Hello.

Welcome to my little bloggins. So, without any further ado I’ll begin.

2010 then, the International Year of Biodiversity no less. Kicking us off on the year’s quest to raise the public’s awareness of the plight of all the world’s ecosystems, and the critters that dwell within them, is the news that Welsh rural affairs minister, Elin Jones, has sanctioned a pro-active, non-selective cull of all badger populations in areas of west Wales, in a bid to stamp out the curse of bovine TB. Yay!

It is well known that badgers carry the mycobacterium that can cause TB in cattle, and so for a period spanning nearly a decade, a group of independent scientists (ISG), working on behalf of Defra, researched and published peer-reviewed papers on the epidemiology of TB in cattle and badgers, and observed the effects that a series of Randomised Badger Culling Trials (RBCT) had on the spread of the disease. They published their final report in June 2007.

In its conclusion the report found that “badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. Indeed some policies under consideration are likely to make matters worse rather than better”. Also “weaknesses in cattle testing regimes mean that cattle themselves contribute significantly to the persistence and spread of disease in all areas where TB occurs, and in some parts of Britain are likely to be the main source of infection”. It goes on to state that “Scientific findings indicate that the rising incidence of disease can be reversed, and geographical spread contained, by the rigid application of cattle-based control measures alone”. Err… So no killing then? “No”.

That being the case, Elin, of sound farming heritage herself, and the Welsh Assembly are, in a breath-taking spectacle of defiance, flicking the ‘V’s to science and fact, and, in a move that would confound even the logic of a toddler, are opting instead for a return to the superstitious wisdom of folk-lore and a mass slaughter of the Wildlife Trusts UK’s icon species. In the full knowledge that such actions are highly likely to make matters worse.

Worse, that is.

It would take a very mischievous person to suggest that, while market prices for carcasses fluctuate, a set level of compensation to farmers with stricken cattle may actually render infection from TB economically viable. A very mischievous person indeed, mind.

In other non-news, Tory leader, Dave; 44, London, is widely believed to be preparing a repeal of the law banning fox hunting in England and Wales, as a first and defining act of his almost guaranteed take-over of Downing Street this May. This sits awkwardly next to some examples of the more hyperbolic, clueless bum dribble, designed to pay lip service to biodiversity that he’s been spouting of late (the issuing of ‘biodiversity credits’ that I touched upon in an earlier entry being a case in point). I can’t help but invoke the Orwellian spectre of all animals being equal, but some more equal than others in his case.

Though the fox is officially classed as vermin in this country, and while I acknowledge that its population may require some level of control in places, I would also point out that it does provide a net amount of beneficial services, free of charge, as a member of this country’s rural and urban ecosystems, and has a right to be treated humanely as much as any beast. The method of ‘population control’ favoured by the men and women who see fit to engage in hours long, distressing pursuit of foxes on horseback with hounds, while dressed like a bunch of top hats, is both about as effective and offensive as the Foreign Office attempting to tackle the debates raging around immigration by donning pointy white hoods and setting fire to crosses. But then we already knew that, didn’t we? Fox hunting has about as much to do with population control of foxes as Glenn Beck has to do with presenting Fox news in a rational, and not at all histrionic fashion.

Its worth pointing out though, that while David Cameron supports the barbarous recreation of elitist equestrians, he no longer partakes in weekend meets himself anymore, no. One eye-wateringly awful photographic reminder of his patrician-class proclivities is obviously enough:

So, while the first half of the year, the International Year of Biodiversity, lest we forget, looks set to extinguish most of the cast of ‘The Wind in the Willows’, I wonder what the other half will bring? Maybe the Scottish Parliament will issue a Fatwa on The Famous Scottish Grouse? Or will Cameron’s government, once securely ensconced, declare a Jihad on all the creatures featured in Beatrix Potter’s tales?

The take-home message here is that, apparently, if you are a farmer or a Conservative (two breeds not always easily distinguishable, it must be said), biodiversity can just fuck off!

The end.