Sunday 21 September 2014

Gordon Brown Most Welcome in the Badgers Union

Quite an amazing week.  A referendum that gripped two nations, the Scots and the English.  A campaign driven by the people, constantly fuelled by all sets of media.  Stakes on both sides of the border along with the political parties could have hardly been greater.  The most phonetic time of politics since Edward Heath’s Conservative government joined us up with the EEC in 1973. 
After last weekend’s Yougov polls put Alex Salmond’s Scottish National Party a couple of points ahead of the Unionists, alarm bells rang all around Westminster.  Our party political leaders were stunned into action.  David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband who had all been so lethargic, almost to an outsider nurturing the idea of an independent Scotland, in the eleventh hour saw the error of their sluggish like thinking and all made hastily engagements for early week debates in Scotland to try and halt the Scottish uprising. 
For a short time the Union was evaporating in front of our very eyes.  The most successful union in history was coming to an end. But as the call went out, one man rose like a giant above all others, the name of that man was Gordon Brown.  For me, Gordon Brown without any doubt saved the Union.  His speeches were almost electrifying, like a mid-19th century stalwart politician, oratory almost equalling the great Winston Churchill, who hammered out his convictions in a most matter of fact, heart felt, respectful, almost humble at times manner.  As the curtain was falling on a three hundred year old union, he had the ability to make people pause and think whilst stood on the very brink.
Friday morning when the final results were announced, 45% of Scots wanting independence from England and 55% still wanting the Union I reflected on just how close the whole thing had come to unravelling.  The referendum has broken seams in an old coat that has been truly well worn.  Seams that has been broken and weakened by an almost self-destruct idea of being able to do better, when in reality, England, Scotland and Wales have always put the Great into Great Britain. 
As I sit watching over my Badgers with the full knowledge of the senseless Badger slaughter starting up again in parts of Gloucestershire and Somerset, I thought how nice it would be to have a heavy weight politician of the stature of Gordon Brown speaking up on behalf of the British Badger. 
For twenty years he played second fiddle to Tony Blair.  When he eventually became Prime Minister the party was over.  Tony Blair had slipped out of the back door and left Gordon Brown holding a cake in which he would have to have been the Messiah to satisfy the mouths in which it was to be fed.  Our country was broken by a false economic yearly house price rise which could never realistically cope in paying back the debts that had accumulated on the de-regulation of the banks in the mid-eighties under a Thatcher, Tory Government that started up all day Sunday trading and an endless wallet of plastic cards to quench the insatiable, ever wanting, must have more British appetite.  An economy of madness that Gordon Brown almost single-handedly carried the can for. 
The double act of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair always showed Tony Blair in the limelight and Gordon Brown in the gloom.  But if their posts could be reversed and now you had Gordon Brown as peace envoy in the Middle East you would now have a voice of conviction and integrity, but one can never have it all.  And I for one will always be grateful for the rousing Union speeches of Gordon Brown.  Three cheers for Gordon Brown for saving the Union.
My Badgers came up from deep in the woodland to Daddy Cool’s favourite spot on the Northern boundary.  The Throne of Daddy Cool.  How very fitting for the most important vote in our Union’s history for over three hundred years.

Please watch my short film of Daddy Cool in the most beloved spot of his woodland.


Daddy Cool checking out his Throne.












Sunday 14 September 2014

Badgers, Scots and Stonehenge

Last week’s blog didn’t happen due to my daughter’s 21st birthday. It was a very busy but jolly affair starting off with Sophie being collected from the local station, joined later that evening by her two medical student friends.  Supper soon ensued with lots of lively chat which went on late into the evening. Saturday was spent with Sophie showing them some local attractions, one being Sudeley Castle at Winchcombe which was greatly admired by her two friends.
My wife Jackie had purchased a Maison Blanc birthday cake which always seems to fit the birthday occasion exceedingly well.  That evening Sophie opened all of her presents and cards.  We all then sat around the dining table where we were presented with a sumptuous meal cooked by Jackie. We raised several glasses of champagne in celebration of my daughter’s 21st and congratulating her on her forthcoming 3rd year at Medical School.  Also, celebrating my son’s passing of his driving test and his imminent start at the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester.  Sunday was a little more sedate with all of the girls going off on a long walk and then just relaxing in the garden before we said a goodbye to Sophie’s two friends and taking Sophie back to the station.  It was a most successful and enjoyable weekend.
The week previous had seen a lot of comings and goings over the Cotswold airways.  American fighter jets and British jets going through their manoeuvres.  Practicing the protocol of protecting the most powerful man on earth, President Obama, on his arrival on Air Force One at Royal Air Force Base Fairford the evening ahead of the NATO summit which was being held at the Celtic Manor, Newport, Wales.    
World disturbance is on a monumental scale.  NATO seems to have its hands full like never before.  Crisis in Ukraine where cease fires barely last for hours, let alone days.  Isis running amok, threatening the whole stability throughout the Middle East.  Ebola epidemic in Africa that could create losses of biblical proportions.  In amongst all this world turmoil this government still seems to be pressing on with the 2014 Badger Cull. 
Last Sunday morning, President Obama stopped off at Stonehenge for a walk round our own world heritage site.  There he posed with a local family. A magical moment for this family and a very down to earth glimpse of a President who seems to be most humanitarian. And to think Badgers were roaming this island long before these stones were put into place. 
The news and media has been full of the forthcoming referendum of Scotland’s independence.  A decision once taken that cannot readily be reversed.  A coming together of two Nations that has lasted for over three hundred years.  A coming together of two Nations to form free trade, the first truly international free trade the world had ever known, when Britannia ruled the waves. This small island sending Sail Ships out to all the continents of the world.  An achievement never equalled in history. 
The Canadian President this week reported that they think they have found one of Franklin’s two ships, either the HMS Erebus or HMS Terror, the ill-fated expedition which left British shores in 1845 searching for the fabled North West Passage.
The Union with Scotland Act was passed in 1706 and the United Kingdom was formed in January 1707.The Scots joined from a very weak economic base. Scotland however then prospered in all the new found trade routes and the Scotland we know and love today was founded on the back of this partnership.  A partnership built on trust, fairness and above all trade.  When I stand back and look at today’s kaleidoscope of diverse, technological and ever changing trade I cannot help but come to the conclusion that if Scotland does go independent, it will without doubt be the worse decision it has made in over three hundred years. 
The Coopers have been practicing their Badger cage trick up at my Badger sett.  The plans put in place last year to evacuate the sett if needs must were once again sanctioned this week by my friends in Hereford.  The proposed Badger cull is unjust and is an attack on the innocence of wildlife and with everything else going on worldwide that needs the attention of our best minds, the futile continuation of this hair-brained scheme to rid our cattle herds of TB to me is madness beyond belief.
Once again, this part of The Cotswolds Badger population is on red alert.  Operation Mozart’s Magic Flute is on standby, Who Dares Wins.

Please watch my short film of a group of Badgers contemplating the end of summer as the curtain slowly raises for the onset of autumn.



Badgers contemplating the end of summer.