Room 101: James Merriman – Bristol flanker

1. Greedy supermarkets
I fully support the campaign by dairy farmers to get a fair price for their milk from Supermarkets. It just doesn’t add up that the farmers only get 24 pence per litre for their milk whereas the cost of production is 30 pence and they are selling it for 88 pence on the shelf; that’s a big mark up. My father used to run a dairy farm in Pembrokeshire a while ago but he has now diversified into other areas. A lot of farmers have sadly gone bust. Supermarkets seem to control everything nowadays.
TRP verdict:  You’re in – we’d have to be off our trolley not to accept this one
2. Traffic Wardens
I’ve had a few tickets in my time, in Bristol especially. There is a lot of restricted parking in the City because space is so limited and I’ve been caught out on occasions. My wife works quite late and sometimes only parks up in front of the house at 9.30pm. You’d like to think you’d get away with it at that time but, oh no, by the time I get up to go training at 6am they’ve stolen in during the night and put a ticket on the car windscreen just to get easy money. I’m convinced they’re on commission. They are pretty ruthless and don’t have much sympathy for the public.
TRP verdict:  You’re in – there’s plenty of space for Traffic Wardens in Room 101
3. Wet weather rugby
If I had my way we’d switch the season to summer. Dry conditions are so much better for putting on an entertaining product because handling is easier than when it is lashing it down with rain. You only have to watch Super Rugby to see how much more expansive the game is when the conditions are good. I think the worst conditions I’ve ever played in was Bristol’s match against Plymouth at the Memorial Stadium two years ago. We needed to win to stay out of the bottom four and thankfully we got the right result. The pitch was waterlogged and the game was a pretty dire affair dominated by ‘one-out’ rugby.
TRP verdict:  You’re out – come on James, rugby is a winter game!!