The Archers Tuesday 26th July 2011: Tom wants to sacrifice Clarrie

• No flash holidays for Pip
• The press hounds blame the cows
• Sure about insurance?
• Does it matter that Clarrie didn’t do it on purpose?
• PR advice from the NFU …
• Poking drinkers with sticks?
• I’d forgotten about that stolen hay

No flash holidays for Pip

Pip’s looking at beaches in Tenerife – but she reckons she’s just dreaming.

[Pip] “We’re probably end up in a caravan in Tenby, like the Tuckers”

Nowt wrong with Tendy, missy.



The press hounds blame the cows 

The press have descended onto Bridge Farm.

Tony’s having to say no comment.

And as for Tom …

[Tom] “You can take a shotgun to the gentlemen of the press … I just ran into some spotty youth taking photographs of the cows … and when I asked him what the hell he thought he was doing, he said ‘These are the cows, aren’t they … that supplied the milk that went into the ice cream’”

[David] “Oh good grief!”

[Tom] “I know! So now our cows are getting the blame and it was nothing to do with them … and nothing to do with the way the diary was run … just some idiot made a stupid mistake”

Sure about insurance?

David was over at Bridge Farm checking if he could be of any help to Pat and Tony (with NFU, family and mate hats on).

They reckon they are insured, but not for losses while the business is closed.

After having spent over 4 years trying to sort out an insurance claim myself, I wouldn’t even bank on the insurance covering anything.


Does it matter that Clarrie didn’t do it on purpose?

I’ll say from the off that I adore Clarrie. She has a rather rubbish life (at the hands of those Grundy men), but she always does her best for folks.

But … how much sympathy should we have for her considering she knew the 48 hour rule?

[Pat] “Obviously it was a mistake. There was no malice intended …”

Tom doesn’t care. He wants Clarrie sacked.

[Tom] “We must be seen to be taking this seriously, and that means being proactive … we tell the truth, we admit that the incident happened because an employee mislead us about the state of her health … but we have dealt with it and the employee has left the business”

Pat and Tony are horrified at the idea (and also aren’t sure if Clarrie has done anything that is actually a sackable offence). Pat also reckons she has ultimate responsibility as manager. She should have trained her staff better.

[Pat] “Besides, she’s my friend”

[Tom] “Oh come on mum. She’s wrecked our business!”

[Pat] “She made a mistake. Of course I’m angry with her. But I know Clarrie. I know she’ll be tearing herself apart over this”

[Tom] “So you’re just going to let her get away with it … she brings our business to its knees and you’re going to let her off the hook”

[Pat] “I’m not going to sacrifice Clarrie just to keep the press happy”

Tom is right that this is all Clarrie’s fault BUT I don’t see how sacking Clarrie will make any difference. The point to the punters is that there has been e. coli – they’re not going to care where or how it came from – not when there’s utterly safe alternatives to buy.

I’m with Pat on this one. Thought that really isn’t surprising – it’d take a lot for me to ever agree with Tom.


PR advice from the NFU …

Hmmm.

Not sure that that’s the first place I’d turn, if I was in Pat and Tony’s position.

But David is keen to encourage them to make a statement – even though they want listen to Tom’s pleas that they should mention it was Clarrie. Even though his sausages are now being questioned …

So Tony writes up the following statement (which doesn’t admit any liability – after all, folks may still die …)

“Bridge farm is a family farm, and for 20 years we’ve had an unblemished record of producing high quality dairy goods for local outlets. This is a single unfortunate incident which is still being investigated, and we’re doing all we can to cooperate with the health protection agency. We feel most sincerely for those people who have been affected by the E. Coli and hope they will all make a rapid and full recovery”

Fair enough, I suppose. But I also think it’s feels a bit corporate.

Surely Bridge Farm’s appeal is that it’s an independent, family business?

So why not sound like one?

I don’t think this will solve anything.


Poking drinkers with sticks?

Not a new past time for Fallon – just Pip trying to be useful round the farm …


I’d forgotten about that stolen hay

And that no-one was caught for it.

David’s slightly down (again, but not as bad as before) that they milk yield still isn’t on the up. But Ruth reckons it’s due to the dry spring (none of which I saw up my way), leading to the grass not being “luscious”, meaning they couldn’t make as much silage and they’ve had to buy in feed.

[David] “If we hadn’t had all that hay stolen, that was the start of it”

But they then look on the bright side.

At least they’re not Pat and Tony …