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!

Wake up call on dairy products and the welfare of the animals!

One thing that the current debate regarding the Badger Cull is the fact that people are looking more closely at what they eat. This year alone we have had the horse meat scandal in which answers are not forth coming at present and the continuing wish for many in the farming sector to proceed at all costs with this Mad Cruel and Senseless Badger Cull.

There always was an uneasy truce between vegetarian and Vegan diets. Most pubs and restraints usually provide a vegetarian option in main meals and deserts. However health can sometimes be a more important factor is choosing a plant based diet than animal welfare concerns.

Ten years ago following a Vegan diet was difficult and only the really committed chose to follow that path, but with the more commonly used term ‘plant based’ diet then the desire and ability to give up both meat and dairy seems to sit more comfortably and perhaps shows up the weakness in the vegetarian options.

Don’t get me wrong, I still follow a vegetarian diet, but feel weak that I have so far failed to move over completely to the Vegan diet, but I am sure it’s only a matter of time. It was twenty years ago that I gave up smoking and look where we are today with smoking, barred in most public places.

With the advances in technology and the economies of scale we all need to take stock of what we are prepared to accept in our life style. The science says we need to eat more plant food but the science also says that we can have genetic modified animals that don’t feel pain so we can have even meat more on death row!

One thing for sure is the need to move more to a plant based diet and they are many ways to achieve this, I did hear the term VB6 and it made me laugh. It means Vegan Before Six, which means that, yes sure have you meat if you must but during the day try and be be plant based. 

The welfare of the animals, the environment, our moral position and the science state we need to change and to have a polarised smoker/non-smoker or round earth/flat earth debate is not helpful at present as there is a lot at stake.

It is so easy to turn a blind eye and do nothing:-

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” 

Edmund Burke

Perhaps Soon Trade Unions Will be Deemed Illegal by the Royal Etonian Order of David Cameron!

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 current 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. 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. 

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.

Have You Been Clegged!

This is a new term meaning that you have been totally betrayed by voting for Nick Clegg and his party. What did happen, well the Lib Dems in forming part of this coalition have turned their back on any claim to be the voice of liberalism. They have chosen to support the party of privilege and patronage over liberty and equality. They have treated with contempt the voters who chose to vote LibDem in direct rejection of the Conservative agenda. They have disowned those who made a positive choice to vote LibDem in order to see their policies implemented. They have betrayed the party workers who have worked hard promote the centre left of politics by rushing to the rescue of the Wealthy Tories.

Team Badger in Taunton

Another year and we are it seems still marching down the road to a massive badger cull and Team Badger fronted by Queen's Rock Star Icon Brain May is back in Taunton. This time at the Taunton Conference Center as the Brewhouse has already been culled and lies still by the River Tone.

It was a full house and this time apart from the usual speakers like Gavin Grant of the RSPCA and Brian May fronting Team Badger, we had a Dairy Farmer with over thirty five years experience with Steve Jones and guess what, there is no case for a badger cull!

Bio-security on farms and removal of the infected herds together with the vaccination of badgers with the long objective of cattle vaccine approved by the EU via a ten year road map, if we are still in the EU by that time.

Time and time again we hear the same old tired and failed lines of both DEFRA and the NFU, but they have both got it so wrong big time. We know it, the EU know of it and the general public now know how wrong it is.

A passing mention of the Countryside Alliance's fronted Middle Way group (Jim Barrington is the usual spokesperson), was made regarding the shooting of foxes. The Middle Way Group considered this was too cruel and it's best to hunt foxes with hounds (no change there), but for badgers shooting is OK, it's not cruel.

Could the Somerset badger cull be Taunton's very own bloody Hungerford?

BOXING DAY - When the Cruel, Rich and the Arrogant Ride into Town

This is one of the few days in the hunting calendar that you will see the hunt, riders and hounds out on parade. Many of the riders will be adorned with Christmas tinsel and their mounts will be superbly groomed. But what you are witnessing is the public face of a cruel and barbaric activity vested in our brutal feudal past. After the hunt has departed the Town centre the huntsmen and associated terrier-men mounted on Quad Bikes will be in two-way communication, using the latest GPS and terrain mapping facilities available on mobile devices. All these hounds, riders, terrier-men and followers after a lonely and terrified fox which has probably been bolted from its den earlier that morning. You can hardly call it hunting or indeed a tradition, it is simply the execution of wildlife for the sadistic enjoyment of the few who pretend to be the guardians of the countryside.

Cotley Hunt

This season the Countryside Alliance has initiated a programme to get more children introduced into countryside pursuits; suggesting that schools adopt a hound or arrange kennel visits at local hunts.

The children however must be very careful in case the hounds pass on tapeworm or parasites. This is because the hounds are fed on uncooked casualty farm stock, which would inevitably carry parasites, including the cystic larval stage of the tapeworm.  

A few years ago a premier English hunt had to paid compensation to a former employee who claimed his liver problems were caused by poor control of tapeworm in the hound pack. Now lawyers have been circulating details as a warning to hunts and farmers who run working dogs. They point out cattle and sheep could be carrying eggs from the same worms, making stock handlers vulnerable – and also eligible to sue. They quote DEFRA  figures showing more than nine per cent of hounds tested excreted the eggs of tapeworm (Echinococcus granulosus) and there was a substantial risk of human handlers picking one up. Not very nice to have on your town centre over the Christmas period.

Some hunts are now being requested to hold there Boxing Day meet out of town as it can have an adverse effect on trade and then there is the concern about the movement of traffic (normal and emergency services) as down in South Somerset we have four market towns (Chard, Castle Cary, Crewkerne and Ilminster) gridlocked on Boxing Day at eleven o’clock and the police just watch helplessly as the hunt ride by.

Maurice Adams writing in the 'Humane Review' in 1910, stated, "In England today hunting is an anachronism which survives only because land monopoly and an injust distribution inheritance have led our 'splended barbarians' in the absence of the need to work, the pressure of social distinctions and the want of higher mental development to seek release from boredom and fill up an aimless life by the indulgence and artificial stimulation of sub-human instincts."

This coalition government has not done anything to help the situation, in fact they have made the divide between the rich and the poor even bigger! 


Horses and Hounds and Dog Control Orders
Ordinary members of the public are limited by the numbers of dogs they can take out; each dog must be on a lead and have its identity available and be under control. If your dog worries farm stock it could be shot. However hunting hounds are exempt from all of these laws. No name tags nor collars are required, in fact the hunt may well be allowed to shoot the farmer if he interferes with the hounds, but I need to check this fact! There are also the issues surrounding horses and vehicles in the 21st century. The Highway Code does apply to horse riders, but it’s only as a guide, and therefore has no power behind it. If riders decide to block roads, there appears to be no law which can stop them. Should an accident occur between a horse and a vehicle there is also no requirement for a horse rider to supply a name and address. The rider can simply ride off into the sunset and leave you with the repair bill, whilst under the Road Traffic Act it is a legal requirement for the driver of a motor vehicle involved in a collision with a horse to supply a name and address and relevant insurance details to a person at the scene who has reasonable cause to require them, and it is the responsibility of the driver of that motor vehicle to report that collision to the Police. The Road Traffic Act places a clear responsibility on the driver of the vehicle and failure to comply is an offence. Horse riders do not require specific insurance for riding horses on the highway; it is not compulsory. If the rider is found to be at fault, the debt would be pursued by the Insurance Company for the driver either by making a claim from existing specific insurance policies or generic public liability insurance that the rider may have through other policies; i.e. household insurance or through the civil court or through the insurance policy held by the hunt, if they are a member of course. 

No More Controls on Farms Until They Start Killing Badgers!

Reading in the local press about the comments made against Queen guitarist and Animal Welfare campaigner Brian May that he was ‘utterly hypocritical to allow deer culling on land he had just bought (being implemented by a local gamekeeper under the estates land current management plan). If it was me I might have stopped the cull right away, but Mr May seemed to err on the cautious side, perhaps not wanting to ride ruff-shod over everyone in an arrogant and bullying fashion.

However every pro-cull farmer seems to look on this as an opportunity to demonise and smear one of NFU biggest opponents over this mad, bad and daft badger cull.

I also read in the latest Farmers Weekly that the South West NFU Livestock Board is calling for planned changes to TB testing and cattle movement controls to be delayed until the badger cull is under way.

Now we all know that the poor badger probably got TB from cattle and everyone knows that the mayor part of the bTB eradication plan is better cattle testing and the need for much stricter movement controls and improved husbandry on farms.

But now the farmers don't’ want to play ball, this is complete madness and we as tax payers should not be funding this nightmare.

Now thats what I would call a five star hypocritical situation!