Encouraging news out of Parliament this week and very
pleasing to see the government lose 219 votes to 1 on future roll-outs of the Badger
cull. Although this does not necessarily mean this government will take any
notice of the fact that generally speaking, the general public and the majority
of MPs can see no real mileage in this futile, unscientifically proven debacle
of an experiment.
Another nice turning point this week is, I finished my
stone walling around a Badger sett and woodland area leaving it a lot more
camouflaged and generally an awful lot safer than it was a year ago. But sadly now I hear that the Hunting Act is
under immediate threat with the government planning an amendment which would
affectively bring back the cursed past time of hunting.
You would think, having come through a relatively mild
winter, food banks being more rife in this country than ever before in my
lifetime, the plight of our youngsters with job opportunities being so far and
few between that half of them are in the position of despair and full of
hopelessness long before their 22nd birthday, and the best way this
government chooses to address these real serious problems in our society is to appease
the very few at the top who think it is in some way advantageous to this
country to annihilate all our badgers and foxes.
The real sad news for me this week was on hearing the
passing of a great British political icon, Tony Benn, whose integrity and
honesty and generally all round goodness is probably more testimony to the age
the man grew up in rather than the shoulders that he was rubbing up against
over the last 25 years in The House. I
am not saying one always agreed with what Tony Benn said, but one thing was
never in any doubt whatsoever, the man honestly believed every single word he
uttered.
His glory days of the 70s, when our British press were
branding him one of the most dangerous men in Britain over his stance on
nuclear war heads. You stand back and when you really look at the arguments of
the day, Tony Benn was certainly not all wrong.
Billions upon billions of pounds have been spent on
weaponry that no one can or would ever use.
His arguments of selling off the country’s silver,
privatisation, the belligerence of power and wealth in the hands of so few was
never very far off the mark.
His diaries are left as an historical insight into this
country’s workings since the end of the Second World War, 1945. They will be dipped in and out of by social
historians for time immemorial.
Whatever your politics or views there is so much of what
Tony Benn preached that is as relevant today, probably more so than in the days
when they were originally spoken.
I listened last October to an interview he gave to the
BBC. On answering one of the interviewer’s questions, he replied, “my mother
once said to me as I was entering politics, that if you believe in something
that is right, and you honestly believe that it is, then you must see it
through, but equally if there are policies that are inherently wrong and you
honestly believe that they are, you must fight to make them right.” The advice that Tony Benn was given by his
mother all those years ago sums the man up most accurately, for Tony Benn,
whether you agreed with him or not, he honestly believed most sincerely in all
of his preaching’s.
Wildlife and the late Tony Benn for me have an awful lot
in common. They both stand for what is
honest, just and generally good for the country and instead of being knocked and
put down they should be held in the highest esteem.
My humble advice to this government is, before we waste
any more money and time on killing things that enhance life we should be
devoting all of our time, sparing no effort, leaving no stone unturned in
trying to solve the issues of the day that blight people’s lives on a daily
basis. Giving hope over hopelessness to
our millions of youngsters who just haven’t had the same chances as we’ve all
had. Giving dignity and care to our
elderly and trying to make food banks and help to the poorest of our society a
humanitarian right rather than the ‘cap in hand’ hand out which is so
disturbing to witness. Investing more in the infrastructure that we already
have up and running rather than waste the money on ripping up the countryside
with HS2 and building up our sea defences, dredging rivers and doing everything
we possibly can so that we do not see such devastating scenes in future wet
winters that we have all witnessed this winter.
Massive challenges that require ingenuity, tenacity and
integrity.
This week has seen Dini the Fox evermore patrolling the maternity
Badger sett. I feel sure that he is just as keen to know what is happening
below ground as much as I am. He comes
and sleeps around the sett all day relinquishing charge on the drop of darkness
to old Daddy Cool.
Iconic countryside animals with the same beliefs and the
same ambitions for the future as each and every one of us, to be healthy, happy
and content and TO SURVIVE.
Please watch my short film of a Badger sow gathering
bedding for her maternity sett and Dini the Fox on watch.
Dini The Fox keeping watch over the Badger Maternity Sett.
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