Cameron's cabinet resuffle had educators and environmentalists rejoicing.
Gove had gone and teachers up and down the land cried and laughed with glee.
Paterson was ousted *hurrah*
He denied the impending (also known as: currently experiencing) climate change - and clearly didn't see the link as parts of the UK were submerged from flooding and burst banks last winter; he waged war on our beloved badgers and a lot of Brits ate horse meat without knowing it.
Good riddance, I say. Don't let the door hit you on your way out.
There was a brief moment of panic at the Game Fair where the new head of Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) Mrs Elizabeth Truss nearly bumped into her predecessor Paterson at the Countryside Alliance (CA) table. Awkward!!
I personally believe in equal opportunities for men and women, but above that, I believe the best person for the job should not be defined by gender.
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| oh Camoron... really??? |
Oh, hello Ms Truss, I believe you used to work for Shell.
Obviously, when you discuss matters of Defra, the environment and all that that entails, your first instinct is to go to someone who used to work for an oil giant. It's a natural progression.
Honestly, Ms Truss, I can totally see why we need a third runway at Heathrow - no it really won't impact the environment, it can only improve when fuel is dumped in the seas before landing.
Who doesn't love the sound of a low flying plane anyway??
Of course, Ms Truss, we need to get rid of those vermin badgers (Taxonomic family: Mustelidae) they totes spread bovine TB to cows (Taxonomic family: Bovidae).
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Badger looking all smug in his tweed,
rubbing it in the faces of the CA.
How dare he! |
As you have probably gathered, I do not think Ms Truss - whether she's is a lady, a Tory or a reptilian overlord - is the best person for the job of heading Defra.
Don't get me wrong, I loath Paterson just as much. Again, idiots are gender neutral to me.
As delightfully stated by Maria Eagle (Labour's Shadow Environment Secretary), Ms Truss has flunked her first test as environment secretary, by stating that the - completely abhorrent and failed - badger culls, will continue as planned.
Really Ms Truss?
You don't want to reconsider this decision by examining and reviewing the evidence?
You don't want to have a word with the treasury to see how much money was wasted on these culls?
You don't want to speak to independent scientific advisers about their analysis of the culls?
Gosh! It's almost as if you've been brought in before next years General Elections to just be a skirt and a pair of heels!
Have you been told by the XY Tory elite that ladies should not be messing with policy?
Well, just for some food for thought, as it were, a European Commission report from 2012 described a catalogue of failures in England's preventive measures to curb the spread of bTB in livestock.
The EC gave the UK €23m in 2011 to prevent the spread of disease " Its inspectors found that the removal of cattle with TB was below the target of 90% in 10 days, and that in the first half of 2011 more than 1,000 cattle had not been removed after 30 days.
"They found that there were 3,300 overdue TB tests as of May 2011 and that "many" calf passports – used to track movements – were incomplete. They also found that only 56% disease report forms had been completed on time, with the authorities blaming lack of resources. Funding cuts were cited as the reason for the failure of local authorities to update central databases systematically."
All them badgers, messing with them governments databases...Its like when they grabbed them goalposts and moved them...
"The EC report stated: "Local authority surveys provided evidence that some cattle farmers may have been illegally swapping cattle ear tags, ie retaining TB-positive animals in their herds and sending less productive animals to slaughter in their place." There are 8.5 million cattle in Great Britain on 81,000 holdings, with 2.4m movements a year. In 2011, about 7% of herds were under restriction due to TB and 26,000 cattle were destroyed"
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| Outrageous!!! |
Gosh! One might think it wasn't the badgers fault at all. You can't really blame the cows in all this either. One might want to ... dare I say it... blame the farmers.
Just for the hell of it, lets look at the common denominator in this whole disease-ridden mess - the farmer.
We'll ignore the fact for now that bTB did not originate in badgers, or a whole host of other British wildlife and introduced farmed species but bTB is now prevalent amongst them. Though bTB has been around for several hundred years, it is thought that the increase of the disease is linked to intensively managed breeding of cattle and farming practices.
As the EC report states, there are 2.4 million cattle movements a year - this is transporting cattle for trade and to abattoirs.
So maybe, just maybe, there is an issue surrounding biosecurity.
So lets put this in a non-agriculture context; when you're in hospital, or visiting someone who is, the key item you will find on each doorway or route around said hospital, is hand sanitizer or alcohol gel. This kills germs, bacteria and disease. This is for patients, nurses, doctors, hospital support staff and visitors - anyone and everyone using the hospital. By using hand sanitizer, you cut off the source of disease transmission - within hospitals its hands, within agriculture this includes hands, boots, transport vehicles - you cut down the risk of the spread of disease.
Obviously this is not infallible; it is not a perfect system, but it is the best system available.
I had a newly qualified agri-vet friend say, that there is
footage of badgers getting into cattle feed stores and eating the cow’s food;
this was how it was transferred.
If bTB is being spread by saliva (which it can) and you
consider the proximity of one cow to another, the disease transmission rate
is going to be high (think wet noses) compared to the proximity of a cow
standing next to a badger (think height difference!); however, disease transmission will be
considerably higher in intensive (or semi-intensive) dairy cattle compared to
beef cattle - beef cattle are generally fed out on fields, where dairy cattle
are confined. Just like disease transmission will spread faster in a hospital environment with a lot of people, compared to that of a few.
If badgers are getting into feed stores, then again there is
an issue with farm management; repairing and safeguarding feed stores is going
to be immensely cheaper in the long run, than sending your livestock to
slaughter for having bTB.
You could consider this in another light; it is no secret
that farmers will receive a government payoff for having cattle with bTB – some
have deliberately infected their cattle - but with supermarkets constantly
trying to undercut each other on price, for the bulk of the business, you can
almost see why farmers would rather risk losing a few cattle to bTB than having
to do a deal with a big chain supermarket, that jeopardises and puts immense
strain on a farmers livelihood and family.
Many farmers have said they love their animals – and I do
believe them – just as a shopkeeper loves their stock; there will be a degree
of write-offs at the end of the financial year.
The culls have yet to prove badgers have anything to do with
the spread of bTB in cattle; the real issue in this is addressing the issue of
unscrupulous farmers; those that refuse to acknowledge their role in disease
transmission and those that feel they have no other option due to supermarket
competition.
Farmers, government workers and now Ms Truss need to deal with biosecurity on farms and farm equipment, abattoirs, trade of cattle, transport vehicles and the day-to-day running of the farm; then they need to start looking at a 'Fair Pay for Farmers' deal with supermarkets. Personally, I think meat should be treated as a luxury item and not an essential; if people reduced the amount of meat or meat based products in their diet, it would save the NHS a considerable sum of money a year (and then it wouldn't need to look at privatising sectors) - if people bought locally, then that would have benefits for their local economy too.
So Ms Truss, I highly recommend you re-evaluate your stance
on the badger cull. Badgers are one of our last large British wild mammal
species, we should be doing what we can to ensure their survival, not
condemning them without charge.
