Our May meeting was a very special one, and involved the business end of women’s Institutes throughout the country, as we debated and voted on our resolutions for this year.

We had two to deal with, first “This meeting urges HM Government to maintain support for local libraries”, which was carried unanimously by the meeting, and second, “This meeting abhors the practice of factory farming particularly large animals such as pigs and cows”.

This proved to be a much more difficult subject, in theory no one wants to see thousands of animals being raised in factory style farms, but we are aware that this may be the only way that farmers may be able to compete with imports.

Since we have to have someone to argue both sides, Jill Gosling did a valiant job of defending this method but in the end we voted with our hearts against the use of mega farms. Only time will tell.

Our votes will now go forward to Liverpool, for further debate.

After all this hard work, we settled down with a cuppa and listened to some good advice from Sonia Oakley, on fire prevention in the home. Which I am sure gave us all food for thought.

Our next meeting will be on June 13, 7.30 pm at the Senior Citizens Hall, High Street, the speaker will be, Clive Hewitt, with the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, promising to be very thought provoking. As ever visitors are very welcome.