The Shameful Somerset Farming Minster (Lib Dem)

During the early stages of the coalition the Department of Environment was exclusively run my the Tories, first Caroline Spelman whom after the mess of the forest sell off campaign was replaced by blood sports mad Owen Paterson. This ministry which includes DEFRA has always been controlled by farmers and country landowners with no Liberal Democratic representation. That was until Somerset own David Heath was appointed as the farming minster a year ago almost to the day. A breakthrough one might have though in the area where the big lobbying groups like the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the County Land and Business Association (CLA) have there tentacles all over, both here and in the EU regarding subsidies.

David Heath had an opportunity of a lifetime to impose his mark and that of his party as a former Somerset pig farmer and an Oxford science graduate. He could have questioned the science and political muscle behind this badger cull.

Mr Heath’s boss, Owen Paterson is already pushing for the exploration of fraking, GM crops and of course the badger cull which he intends to roll out across most of the country as soon as possible. Mr Patterson also writes exclusively for the Countryside Alliance and hence heavily associated with the dark evil motives behind this badger cull, where our wildlife is compromised for the sake of countryside profits and countryside pursuits.

The Cowardly David Heath (Lib Dem)

With his life in rural Somerset and a graduate of Oxford with an MA in Physiological Science, David Heath was well placed to confront the politics and science behind this cull. But alas no, he has shown himself like other Liberal Democrat MP’s to be week and spineless in tackling the extremes of right wing Tories who have an agenda so far removed from reality.

Owen Paterson and the powerful NFU (which is unelected quango who represent only 18% of British farmers), are in the process of slaughtering between 5,500 and 7,000 badgers. This in spite of all the published science being against this approach. This slaughter will continue over the next 25 years and will attempt to wipe out at least 130,000 of our native badgers.

  

All I was expecting from Mr Heath as the farming minster was to look at the science and observe that bovine TB rates have actually been falling since January, 2013. This is when better bio-security measures were finally enforced. But cattle movements still remain very high and need further investigation as to why so many take place.

Only 1.7% of badgers actually have a strain of TB serious enough to possibly infect cattle and as the science states, most infection is being passed via the cattle-to-cattle route.

Only 0.5% of the national herd is actually bTB infected at the moment. Yet healthy animals are being routinely slaughtered and farmers compensated and as always at huge expense to the taxpayer. In addition of the animals slaughtered last year 28,400 carcasses were sent straight back into the human food chain!  This makes a complete hypocrisy of the culling of both cattle and badgers. Slaughterhouses are simply being told to remove any visible bovine TB lesions! The government is making its money back this way and telling us the meat is safe and still Mr heath you say nothing and you do nothing!

The cull zone in West Somerset has almost no cows in it but there are plenty of hunting lodges up there and big agri-businesses developing bio fuels for profit over wildlife.

Mr Heath you were expected to examine the situation and argue the case based on sound science, instead you have behaved like an dithering old man who turns up at a family wedding and is told to sit down quietly out of the way and only comment on how lovely the couple look when asked!

These Badger Culls serve no-one but the undemocratic, feudal minority who believe they are above the law of the land and what you have allowed to happen by your inactivity Mr Heath is nothing short of a national scandal.

If anyone ever need proof that why the Lib Dems are unsuitable as coalition partners then they need to look no further than David Heath as the farming minster. Who is effective as a dead sheep on a remote hillside farm in this debate. Shame on you Mr Heath and shame on what you have inflected on the country of Somerset and on the country of Gloucestershire.

The Countryside Alliance is Now Running the Badger Cull!

The Countryside Alliance’s hand in this bloody badger cull is beginning to emerge with Guy Robinson who was previously the head of political research at the Countryside Alliance has been appointed to support the Blood Sports mad Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, who writes exclusively for the Countryside Alliance magazine. 

Mr. Robinson was working for Lynton Crosby’s company; and Lynton Crosby himself has been put in charge of the Tory election machine to get the Tories elected with a working majority at the next general election. Mr. Crosby's PR and lobbying firm Crosby Textor has long-standing links with the tobacco industry and its recent successes have included the dumping of the planned introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes and promoting a powerful group that campaigns for fracking in the UK with government provided tax relief.

The Countryside Alliance is a political pressure group working to overturn the hunting ban and promote blood sports in the countryside and has been very active in a smear offensive against the RSPCA following the society’s successful conviction for illegal hunting against the Prime Ministers local Fox Hunt. They have also been at loggerheads with the RSPB over the use of lead polluting ammunition used for game bird and water fowl shooting!

Now if you look at the locations of the two badger cull zones in West Somerset and Gloucestershire; both these locations are home too many pheasant shooting estates and are awash with an array eager and keen of blood sports enthusiasts all to ready to participate in the cull. 

They are various other grouping within the countryside that has the view that wildlife is a nuisance and the badger in particular in relation to the many pheasant shoots. 

With the advent of solar farms and bio-fuel crops being developed, then in the rush for quick profits the overarching desire is to have no legally protected species of wildlife for many countryside businesses, it simply gets in the way of profits.

Hunting, shooting, snaring and poisoning are the traditional wildlife management techniques deployed and why should they be force to change; “it’s our tradition!” is the usual cry for the indefensible actions that they deploy against our wildlife.

But perhaps the worst aspect of the Badger Cull is the way that the shooting has been allocated to private companies and then to individuals. These companies are then able to recruit the local blood sports hobbyists, who generally tend to be members of the Countryside Alliance and so the circle of evil is complete.

A Bloody Holy Trinity of Un-Natural England, National Farmers Union and DEFRA have baked together in Hell this wicked and unnecessary Badger Cull with the Countryside Alliance emerging as the “Prince of Darkness’” in the English countryside!

It’s all in the name Bovine (Cattle) TB – It’s a Cattle Problem, Created by Farmers!

If anyone has any concerns about the political motivations behind this cruel and pointless badger cull one only has to look that the people who are pushing the agenda.

The NFU are desperate to shift the blame onto the badgers to avoid the necessary bio-security and cattle movement measures that will be required to properly control the spread of bovine TB, both in cattle and the wildlife at large.

Since the first bovine TB infected badger was found in 1971 it is now considered that with the massive industrialisation of the farming industry has resulted in the spread bovine TB into the wildlife and farmers are now conducting a desperate damage limitation exercise by pointing the finger of blame at the badger. Bovine TB can affect not only badgers but also pigs, rabbits, deer, foxes, ferrets, mink, rats, cats and dogs; so should we start and cull all these species also?

For the NFU gone is the notion that the polluter should pay for the clean-up costs for the contamination they are responsible for. The farmers do not want to contribute a penny for the bovine TB that has seeped from their farms into the countryside and associated wildlife left alive around the farm. Instead they seek to destroy the wildlife using our money in a vain attempt to shift the blame.

People need to consider very carefully if they want to support an industry that will eventually wipe out our native wildlife using our money and giving us no say whatsoever in the process, trotting out the old adage that “we do not understand the countryside and its ways”. Perhaps if they were financial pressures on the farming industry then the dictatorship of the policy currently emerging from the NFU would be challenged. 

With this debate regarding the badger cull we should consider it as a nuclear leak at say Hinckley Point power station, but unlike the nuclear power company, which would be forced to take responsibility for the contamination we the taxpayer are being forced to pick up the bill for the spread of bovine TB into our wildlife and then pay to have our wildlife killed as a result of the farmers messy industry and reluctance to spend money on much needed farm improvements and unregulated cattle movements.

The Countryside Alliance’s hand in this bloody badger cull is beginning to emerge with Guy Robinson who was previously the head of political research at the Countryside Alliance, being appointed to support the Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, who is a keen blood sports supporter and writes exclusively for the Countryside Alliance. This makes sense when you look at both cull zones in West Somerset and West Gloucestershire; both centers are home too many pheasant shooting estates and awash with an array of blood sports enthusiasts. The Countryside Alliance is a political pressure group working to overturn the hunting ban and promote blood sports in the countryside and Mr. Robinson was working for Lynton Crosby’s company; and Lynton Crosby has been put in charge of the Tory election machine to get the Tories elected with a working majority at the next general election. 

The Countryside Alliance has been very active in a smear offensive against the RSPCA following the society’s successful conviction for illegal hunting against the Prime Ministers Fox Hunt and they have also been a loggerheads with the RSPB over the use of lead polluting ammunition used for game bird and water fowl shooting, a game they call wildlife conservation and they make a big blasting noise about it!

They are various grouping within the countryside that has the view that wildlife as a nuisance and the badger in particular in relation to pheasant shoots. More generally in the rush for quick profits as solar farms and bio-fuel cropts are developed the overarching desire to have no legally protected wildlife is a goal for many countryside businesses. Hunting, shooting, snaring and poisoning are the traditional wildlife management techniques deployed and why should they be force to change; “it’s our tradition!” is the usual cry for the indefensible actions that they deploy against the wildlife.

Each day this cull continues more and more people will switch away from British farm products as this it is the only tangible way to register their protest.

We cannot be continually fed these lies about bovine TB and how the number of badgers is out of control. For the health of the nation we need to eat less dairy products and if we eat meat we need to know what meat it is; either horse or bovine TB infected beef!  

Sanctions leveled against our own farming industry would appear the only way forward at present as the unquestioned spin emerges for both DEFRA and the NFU and blindly supported by Ministers who should have at least questioned what was being asked of them, I refer to David Heath in particular with having a boss like Owen Patterson, just burring his head in the sand can only work for a short period of time.

The thought that a Conservative government with a working majority would be in place as this badger cull is rolled out to many other areas would leave the country well and truly divided. The countryside will be awash with hunters and shooters and very little natural wildlife would be left. We may even see the revamping of BBC’s SpringWatch and AutumnWatch as an all embracing HuntWatch where most of the badgers will be dead and the foxes breed for hunting - a brave new countryside!

Otter Hunting - Will It Make A Return?

But perhaps the worst aspect of the Badger Cull is the way that the shooting has been allocated to private companies. These companies are then able to recruit the local lampers, terrier-men, gamekeepers and general blood sports hobbyists.

A Holy Trinity of Natural England, National Farmers Union and DEFRA have baked together in Hell this Bloody Badger Cull.

Unless these culls are stopped soon the National Farmers Union will have created a new blood sport based on ‘Badger Baiting’ but this time with peanuts laced with treacle placed around the badger setts and the shooters lined up to pick them off as the iconic badger, emblem of all the Wildlife Trusts emerges from his sett to enjoy a night of foraging. This is what the Badger has done since the dawn of the Ice Age and now to be shot “free range” simply to appease the dirty farmer.

Now is the time to ditch the dairy and save the badger.

The Countryside Alliance and the Badger Cull

If anyone has any concerns about the political motivations behind the mad, bad badger cull one only has to look that the people who are pushing the adgenda.

The NFU are desperate to shift the blame onto the badgers to avoid the necessary bio-security measures that will be required to control the spread of bovine TB, both in cattle and the wildlife at large.

Since the first bovine TB infected badger was found in 1971 it is now considered that with the massive industrialisation of the farming industry this has resulted in the spread bovine TB into the wildlife and farmers are now conducting a damage limitation exercise by pointing the finger at the badger. Bovine TB can effect not only badgers but also pigs, rabbits, deer, foxes, ferrets, mink, rats, cats and dogs.

For the NFU gone is the notion that the polluter should pay for the clean-up costs for the mess they are responsible for. The farmers do not want to contribute a penny for the contamination that has seeped from there farms into the countryside. Instead they seek to destroy the wildlife in a vein attempt to shift the blame.

People need to consider very carefully if they want to support an industry that will eventually wipe out our native wildlife using our money and giving us no say in the process, trotting out the old adage that “we do not understand the countryside and it’s way”. 

With this debate we should consider it is rather like a nuclear leak at Hinckley Point power station, but unlike the power company which would be forced to take responsibility for the contamination we the taxpayer are being forced to pick up the bill for the spread of bovine TB into our wildlife and then have our wildlife killed as a result of the farmers messy industry and reluctance to spend money on improvements.

The Countryside Alliance’s hand in this bloody badger cull is beginning to emerge with Guy Robinson, previously head of political research at the Countryside Alliance,  being appointed to support Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, again a keen blood sports supporter who writes exclusively for the Countryside Alliance. 

Mr. Robinson was working for Lynton Crosby’s company; this company has been charged with getting the Tories elected with a working majority at the next election.

Each day this cull continues more and more people will switch away from British farm products as this it is the only way to register there protest, and the thought that a Conservative government would be in place as this badger cull is rolled out to many other areas. The countryside will be awash with hunters and shooters and very little natural wildlife. We may even see the revamping of SpringWatch and AutumnWatch as an all embracing HuntWatch where the badger will be dead and the foxes breed for hunting - a brave new countryside!