In a week that has seen some of the worst air pollution
on record, an industrial type of smog blowing in from the continent mixed with Saharan
dust blown up from Africa, the country has been in a constant haze for almost a
week. Thank goodness the situation has
righted itself over the last couple of days with a south-westerly breeze
blowing the problem somewhere else.
This week we have also seen an embarrassed government
still trying to cope with the expenses scandal that has rocked Westminster to
its very foundations. All thanks to the
incredible investigative journalism of the Daily Telegraph bringing the whole
seedy business of MPs expenses on second homes in the capital and such like out
into the common domain where the public can digest all the information that has
come out over the last few years and judge the honesty and integrity of our MPs
and Parliament for themselves.
Good news this week, the government has abandoned its
planned expansion of the Badger Cull as a tool to reduce TB in cattle, but much
to my sadness, the pilot culls will continue but there will be no independent oversight
to assess their future performance. This
I fear can only be bad news for the British Badger. The independent monitors who on the collation
of all the evidence had stated ‘the Badger Cull of 2013 had failed.’ It now seems
most convenient that those monitors are no longer needed. Strikes to me they are wanting to shoot the
messengers as well as the Badgers.
But listening in to all the ins and outs and the tooings
and froings of British politics there seems to be something fundamentally
unsound about the whole business. Maria Miller
apologising for her behaviour regarding her expenses in a personal statement to
the House of Commons, after MPs rule that she must pay back £5,800, and yet our
Prime Minister stands by her and she is still in her Cabinet post. On
listening to the Conservative Chairman, Grant Chaps on a Channel 4 interview
with Cathy Newman, he didn’t seem to think that there had been too much wrong
doing and everyone should get on with their day to day business of running the
country as normal. However, in the real
world the one that most of us dwell in, if we had embezzled monies from an
employer or customer by mistake or otherwise I do not think a thirty second
apology would cut us much slack. And yet, the Badger cull is going to go on
regardless in the Gloucestershire and Somerset culling zones despite the
overwhelming evidence that the killing of these animals will make very little
to no difference to Bovine TB in cattle herds.
A moral compass in society is a position that any
government, whatever their colour, strives first and foremost to achieve. It is achieved on respect, integrity and
above all else, honesty and fairness.
Being able to preach as well as listen.
But sadly, so very often in British politics you are left miserably
underwhelmed and totally disfranchised with so much that comes from the House
of Commons.
Other news, my Badgers are doing exceptionally well. The Coopers have made two appearances this
week up at my Badger sett and I feel sure that the Badgers welcomed their visit
with as much enthusiasm as the Coopers gusto in getting there on their cross
country and rough terrain, invalidity buggy. A fact that still astonishes me. We
have seen visits from Dini the Fox and a Roe Deer buck who also seems to be
keeping a close eye on the sett. There
seems to be a competition between the pair of them on who gets to see the baby
Badgers first.
Simple things you might think but to me, it is nature
doing what nature does best, looking after its own, showing ingenuity,
tenacity, integrity and a basic down to earth honesty of what you see is what
you get. A programme of learning of
which some of our politicians would find enlightening and most beneficial.
Watch my short film of a Young Roe Deer Buck, a Badger climbing a tree and a fleeting visit of a Barn Owl.
A Young Roe Deer Buck keeping an eye on the Maternal Badger Sett hoping to be the first one to espy the new Badger Cubs.
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