Wednesday 24 July 2013

George, Your Ministers are Letting You Down

How disheartening it is to constantly listen to the powers that be harp on and on about badgers and the wider implications of bovine TB, the latter in their opinion needing the proposed badger cull to sort out. In a week that has seen the birth of a future king, you would assume the British government would be doing everything in its power to ensure the future little might has got something to point a pair of binoculars at. Always the same old tune is heard: “we’re still ten years away from finding a vaccine for cattle against BTB” - they’ve been saying this for years! Like all drugs, it is a fortune in manufacture and I personally think that this has been the problem: not nearly enough investment. Surely the time is now right to sensibly use a small percentage of the moneys that are frequently wasted in Brussles to try and find a solution to the problem once and for all, as well as a percentage of annual farming subsidy would go a long way to financing a future vaccine for cattle. The grass has been steadily growing beneath our feet and the problem, for whatever reason, is getting worse as this government - like all other previous governments - pay lip service. If young Prince George, the future King of England wants to grow up and see the type of countryside and all the wonders of nature within it as we have all been lucky enough to witness, as a nation we have got to soon wise up.  Bees are down, butterflies are down, most breeds of British birds are down, invertebrates are down, native trees dying off, Ash, Oak, Chestnut. And, if this was not already enough, we are now embarking on the annihilation of the badger - environmentally we have to start doing more. I suppose one consolation is that the young Prince will not be stung as many times as I was when I was a kid.

Devon Cattle, enjoying life.

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