Tag Archives: badgers

Because Barons (and Baronesses) are people too – the Lords hit the web!

house of lordsHaving successfully dipped their toes into the social media pool with their Twitter account, the party’s peers have now launched their very own blog. The site is intended to give an insight into the often overlooked work the group are doing in the second chamber. Because – let’s be honest here – even the most committed of members can be forgiving for not thumbing through Hansard on their morning commute.
 
In the past week alone there have been blog posts from Roger Roberts

Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged | 2 Comments

The Independent View: Why killing badgers might not be the answer

Dr. Richard Meyer served on the Government Consultative Panel for three years, wrote The Fate of the Badger (Batsford 1986) and worked for a year with WWF. This post is adapted from his submission to Defra as part of the public consultation process on bovine tuberculosis.

The background is briefly that the majority of farmers have long believed that badgers give TB to cattle. I will try to show in plain English why the planned ex-officio cull of badgers by farmers is misguided, uncivilised and dangerous.

Misguided? The most telling evidence is simply historic. On-farm intradermal tuberculin testing (‘Test & Slaughter’) reduced …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged | 41 Comments

Opinion: Bovine TB eradication must be science-led

“As part of a package of measures, we will introduce a carefully managed and science-led policy of badger control in areas with high and persistent levels of Bovine Tuberculosis” – The Coalition: Our programme for Government (page 18)

The Government is now consulting on its proposal to introduce badger culling as part of its approach to tackle Bovine TB. This part of the Government’s policy is bound to generate both controversy and impassioned debate.

Last year the Government slaughtered over 25,000 cattle because of TB. The control programme costs £63 million. Yet the situation is getting worse.

There is little doubt – and the …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 12 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Chambers
    Thanks @Simon R for the comment. Yes more can be done within the Laws of Thermodynamics, or indeed the more complete Statistical Mechanics. And the UK is in the...
  • Freddie
    Rodrigo, re: a closed matter planetary system - taking your argument as true, can we not overcome this by venturing beyond our planet - mining asteroids, off wo...
  • Philip Maher
    Ref Mike Norman above: Mike seems to be confused - he's right in terms of classic liberalism involving "empowerment" by allowing claimants to manage their re...
  • John Waller
    Tom, I have always agreed with your views. But on Iran mine differ. During the war my Iranian friend sent me the Tiktok link above, and we talked for some tim...
  • David Warren
    The 1924 Labour government was desperate to appear respectable and it achieved that. However they were still brought down by a Red Scare. Returning to office...