Some still think The Good Life is, well, good

Or even, some still seem to think that the - attempted at least - peasant self-sufficiency portrayed in The Good Life is well good.

‘Our chickens cost us £5 per egg’: what to expect from keeping hens

Could keeping a flock be a plucky financial decision or will it peck away at your bank balance?

In more detail:

Joanne Swali, who looks after three hens with her family, says: “My husband has joked quite a lot of times that it would have been cheaper if I asked for some diamond earrings.

“I would say that, a few years in, if you factored in all our expenditure to date, our cost per box of six eggs would probably be in the region of £30.

Even at current supermarket prices that is not a saving.

Howorth also stresses that hen owners could save money by ditching a gym membership in favour of getting outside and exercising their muscles tending a flock.

It also seems to require a gym-level amount of physical labour. And we’ll guarantee that the cost of the time spent doing that isn’t in that £30 per small box of eggs calculation either.

There is a reason why we all abandoned peasant farming, it’s that farming is one of those things where there are vast economies of scale. Thus, returning to peasant farming would be a return to the abject poverty of the past where we were all peasant farmers.

Of course, if you like doing this sort of stuff, if this is what makes your life good, then by all means carry on. But we do need to vituperatively reject those who try to insist that we should all be doing this. Or even, those like Oxfam who have, in the past, insisted that Africa should be forced to remain like this.

Peasant farming, as a lifestyle choice, is fine if you like that sort of thing. As a general or national thing it’s a poverty creating disaster.