to be very weak.

Either I'm Wales Bales or you and the Cluedo Club are a bit stupid...... Well I'm afraid to tell you that I'm definitely not Wales Bales.

I couldn't care less whether you are Walesbales but you haven't actually done anything to prove you arent him.

[RonnieBird]

I don't know what more I could do mate. I've asked the board moderator to check, I've posted a link to an app so anyone can check I'm a long way from Wales if they don't know how to do that and I've offered a big bet to anyone except WB ( for obvious reasons).

If you've got any suggestions how I can convince the cluedo club please tell me and I'll do it.

Look, I'm just NOT him and the first I ever heard of him was when I joined this board.

[Eric Cartman]

I don't know what more I could do mate. I've asked the board moderator to check, I've posted a link to an app so anyone can check I'm a long way from Wales if they don't know how to do that and I've offered a big bet to anyone except WB ( for obvious reasons).

If you've got any suggestions how I can convince the cluedo club please tell me and I'll do it.

Look, I'm just NOT him and the first I ever heard of him was when I joined this board.

Like I say I don't care if you are or aren't but everything you have offered can be spoofed. Usually when someone marches in offering a bet for a ridiculous amount (this is the internet, nobody trusts anyone to pay) they are lying.