The Destruction of our Wildlife – The Holy Trinity on a Mission!

This has been a year where the Holy Trinity of the Countryside lobby groups have joined forces to destroy as much of our wildlife as possible.

The Holy Trinity of Countryside Blood!

Countryside Alliance (CA)

Country Land and Business Association (CLA)

National Farmers Union (NFU)

These are the big three countryside lobby groups who make Trade Unions look like a Sunday School picnic.

The National Trust holds out little hope as with nearly 4 million members only about 3% bother to vote so the Blood Sports Lobby have control. With Fox, Stag hunting often taking place on trust land. Even the only estate to trial badger vaccination promotes shooting of both game and wildfowl in association with the British Association fro Shooting and Conservation (BASC). This is the Killerton Estate near Exeter. Badger culling will be down to if they can get away with it; i.e. if so few complain then to support their tenner farmers and fall in line with the 'Big Three'!

Britain has very little land that can be considered part of the public trust. A third of the countries land remains under the ownership of the aristocracy; a set that both Prime Minster David Cameron and Environment Minster Owen Paterson belong. 
In Portugal the aristocracy pride themselves with Bullfighting on horseback.

But how can anyone of sound mind think of bring hunting back in a legal state; however I do not think that the Archbishop will raise any objections and perhaps even offer to bless the hounds at some of the country’s premier meets. As was the case with the local vicar of the Quorn and Cottesmore hunt as they are going to try hunting on a Sunday. The blessing could read as follows as the hounds move off:-

“All creatures great and small”

“The Lord God did make them all”

“We the hunt will go out and kill them large”

“And kill there cubs who are so small”

“The weak and the fit and the frail"

"We will seek them out and dispatch them all”

Some will tell you its Wildlife Management!

Just so many people that own land seem to spend so much time destroying the wildlife that live on it.  We must raise our voices for theses beings that do not have a voice. A poor bear confined in a dirty cage for peoples amusement and on the other hand the firefighter who nurses a frightened kola bear.

I was in Taunton last summer when Team Badger was there to raise awareness of the coming Badger Cull. Present at that meeting was SaveMe campaigner Brian May and the Chief Executive of the RSPCA Gavin Grant.

The one single item of note from that meeting was stated by Somerset's own Gavin Grant; “If this Badger Cull goes ahead then we as a nation place no value on our wildlife. This will be the beginning of the end of wildlife preservation and protection.”

A Typical Hunt So Called Trail Hunting!

This hunt is following a trial laid along the middle of the road, just follow the white lines in the road.

I quote from the West Country based Vice Chairman of the Countryside Alliance Lord Mancroft; writing in the Hunting Magazine, Spring 2008, while Labour were still in power:-

"The reason that we shall win the battle to preserve hunting and our way of life for future generations is simple. We will outlast our enemies. We will keep our hounds and horses, keep our wonderful staff, keep our communities together, keep our farmers' and landowners' support, and we shall put together the necessary resources, both financial and otherwise, to achieve all of this, and we shall continue to do this until this Labour Government falls."

Then the Holy Trinity appear to join together to launch the VoteOK grouping to effect the political outcome at general elections!

VoteOK was set up by members of the hunting fraternity in 2001 to marshal an army of hunt supporters to flood in and coordinate the ousting of marginal sitting Labour or Lib Dem anti-hunt MPs. They have been in operation over the last three general elections and can be viewed as a pro-Tory support group. They dress in normal clothes and never mention hunting to potential voters as they know it will be a vote loser.

But to return to Badgers and why where they culled? The famer needed someone to blame for the mess British agricultural is in and so the government opted for the NFU plan of ‘Blame the Badger’.

Badgers - The Farmers Scapegoat

It should be noted that the NFU who are driving these 'culls' are an unelected quango who represent, only 18% of farmers and are predominantly City money-men and yet, they are allowed to dictate government agricultural and environmental policy!

Badgers - They Just Get in the Way of Profits

These culls serve no-one but this undemocratic, feudal minority who believe they are above the law of the land. It is now generally accepted that during the last three decades with intensive farming and poor bio-security, bovine TB has seeped out into the neighbouring wildlife. So having infecting the badger, they now want to kill them; it’s every which way but loose for the poor badgers!

The two Badger Cull tails have already taken place and now they have been hailed a success and plans to roll out more next year with gassing being considered as a cheaper option for farmers.

BUT Again: Why cull baggers?
The Holy Trinity of Countryside Blood!

Countryside Alliance (CA)

Country Land and Business Association (CLA)

National Farmers Union (NFU)

CLA - Planning made easier for Solar farms/holiday homes
          Expansion of Game Bird Shooting
NFU - No badgers, no bio-security improvements needed; 
           Cheaper to product milk without wildlife considerations
CA -   Another Countryside Blood Sport to Enjoy
          Increase in fox numbers with less badgers, so good 
          news for the return of Fox Hunting

As DEFRA has also contacted the Law Commission to review the range of animal welfare legislation so with the powerful NFU driving the agenda forward we could see the return to the days when even healthy vaccinated badgers on Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves could be invaded by the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) staff, an executive agency working on behalf DEFRA, to remove all the badgers on Wildlife Trust reserves. This would probably be via gassing the setts.  Our wildlife has no value these days!

BREAKING NEWS:

Wildlife groups have accused the government of caving in to big farmers over planned changes to farm subsidies in England. The government proposed increasing the proportion of farm payments transferred to protecting wildlife from 9% to 15%. But it backed it down to 12% after the big landowning farmers said this was not fair.

NEXT YEAR: Who knows what the weather will bring but one thing is for certain under this coalition government our wildlife will be under even more pressure as the large industrial farms gear up for the new deals in China. Badger culls moving out across the country as this icon wild animal so badly treated in the past is once again targeted. As the world resources are fought over and people fight to survive wildlife will suffer.

Animals need a voice, ours and the others who care. Doing nothing is no longer an option as this war on wildlife continues.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Mahatma Gandhi.

Badger Culling Spin

The new farm minister George Eustice says the government intends to cull badgers in many more areas next year, even though the two pilot culls failed to hit their six-week target with both zones needed to be extended and with a high police cost. Mr. Eustice said we are minded to go on next year and roll the cull out more widely he stated at the NFU tenant farmers conference on Thursday the 7th of November 2013. George Eustice won his seat with a majority of 66 votes so I suspect he can kiss his political career goodbye at the next election but perhaps his parting gesture will be launching a few badger culls in Cornwall?

The New Badger Killer Farming Minster

Mr. Eustice said also that DEFRA was keen to learn the lessons from both pilot zones and would be looking carefully at the “quite different results” when both culls had completed, as the government was inclined to roll out the culls to other TB hotspot areas. One assume from pressure from the NFU who would like to see gassing and snaring employed to kill more badgers cheaply that free shooting and cage trapping and shooting currently do.

An experimental investigation was, in fact, carried out re-fox numbers increasing in direct response to badger culling, and it was found that over a period of 2 years, "mean fox density increased by over 50% in the culled areas within two years. This could please the Countryside Alliance as they will see this as a means to overturn the hunting ban as all our pro-cull ministers, including Mr Paterson and Mr Cameron, are keen fox hunters.

As DEFRA has also contacted the Law Commission to review the range of animal welfare legislation so with the NFU driving the agenda forward we could see the return to the days when even healthy vaccinated badgers on Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves could be invaded by the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) staff, an executive agency working on behalf DEFRA, to remove badgers on Wildlife Trust reserves. This would probably be via gassing setts. This would be a return to the bad old days when the then Minster of Agriculture, Fishers and Food (MAFF) would be allowed onto any farm to gas with cyanide all the badgers setts.


It should be noted that the NFU who are driving these 'culls' are an unelected quango who represent, only 18% of farmers and are predominantly City investors and yet, they are allowed to dictate government agricultural and environmental policy!


These culls serve no-one but this undemocratic, feudal minority who believe they are above the law of the land.And now we hear that bovine TB has spread to the north east in County Durham, did the badgers use a rover ticket to get there? No of course not, badgers are banned from trains, but perhaps cattle with bovine TB from the South West were transported up!

Reading in the Farmers Guardian that North Wiltshire Tory MP and hunting fanatic James Gray stated that “One of my farmers has lost his entire herd on three separate occasions. He is reported to be driving a bus at the moment and going through terrible stress.”

Fox Hunting Mad Tory

I only hope that this new bus driving farmer is not on the school run as is he really in a fit state to be diving a bus with children onboard?

But on a more serious note the statements above and similar have been widely used to blame the badger for all the failings of the farming industry under the dictatorship of the NFU which has total control over DEFRA and Natural England.

The current bovine TB problem is down to restocking from West Country herds, which traditionally have a higher rate of bovine TB; after the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001.

If indeed this farmer has lost his entire herd on three separate occasions then what on earth is wrong on his farm? I have seen no research on how badgers infect cattle other than a 1971 experiment which involved placing cattle in a small concrete pen with a dozen infected badgers. This cruel experiment resulted in one calf getting infected after several months confinement and the government agency at the time; MAFF concluded at the time that this route of infection was negligible. It is now known that modern farming practices have allowed bovine TB to spill out into the wildlife and with poor testing and uncontrolled cattle movements many farms will retain the disease for many months as the cycle repeats during restocking under poor bio-security and testing measures.

Badgers will soon become rare footage on BBC Autumn and SpringWatch as the farmers percussion continues. Farmers have allowed the bovine TB problem to spread into the wildlife and now they seek to destroy there victims of their messy industry and all at the tax payers expense.

Tories and Their Paymasters Wage War on the Unions Again!

David Cameron has launched an inquiry into trade union tactics after the dispute at Grangemouth petrochemical plant. This enquiry will report back to give the Tories a Union Bashing opportunity nearer the General Election. A living wage is fast becoming a distance dream under this government.

As a Labour party and Unite member all I see is the continuation of Thatchers policies as council houses were flogged off and all the public utilities sold to the highest bidder. This is continuing as the Royal Mail was sold off last month. The Tories will always try and scare people about the connection between Labour and the Trade Unions, but Labour was born from the despair of dreadful working conditions a century ago and we are moving backwards as a society as the British Chamber of Commerce pressures the government for company tax breaks using the excuse that it will help companies take on more staff. If that was the case then why not move the companies HQ oversees, like Google and Startbucks then pay no tax at all!

They will be no enquiry on the donations to the Tories from bankers, hedge fund managers and the bosses of big business as they seek to chip away at hard fought workers terms and conditions in the race to the bottom for British workers. No enquiry on the landowners who make millions from Solar Farms and Wind Turbine Sites. No enquiry on companies who recruit overseas workers to undercut and displace local employees.

This new attack on Trade Unions is spearheaded by the posh Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude. He was the one that encouraged people to store up petrol at the last tanker drivers dispute, resulting in a mother being badly burned in her home after taking his ‘strike busting’ advice.

The 'Jerry Can Jerk' Maude

Francis Maude is among a number of Government ministers amassing vast, taxpayer-funded nest eggs.But while the millionaire minster can look forward to a potential £43,000-plus a year income in his old age, he is cutting schemes for nurses, teachers and public sector workers. The Tory minister ruthlessly slashing the pensions of millions of public sector workers could be in line to pocket a £731,000 retirement pot.
The shocking sum is almost eight times the average £5,600 civil service employee’s pot.
If anyone thought that the planned strikes were nothing more than an inconvenient regarding child care that day or just public sector workers crying ‘Wolf’ over their pension changes then they need to think again.
We have in this collation government a collection of millionaires, members of the aristocracy and wealthy business people waging an all out war on the British workers. David Cameron him self is worth £30M and George Osbourne £5M but he will inherit a lot more. Nick Clegg and his Spanish lawyer wife and simply loaded and so far removed from the day to day financial crisis most people face daily.
Now whether these workers are highway engineers, dustbin men, nurses, teachers or headmasters; they are being targeting for the mistakes of the bankers, hedge fund managers and others in the financial sector.
Good public sector pension are in the front line of the battlefield to be overrun then they will move on to the conditions in work place.
As the Business Secretary Vince Cable and the Chancellor George Osborne announced that the Government intends to start the dismantling many of the hard fought and long-held employment rights won over many years so that companies could have a more ‘flexible’ and ‘dismissive’ approach towards their employees; i.e. to make it easier for bosses to sack there workers. If these measures gets on the statute books then every employer will be able to tear up their HR policies and replace them with the simple phrase:- "Do as you are told or you are fired". This is just another example of the government being paid by business and applying policy for business needs only. These changes will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of workers to bring cases of victimisation, unfairness and bullying at work and these changes will affect all of us today and our children and grandchildren tomorrow, with all the hard won advances in the working environment starting to evaporate as uncertainty and insecurity become the norm in the workplace.
It should come as no surprise to people that the Labour party was born from the Trade Union movement, that’s the reason the Labour party came into existence. People today often assume that they can look after their own working environment and take the required action to resolve any disputes or misunderstandings between themselves and their employer. But going back a few centuries and following the abolition of slavery the common British worker became the new workhouse slaves as the mighty industrial revolution unfolded. The British Empire emerged and great wealth for some was created but this was at a cost as the largely rural population moved into the new industrial towns to look for work.
The birth of the Trade Union movement stems from the Tolpuddle Martyrs, at the turn of the 19th life as an English farm worker in the 1830s was dismal. Rent and a basic diet of tea, bread and potatoes would cost a typical family 13 shillings a week. But exploitative landowners paid their workers as little as 9, 8, even 7 shillings a week. But when, in 1834, labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset met to form a 'Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers’ and demanded 10 shillings a week. However a local landowner reported them, and under an obscure 1797 law they were arrested and transported to Australia.

Now the Prime Minster plans to re-negotiate the UK’s relationship with the EU in our interest, but the truth is that he will want a deal that will go against the interests of ordinary working people. Mr Cameron himself has said, “I do not believe it is appropriate for social and employment legislation to be dealt with at the European level. It will be a top priority for the next Conservative government to restore social and employment legislation to national control.” The Tory vision for the future of Europe sounds like turning the clock back to the days before working people had their basic rights guaranteed. Some of the hundreds of rights at work that have been negotiated between European governments, and are guaranteed by European Law that could be at risk if David Cameron gets his way include: 
Four weeks paid leave
Rights for mothers (not to be sacked for being pregnant, paid time off for ante-natal appointments)
Equal treatment for workers employed through an agency
Tea and lunch breaks during the working day
The right to a day off every weekend.


All the Liberal Democrats like Vince Cable, Danny Alexander and Yeovil's David Laws as Liberal should be ashamed of the company they have been keeping.

The Lib Dems Gave Cameron the Key to Downing Street!

How can a true liberal party seek to crack down on basic human rights? The long battle over the rights of employees is centuries old and littered with deaths from the Tolpuddle deportation, starvation, illness and dangerous working environments.Trade Unions have been campaigning for improved protections for UK workers who are currently the easiest and cheapest to sack in the whole of the EU. The Labour party has been too timid to openly support the people that paid to set up the party in the first place and these same people are still continuing to support the Labour party financially. No one wants a series of wild cat strikes and a rerun to industrial warfare of the 70’s, but neither do people want the eradication of the basic employee rights. 


At the dawn of what was hoped would be a new age at the end of World War Two with the birth of the NHS, most European countries included trade union involvement in all industrial matters with boardroom representation, but in the UK the then Federation of British Industry (FBI); now renamed and rebranded as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) wanted no role formally from the trade union movement. The Labour party was the only way forward for workers to be included in the process, unlike our EU partners and this still remains so today as British workers become the poor man of Europe.
These changes will affect all workers today and our children and grandchildren tomorrow and into the future. With all the hard won advances in the working environment starting to evaporate as uncertainty and insecurity become the norm in the workplace. The rich get richer on the backs of the poorest and least able in society, where Trade Unions are a dirty word and get in the way of companies profits.

Ordinary British workers need safety, security and fairness in the workplace and a decent place to live and build a future for themselves and there family.

The National Trust - So many betrayed by the bloodthirsty few!

The National Trust has around 4 million members but sadly only around 3% of them bother to vote. What this means is a small minority who do bother to vote will manage to get there way. Recently, comedian Russel Brand gave a devastating and largely spot on public and passionate explanation of how capitalism dominates our lives. Sadly, he concluded that therefore people shouldn’t vote.

However if people take that advice then the Countryside Alliance in relation to the National Trust will manage to get there wishes which is support for Country Pursuits; shooting, hunting and stalking more widely available on the National Trusts estates.

Hare (Beagles), Stag & Fox Hunts Operate on National Trust Land

The National Trust has always supported the rural way of life and the Countrysdie Allaince has always managed to gain some elements of control of the trust. Since the hunting ban of 2004 the trust has paid lip service to the ban. Both fox and stag hunts frequently use National Trust  assets for hunting. The fox and hare hunts will stay that they are trail hunting and the stag hunts will say they are using the ‘Observation and Scientific Research’ exemption for hunting and the National Trust will blindly accept this explanation without question.

National Trust AGM 2013

Regarding the Ban the Badger Cull motion put forward by members - to vaccinate badgers on all National trust land and ban a badger cull.

National Trust members didn’t vote against a ban – they voted for it.

There were 7,807 votes in favour of the resolution and 6,583 against it.

So what happened? Well the National Trust chairman Simon Jenkins overruled the members’ vote by using a discretionary block of 2,111 proxy votes.

These are members who voted neither for nor against the resolution.

Jenkins decided to use the block of proxy votes to vote down the ban on culling badgers on National Trust land – ignoring the clear wishes and democratic will of National trust members.

This sort of voting activity has been followed before with the so called ban of stag hunting on National Trust estates.

Will the NT Allow Badger Culling?

Will the badger shooters be allowed on National Trust land to shoot and cage trap badgers? Well from past experience yes is the answer. The same narrative is being used that the BBC and the NFU keep pumping out; “this is a dreadful decease and our tenet farmers need our support and tacking the reservoir of bovine TB in wildlife needs to be undertaken”. Just not interested in cattle movements and cattle testing regimes.

Also Simon Jenkins and the trust are indicating that cage trapping and vaccination maybe too expensive for them to undertake nationally after the Killington Estate trial is complete, when it would be actually cheaper with so many willing volunteers ready and able to help!

If you look at the National Trust web site it is almost impossible to find any direct references to blood sports; they refer these activities as 'Rural Country Pursuits' and are hidden away from normal members. It all looks so wonderful, sweeping landscape gardens with an array of autumn colors. But try and look at who was elected and determine there background. Well from a brief inspection one was from the NFU Mutual. But quite often you will find that some of the trustees give occupations like Riding Instructor which often translates into Joint Master of the local hunt or Forestry Manager which again translates into runs the big local shoot and funds the local hunt.

As someone who monitors local hunts in the South West, I often find many small outlets of Nation Trust frequently invaded by the hunt and the times I have contact the local estate manager he could not have been more dis-interested in my observations. He will stop just short of telling me to bugger off you anti-hunt scumbag!

I have never been a member of the National Trust and I don't think I ever will. In fact I would advice people not to renew there membership and also cancel any legacy bequests they intent to leave to the trust.

I believe that is the only way to get the National Trust to steer at path that the vast majority of it's members consider ethical and in keeping to maintain the best in our countryside and the wildlife that we enjoy and not pandering to the blood sports minority at members expense.

You can always rejoin at a later stage if they take stock of your views and feelings on this matter.

Countryside Connection - Killers At Large

With around 18 months to go before the general election people must now realise what exactly it’s like to have a hunter and shooter as the Prime Minster who is so immersed in both the aristocracy and heredity workings of our feudal system in this country.

We often hear about the number of millionaires in the cabinet and so many old school chums from Eton, but what does it mean in practice?

Well in practice those who support and share this vision of England will be rewarded and we are beginning to see that with the Badger Cull. The big wealthy landowners are represented by their ‘Trade Unions’ like the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the Country Land & Business Association (CLA) and they do not want the hassle of badgers with protected status. That gets in the way of new planning developments and of course pheasant shoots. The narrative emerging is that a badger is a pest and like other pests needs to be culled; and so the Badger Trust should be classified as another countryside enemy along with the RCPSA and the RSPB! It does not end there as Badgers, Buzzards, Cormorants, Eagles, Foxes, Mink, Otters and Grey Squirrels are to be banned from the BBC SpringWatch and AutumnWatch programs as they are misleading the general public who do not understand the ways of the countryside and how it is managed for the benefit of the few.

A return to Otter hunting?

The big wealthy landowners need an army of foot soldiers to manage the countryside in their vision and hence the Countryside Alliance comes into the frame. This organisation provides the overarching political groupings of fox hunters, hare coursers, game shooters and the array of other blood sport groups. The current architect of the badger cull Environment Minster Owen Paterson writes exclusively for this master the Countryside Alliance and he has total control over the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and it seems Natural England as both the rules, goalposts and even the size of the pitch are continually moving in the two pilot cull zones.

DEFRA has asked the Law Commission to update wildlife law, with proposals to include plans to introduce new powers so that species such as grey squirrels, currently classed as vermin, could be wiped out in some areas. The badger would probably lose its protected species and could be classified as agricultural pest.

The Countryside Alliance members could benefit from the possible option of issuing wildlife licenses to allow the killing of certain 'troublesome animals' for a limited period of time. For example if cormorants are causing a problem for local fishermen or buzzards if it is proven they are affecting the local wildlife and economy by killing game birds, which are released in there thousands.

Hare today gone tomorrow!

This is the Grand Plan of Landowners to attempt to wipe out certain animals for the sake of the forestry, hunting, shooting, agro crops and livestock farming industries.

This is just one government department with both Owen Paterson and David Cameron being fox hunters and both want the ban repealed for their army of Countryside Alliance troops. A sneaky back door move is underway via the Federation of Welsh Farmers Packs (FWFP) which claim they need to use a full a full pack of hounds (rather than the limit of two) to deal with foxes causing lamb deaths on hill farms. But the figures just don’t add up as 95% of lamb deaths could be prevented by good husbandry. The idea that a full hunt is required It’s rather like calling out Dyno-Rod to clear your blocked drain and a thirty piece string orchestra turn up and start playing Handel’s Water Music Suite in G major! This I simply a rouse to hunting under the old rouse of pest control!

A few years ago a web site called Federation of Welsh Packs, (note the absence of the word farmer) existed and was owned by Tim Garratt who is the Countryside Alliance’s WebMaster and he is the register for dozens of domains owned by the Countryside Alliance!

Under this Tory led coalition government and its Holy Trinity of countryside supporters:-

1. National Farmers Union
2. Country Land & Business Association 
3. Countryside Alliance

Many other areas will be under attack, the NFU has already got the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board, perhaps with farm export growth in the China and Asia markets they had the desire to suppress home wages so that profits from farm exports could be reaped!

Cattle wheel of furtune!

The dark hand of the CLA perhaps can be seen in the building on ‘Greenbelts’ and the loosening of planning regulations nationwide. We may hear the farmers’ new cry of: “Get off my land, the developers are coming!”

The Tory cry at the last election was vote blue and go green!; Well perhaps now it will be vote blue and go blood red as our wildlife is destroyed for bigger profits.

As wind farms bite the dust as solar farms multiply powering this new age farming solely for the benefit of the landowning few.

Free enterprise, ddividends and profits are not dirty words stated David Cameron, as people are forced to scramble for work in a private lead economy as our state and its assets are sold off to the wealthy. It’s a classic case of divide and rule where the pushy and greedy will inherit the crumbs that Cameron's friends have left behind. A hip replacement for Gran was what we see when we look at the NHS, but an investment opportunity is how Cameron’s Tories will see it, as again our state institutions are sold off. Thatcher did it so well with the sale of council houses and the legacy decades on is so few social housing for people in real need. Private landlords are of course available to rent out property that so many people just cannot afford to buy.

As energy bill rocket and our children find themselves on zero hour contracts as they attempt to find work and establish a career. We find the infrastructure of the state being dismantled and given out to tender, depriving us of so many training and educational opportunity disconnected from care and replace by free market incentives of dividends and profits.

Then there are the desperate drawn into the PayDay loans nightmare in a vain attempt to survive in Cameron’s Conservative Caring country.

The Tories do have a grand plan and it is being implemented with the help of the shameful Liberal Democrats, reduce the role of the state in peoples’ lives as the economy; is in their words is rebalanced! What this means in practice is low taxes for the rich and more investment opportunities for those with money. But increasing unemployment means wages are depressed as more people are desperate for work. State spending on NHS and education and social welfare are cut back and of course Labour blamed for the overspending and causing the global financial crisis. Under this smokescreen the opportunity exists to inflect real financial suffering on so many people that they will be too busy working to keep the wolves from the door that protests will be difficult and less frequent.

Cast your mind back two hundred years where factory or farm workers were paid a wage that failed to support them and their families, they had to grow their own vegetables and keep small animals to survive. Working long hours just simply to stay alive, the same people then were in charge as they are now; it’s all down to the inherited wealth of the few.

I quote from the West Country based Vice Chairman of the Countryside Alliance Lord Mancroft; writing in the Hunting Magazine, Spring 2008, this was when Labour were still in power:-

"The reason that we shall win the battle to preserve hunting and our way of life for future generations is simple. We will outlast our enemies. We will keep our hounds and horses, keep our wonderful staff, keep our communities together, keep our farmers' and landowners' support, and we shall put together the necessary resources, both financial and otherwise, to achieve all of this, and we shall continue to do this until this Labour Government falls."

Pro-hunt group to oust anti-hunt Labour & Lib Dem MPs

So there you have it the aristocracy and wealthy landowners will arrange for the demise of this Labour government as they had no business in meddling in their countryside affairs.

A year later the press was all lined up against poor old Gordon Brown, not the best Prime Minister this country has had but we were treated to an insight from David Cameron as at the 2009 remembrance Sunday parade that the long knifes of the Tory press came out as Gordon Brown, blind in one eye, and disorientated after almost losing his footing as he knelt to lay the wreath. He had forgotten to bow came the newspapers cry; certainly comes across as a lack of respect stated many servicemen attending; perhaps like Ed Milliband’s father, Ralph he perhaps  hates Britain; as he is not English and did not go to Eton!

David Cameron who was there as leader of the opposition offered no support and remained silent as his friends in the press went to town on Gordon Brown. At this time Cameron’s old hunting chums Charlie and Rebekah Brooks together with Andy Colson were running so much of the nation’s newspapers. Poor old Gordon Brown could not even write a letter of condolence to the parents of deceased service personnel, being blind in one eye and have dreadful handwriting was his handicap and the press hounding him on getting the names wrong. I sometimes wonder how any Labour MPs get elected never mind a Labour government! 

The Brooks arriving at court

Being a member of a trade union is becoming rather like being on the sex offenders register, a risk to companies profits and dividends; no living wage wanted here!

We started talking about the badger cull and how we treat animals and so I end with this quote from Immanuel Kant.

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." 

The Countryside Alliance has an Educational Program: Get them young!

I think we all know the heart of this Cameron led government and it’s not just the badger that should be fearful; all our children are entering a new dawn of hostility, greed and selfishness with bedroom tax and badger culls being the order of the day.

Where Have All the Badgers Gone?

People are looking for answers into plummeting badger numbers in the run up to the cull with the apparent 50% decline over a year before the cull started appears to be unprecedented! Of course DEFRA officials have blamed the cold winter, disease or lack of food for the dwindling numbers.

But if people cast their minds back to the wet, wet summer of 2012, a group of Farmers in the West Country had set up a badger-protection group this was less than a month before a Government cull of badgers was due to begin.  The Badger Welfare Association (BWA) as they called themselves said it is dedicated to the creation of a healthy, balanced badger population. 

The BWA was campaigning for official recognition of the work of an Oakhampton farmer, who had acquired expertise in identifying which setts are occupied by TB infected badgers and which are not. I do not know what part of his autonomy used to determine a diseased sett, but I suspect he played it safe and classified all badger setts as diseased setts. The BWA says once diseased setts have been pinpointed, the occupants can be killed by pumping in carbon monoxide gas from the farm tractor. Modern farming techniques just take your breath away, literally for the badgers!

There have been three official attempts to count badgers in West Somerset and West Gloucestershire prior to the cull. The latest data suggests the population in both areas has fallen from around 8,000 badgers in October 2012, to around 4,000 badgers a year later in both zones. DEFRA have given a number of reasons for the apparent 50% decline, including the impact of last winter's bad weather, disease and lack of food. But funny they do not mention illegal badger killing; either shooting, gassing or via snares.

However many animal welfare charities are concerned that illegal killing of badgers may be the real reason behind this large fall in their numbers. As last week Sky News claimed that farmers in the Somerset cull zone had admitted on camera to gassing badgers via an informal syndicate that they had set up.

This is of grave concern as many farmers are in receipt of farming benefits for wildlife management and possibly also land and environmental stewardship schemes.

The bovine TB is the result of the incompetence of DEFRA and the NFU where they have failed to manage the spread of bovine TB by there reluctance to implement better bio-security measures and properly validated and enforced cattle movement controls but most critically failing to invest to improve TB testing, which is quite simply so inaccurate within the industry. They have allowed the disease to seep into the surrounding wildlife population and now they want to scapegoat the badger,

Now as the trial culls are extended and with more roll-outs expected next year. Many in different counties such as Dorset where the local Dorset West MP Oliver Letwin resides. He has stated he is looking forward to the badger cull in his home patch!

Oliver Letwin is yet another Old Etonian Cabinet Minster whose most recent claim to fame was dumping his paperwork in a London park!

Mr Letwin, was an adviser to Margaret Thatcher, is thought to be independently affluent (very rich). Mr Letwin is no stranger to controversy; he is reputedly the person who advised Baroness Thatcher to introduce the poll tax, which caused riots, and had to go into hiding during the 2001 general election campaign after advocating public spending cuts that went further than the Conservatives had announced.

Since 2004, he has claimed more than £80,000 of expenses for a cottage in Somerset close to his Dorset constituency. The property is in an isolated area and Mr Letwin claims for the cost of heating fuel and emptying the septic tank. 

The most controversial claim was made in September 2006. An invoice for £2,145 was submitted by Mr Letwin for works to lay a new 25mm pipeline to replace the existing leaking pipeline under the tennis court of his country home. He is also a non-executive director of NM Rothschild Corporate Finance. 

These badger culls are going to continue for years to come and the only hope is a change of government, but until then perhaps we can all opt to avoid both British meat and dairy as we try and halt this slaughter in the countryside.