The Big Badger Bash of 2012

I have managed to catch a few of the SpringWatch and AutumnWatch over the years and it was always fascinating to see the presenters interaction with the badgers. However this SpringWatch may be the last time badgers will be featured as come the autumn this first of the two trial badger culls will commence. 

A veritable army of Elma Fudds’ will descend into these cull areas for a night-time gun fest.

Who would have thought that the badger a protected species after a long battle to uplift it from its terrible past of badger baiting and abuse. 

It will now feature in a brand new blood sport of ‘Night Time Badger Shooting’; one can only assume that in this war against the badger the countryside army will be made up of Agriculture Students, Young Farmer Club members, Terrier-men (or Countrymen as they are now called) and of course people who are members of the Shotgun Conservation Club (SCC).

In the past SCC members were looking at wild goats in Cheddar or the wild boar in the Forest of Dean for possible new conservation shooting projects, but now with this badger cull in Gloucestershire and away days on Exmoor the Mecca of the blood sports killing fields.

However come the autumn AutumnWatch will be like watching wildlife in a parallel universe where presenters were so keen to show foxes, deer and badgers together with all the other diversity of wildlife in our areas of outstanding natural beauty.

Now we may see the badgers that were featured on SpringWatch now being shot on AutumnWatch and the pressure to class the fox as a pest as an aid to repeal the hunting act.

It is a great shame that this small snippet of time remaining for enjoying the local wildlife will not last much longer as this animal hostile Government puts in place the framework to undertake a mass cull of Badgers, and against all the best scientific evidence in a futile and absurd attempt to curb TB in cattle.

If we consider the view of most of the newly elected MPs into this parliament, which are in the main Career Conservatives or Tory supporting Liberals. Most will support a badger cull when presented with ‘cherry picked’ evidence; and should the Government get there way we may see next year the BBC SpringWatch program being replaced by HuntWatch, where local hunts explain their tally of ‘accidental’ kills for the season and choose the best hounds of the pack. This will be a sad day for our wildlife as culling, hunting and shooting are expanded and the countryside treated rather like a fairground attraction – stack them up and butcher them down!

Let Get Angry This Year!

Following on from the parade of horses and hounds celebrating both the Boxing Day and New Year meets with all the splendour of their magnificently turned out horses and tinsel clad riders so regally fit for a chocolate box lid setting. One could have been mistaken for walking into the set of Downton Abbey or a Emily Brontë novel in the making.

However any attempt to refocus the thoughts at this time of the year, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s message was firmly hounded down by the West Countries MP’s, mainly Conservative but with the odd rumblings from the few collaborating Lib Dem MP’s.

Much was made of the comments by hunting minster Jim Piace with a renewed pledge to repeal this bad law. But what concerns me more is the Badger Cull scheduled in some yet unselected locations, as soon as the police become available after the London Olympic games are over. The noises being made from the countryside Constables are that they are up for it and will deal with any animal rights extremists that attempt to hinder any cull zones.

Well as someone who has in over forty years driving has only picked up two speeding tickets and never been arrested or questioned by the police for any wrong doings. I feel this is all about to change as a middle aged and I suppose middle class resident of this country I and my wife are on a collision course with the establishment and in particular the countryside constabularies. They never found any resources to quell the rampant illegal hunting across their two counties and now they are in full readiness to fully support the NFU to ensure this Bloody Badger Cull is carried out.

Its about twenty years ago that the environmental campaigner Swampy swung into action around Cyst Honiton as he and his friends perched high in the trees in an attempt to stop the construction of the new A30 trunk road into Exeter. They did fail but the well spoken Swampy did bring to our attention the environment impact that road schemes have and remember back in those days you could pop into any pub or restaurant and smoke joyously away irrespective of other peoples health and views.

What is now required is the amassing of the ageing extremists of yesteryear, veterans from the Battle of the Bean Fields, Greenham Common, Ban the Bomb and apartheid as all the petitions have been signed and presented, all the letter writing to MPs have been delivered and ignored and there is no other alternative but to take direct action to stop this bloody unscientific cull in its tracks.

And this direct action will bring people, ordinary honest people into conflict with the police who seem no longer accountable to the very people they are suppose to serve and protect. Seemly able to find the resources and then jump to the tune of the many countryside pressure groups awash with campaign reserves to seek changes so far removed from our basic wishes.

It will be the badger today, the fox tomorrow and the squirrel the next day; there seems no end of the list of wildlife mammals that are under the conservation of the double barrow shotgun!

Tory Turd of the Year 2011

Frances Maude the cabinet minster for handling the Public Sector dispute. Just like thrity years ago under Thratcher he is attempting to set the public against the many trade unions involved in this dispute. It is however worth taking a look at what at the background of this True Blue Tory minster who has serves in both the Thatcher and Major governments and even more recently during his time in the shadow cabinet formed a key figure in the Deregulation Task Force just before the financial crisis!  However Mr. Maude has railed against irresponsible lending by banks and mortgage companies! But was accused of hypocrisy for receiving more than £100,000 as a director of a company that has profited from sub-prime mortgages; sub-prime means making loans to people who may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule. These loans are characterised by higher interest rates and less favourable terms but with the lour of high profits for the bankers.  He is the son of the former Conservative Cabinet minister Angus Edmund Upton Maude who was educated at Rugby School and Oriel College, Oxford, so typical true blue Tory there. Currently his personal net wealth is estimated at £3m. Despite this, during a discussion on Newsnight on 22 October 2010 he argued that a 5% cut to his £65,738 salary was equal to the 'pain' suffered by Britain's poor! During his time as the shadow minister for the cabinet office, he attempted to claim the mortgage interest on his family home in Sussex. This arrangement was rejected by the Fees Office. Two years later, Mr Maude bought a flat in London a few minutes walk from a house he already owned. He then rented out the other property and began claiming on the new flat. The taxpayer has since covered at least £35,000 in mortgage interest payments. Now against this background Mr. Maude will now arrange for an attack on the unions and their public service members for not moving into the real world on pensions and terms of conditions. This will of course help to shift the focus away from the government and the flat-lining economy we currently have. It’s a strategy of divide and rule; setting private sector against the public with the same old faces at the top picking up the financial rewards year on year. It’s the same select privileged group at the top who reap the many and varied financial rewards but as usual the people at the lower end of society are used as cannon fodder to clean up the after mess of the banking crisis. The unions will have to smarten up for this fight, the spectra of a News International Fox News channel may have receded for now but the spin of this Tory lead coalition could manage to shift and deflect so much onto the public sector unions. People have forgot about the birth of Trade Unions and why the Cooperative was setup. Less than a 100 years ago we were subjected to dreadful working conditions with virtually no schooling for our children and the NHS was a dream what many though would never be accomplished. 

Hunting Repeal

Commenting on the “The hunt vote hope for repeal”, I did think that apart from all the old rubbish about hunting being ever so more popular, that the usual photographs depicting the traditional hunting scenes could have easily come from last year. In fact I thought the newspaper could have saved some money by using last years photos again, who would have known the difference! and would the majority of us truly care I wonder.

I was in Chard town centre where the Cotley rode into town. They did not publish their meet, they have gone underground with even their web site being taken down, what have they got to hide! The numbers attending yesterday outside the Guildhall I felt were down considerably as were the riders; which incidentally costs around £8000 to maintain a hunter mount and hunt subscription; but where indeed does this 250,000 number come from? Perhaps the Countryside Alliance spin factory!

However I thought the main thrust of the debate would have been the mess that DEFRA has found itself in this last year. By this I mean Jim Paice’s boss Caroline Spelman and her shambles over the aborted sale of the nation’s forests, quickly followed by Jim Paice’s own mess when he failed to deliver the ban of performing wild animals in circuses. A ban so widely supported by the general public. He was ridiculed by his own party by his pathetic performance and feeble excuses in the Commons during the debate.

With the badger cull trials scheduled to start in the South West after the summer Olympics, I am sure many commentators will be surprised that to raise the prospects of a repeal on the Hunting Act, and summarily allow the Countryside Alliance a perverted victory would be the equivalent of shooting ones self in the foot with both barrels.

A repeal of the Hunting Act is as welcome as increased bonuses for bankers or tax relief for the wealthy.

If we end up with the situation that foxes, deer, hares and soon to be badgers are to be hunted or shot in the countryside and the NFU and others support these activities then they risk driving so many more people into becoming Vegetarians or Vegans and the farming industry like the traditional English countryside may never recover.

Next year the stakes are big!

Boxing Day 2011 Cruel Hunting

Destroy the Unions

Many right wing Tory MPs are now demanding an end to full-time union work in the public sector, an end to any employer costs for Union Reps and an end to the modest funds supporting union learning and modernization. So in response David Cameron and his Ministers are set to consult on cutting back paid time off for union work and ending the role of full time Union Rep a legal rights that have been in the workplace place for nearly 40 years.

It’s the same old tactic of divide and rule with the ‘sound byte’ taxpayers money should not be used for union work! But on the other hand it’s OK for many private companies to be supported by the taxpayer either during startup or the expansion phase; and many given National Insurance holidays for taking on staff.

No one likes to see taxpayers money  being used inappropriately and so one should cast our minds back a few years to the ‘Expenses Scandal’ when David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne were in opposition and acted with greed as both are fabulously rich with David Cameron having in excess of £30m, and George Osborne estimated worth is £4m and will inherit a great deal more as heir to the Osborne baronetcy. Yet these two men had structured their personal affairs so that British taxpayers financed mortgages on their second homes of about £300,000. Neither needed to have mortgages on their second home, and neither man needed to claim the second home allowance from the taxpayer, yet they both did. Again another shadow minster at the same time Frances Maude who is now the cabinet minster leading the attack on the Unions. Now famous for allegedly purchasing a flat in London, close to a house he already owned, before claiming on the flat and renting out the house he then attempted to claim the mortgage interest on his family home in Sussex. This arrangement was rejected by the Fees Office. But unperturbed two years later, Mr Maude bought a flat in London a few minutes walk from a house he already owned. He then rented out the other property and began claiming on the new flat: the taxpayer has since covered nearly £35,000 in mortgage interest payments and has a personal net wealth estimated at £3m. Was that good use of the taxpayers money?

There are around 200,000 people acting as Union Reps who are prepared to help their work colleagues by giving advice, formally representing them in grievance and disciplinary hearings and negotiating with managers. Many also have more specialist recognised roles improving workplace health and safety, training, equality and environmental considerations. It is reasonable to conclude that Union Reps may reduce staff turnover, deal with any disputes in an independent and swift fashion, increasing overall productivity an asset to both managers and employee and possibly even paying for themselves through the work they do. 

What the Tories are attempting to is throttle the trade unions at their roots in the workplace, as Unions rely on a sense of fairness and on the service these volunteer Union Reps give to help their work colleagues. No union will be able to survive if all support and services for members must be provided by full time union paid officials and paying the market rate of the on site support facilities.

These changes are being progressed by a Prime Minster born into a life so privileged and then goes on to employed Andy Coulson, the former disgraced News of the World editor, as his Director of Communications on entering Downing Street. This was following the cultivation of Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks of the media giant News International who holeheartly supported his party at the last election through its media enterprises.

One rule for the rich and privileged and another for those who seek to make life better for others.

The Rich Will Inherit the Earth if We do Nothing!

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.

The rich will get richer and the poor poorer and those in the middle will end up working harder and longer for less. But just to rub salt in the wound, no one voted for this and no one offered it at the last election. Cameron and Clegg have just decided that past mistakes must be paid for and by those who had no part in the making of the crisis!

These are the words of the Governor of the Bank of England and he’s probably a Tory too!

Cameron, Osbourne and Johnson but a few!