Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

BADGERS

It should never be forgotten that this is constituency is partly rural with over 160 farms in it. I grew up on a dairy farm and the countryside is definitely in the blood.

So I have been exercised in recent years about the state of agriculture. It has been through a really tough time, with prices for milk and meat products at rock bottom. Many farmers have gone bust and there is no immediate prospect of an upturn in fortunes. But practical solutions are hard to find. Maybe supermarkets are passing on a pittance of the price of milk to the producer, but in a free market economy it is hard for a government to intervene.

But where we can help these custodians of the countryside, we should. One of the massive challenges facing farmers is the prospect of bovine TB. I well remember the anxiety in my father’s face during the visit from the ministry vet to test for TB. One reactor and your livelihood could be over. Everything you have built for years, gone in a flash.

The UK badger population was reckoned to be about 90,000 in the early 1970’s and now over 500,000. The main reason for this dramatic growth is that Parliament made them a protected species in the seventies in an attempt to stamp out badger baiting. Quite right too, but with what unforeseen consequences?

Are badgers the cause of bovine TB? The evidence is pretty clear about that. Certainly there was a time when the UK herd was TB free and the new spate of infection has come from somewhere. But if we embark on a massive cull will it solve the problem? The rather unsatisfactory trials we have had in recent years have been inconclusive, in part because they have not been strict enough. Can you imagine the demonstrations if the government were to order a country wide cull of this much loved character from the Wind in the Willows?

I believe that there is a solution. We should simply remove the legal protection. Badger baiting would still be prevented by recent legislation, and farmers facing a diseased set would have the freedom to sort it out in time honoured fashion, restoring balance to the countryside. Where there is no threat, badgers would be left alone. Where there is a problem, their numbers would be reduced.

Even this would be controversial, but since when was government about handing out sweeties?

posted by Nigel on Sunday, March 12, 2006