In The Country

You know you are not in Hackney for the New Year break when total strangers claiming to be your distant relatives arrive carrying the peasant they have just shot and the magazine on the kitchen table when you drop by for a cup of tea is Horse & Hound rather than EastEight.

Out in East Kent they think the leading contender for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party is Zara Phillips, who rated 6 pictures (4 of them quite revealing) in H&H and a 3 page interview in Shooting Times & Country Magazine along with the shock revelation that she only owns two tongue studs but can boast 483 pairs of wellington boots.

The latter will come in handy if she does decide to relinquish her position as 10th in line to the throne and take up the challenge to become Prezza's successor, especially if she decides to move to Hull.

As I explain in Another bit about me in my sidebar, the Akehursts of Sussex traditionally worked the land as farm labourers and this tradition was maintained when my branch of the family settled in Kent in the 19th century, around the Medway estuary in Sittingbourne, Faversham and Gravesend.

My uncle, who is active in the NFU, says Zara's candidature appears to be an big improvement as far as farmers are concerned on that of Margaret Beckett, despite the fact that Margaret frequently uses his land when passing through. "'Er's an 'eap more bootiful and er's got a luvverly ridin' seat", he told me yesterday, "an' in any case I reckons I'd make a lot more dosh landin' 'er private aircraft when 'er comes a visitin' than what I ever made parking that there Beckett woman's caravan".

Clearly a man with his eyes firmly set on that seat... so for his sake I can only hope Miliband doesn't win the contest.