What have I learnt?

My dog passed away recently and I miss her like mad – yet she was incredibly low maintenance – water/food/walk was all she needed to then give back 100% love and affection. My wife on the other hand requires buffing, polishing, waxing, spraying, tanning, exfoliating, moisturising, painting, decorating and the occasional vajazzle – yet she’s never happy…

I myself have yearned for exotic cars with huge engines and vast power reserves – yet every time I get one – I’m already bored and have I’ve already decided which one I want next. For a period of over ten years I went from new Porsche 911 to newer Porsche 911 which had minor power upgrades and the occasional tweak to the body shape ….BUT WHICH WAS BASICALLY …THE SAME CAR. This finally dawned on me on the forecourt of Porsche garage in Wilmslow when parking my immaculate Porsche 911 next to a newer Porsche 911 and then not being able to tell which was which.

Have you ever noticed how we all go through fads at about the same time? How many of you are on a ‘dry january’…? How many of you have bought a ‘juicer’ over Christmas…? How many of you are eating ‘super-foods’ like Kale or cavolo nero? How many of you are an a ‘detox diet’….? How many of you are wanting to upgrade to an i-phone 6 (…and will not feel happy until you have one)….?

How many of these fads have we bought into in the past? Probably far too many to even try and remember…? Butter is bad/butter is good, Atkins diet, 5/2 diet, blueberries were a super-food and you should drink 5 litres of water a day…and everything causes cancer…

What about some of the issues that we have with transport? Diesel cars spring to mind as something that we were all advised were more economical and better for the environment – now we are told that diesel is bad and we will be charged extra for driving a diesel into the city of London.

What about music and the way we store our favourite songs? Cd’s were old hat …we should buy mini discs, then we are told that we should stream our music and use downloads …whilst secretly vinyl is making a comeback

So I’m beginning to see a pattern here in that we are all being manipulated ‘en-masse’. Subliminal messaging is what it’s all about – yet we all go along with it thinking we are being unique with our thought processes and creative in our lifestyle choices….BUT WERE NOT…we are simply exhibiting ‘herd’ behaviour following the crowd and being manipulated by the ‘establishment’.

So …where do we all stand on the issue of invasive non-native species? Which camp are you in…? ..are you happy with what you’re being told?

I come across a wide range of comments from the various seminars that I speak at and the audience seem to be split into three camps:

Those in complete panic who are convinced that the very foundation of society is being undermined (literally) by Japanese Knotweed

Those that think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion

Those that think the answer is somewhere between 1 and 2…they are mildly concerned but think it’s all a bit of a media storm in a teacup.

I recently had a gentleman stand up during a seminar and berate me Mike Clough for being the ‘SOLE’ reason that there was a Japanese Knotweed problem in the UK. Now I know I can be a bit of an arse at times but I’m pretty sure I’m not the ‘SOLE’ reason that we have knotweed issues here in the UK,..

The media do try and manipulate us (you and i) in the way our Invasive Species problems are portrayed – they don’t want stories of gradual encroachment by invasive plants – they want War of the Worlds. They don’t want … ‘possible building damage’ …they want …’foundations destroyed by alien from Planet X….

So my best advice – don’t get manipulated, don’t get scared – get a level headed approach to your invasive species problems …from the leaders in subliminal horror stories…Japanese Knotweed Solutions Ltd.