The Cull is About Killing Badgers, Not Scientific Evidence

 Image by The Green Party

The controversial badger cull trial has failed to meet its targets, so Tory logic says that the trial should be extended by three weeks in order to ensure those targets are met.

Widely condemned, the six week badger cull being piloted in West Somerset and Gloucestershire attempts to discern how effective, humane and safe a cull would be if later implemented across England. Working on a quota, those who have been granted a license to kill the badgers in Somerset are now to be given an additional six weeks to make sure they kill the right amount.

This is a ridiculous move by the Government. The trial cull has already been riddled with failure, uncertainty and inaccuracies and the questions the government want answered have most definitely been unanswered. Only a short amount of time after the cull was initiated, the Government revised their figures on the number of badgers in the area, reducing them. How can any experiment be undertaken if the full facts aren’t known?

Ludicrously, the government is attempting to blame the badgers for their failure with Owen Paterson saying that the badgers ‘moved the goalposts.’ How have they done this? By doing what nature tells them to do: responding to the weather, moving away from danger and breeding. These are hardly unexpected moves from the enemies, with scientists already having warned the Government of these complications if they were to press on with this disgusting policy.

Yet, the Government believes that this is reason enough to extend the cull, ignoring the fact that it is factors like these that help to determine the effectiveness of their trial. The Government are ignoring the difficulties that a cull faces and are only concerned with the number of badgers are killed. It is more than apparent that when this quota has been met, the Government will claim the cull a success, as they already have done despite not reaching the numbers, and will begin rolling out the programme across England on the basis of this ‘evidence.’

In addition, protest groups in the area have noted that not all badgers have been killed humanely (using the Government’s definition), with some being trapped in cages before being shot at point-blank. The cull requires that badgers are killed while freely roaming. This highlights that another of the requirements of this cull has already been failed, in a closely-monitored trial, suggesting that if it were to be reproduced nationally there would be many more instances of badgers killed by inhumane methods. Furthermore, one of the arguments against vaccinating badgers against bTB was how difficult they are to capture, but if the Government is catching badgers in cages to shoot them, then they can catch badgers in cages to vaccinate them.

The Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, rightly called out Owen Paterson and Defra for continuously 'changing the rules' and preferring 'a scribbled on the back of an envelope, ignoring the facts approach.'

It can only be concluded that the badger cull is a dangerous move for the Government that goes against the will of the public and the expert recommendations of the scientific community. It does not fulfil their requirements and is simply a token gesture to farmers who are worried about losing a bit of capital. Hence, the Government should begin looking at alternative measures to tackle Bovine Tuberculosis, such as the vaccination, which have helped Scotland to achieve its Bovine TB-free status.

Caroline Lucas – the MP arrested for doing her job

 Photo by No Dash For Gas

Today’s arrest of Caroline Lucas at Balcombe is more than just a display of ideological commitment, but of deep understanding of her role as MP for Brighton Pavilion, and the sole Green Party representative in the House of Commons.

A Member of Parliament (MP), as I’m sure you are aware, is elected to their role to fulfil the responsibility of representing their constituents on matters in and out of parliament. With 650 MPs to represent over 60 million people, this can be an exceptionally difficult feat, with an ideologically diverse community lobbying their ideologically committed representative. Unless you begin to treat ideologically different citizens like separate species, with communists in Zone A and ultra-capitalists in Zone Z, it’s unlikely that any MP will ever to be able to effectively represent their entire constituency. And even if you did adopt this deeply despicable policy, good luck trying to send those who have features from both Zone G and Zone P. It is for this reason that it is an extremely likely occurrence for constituents to write to other MPs to express their views. Unfortunately for them, the law prevents MPs representing non-constituents.

Hence, Caroline Lucas’s job is one of real difficulty. As the sole Green Party representative in the House of Commons, Caroline has faced head-on the task of representing her own interests and her constituency’s interests in parliament whilst having to, essentially, ignore the floods of correspondence she receives from other Green Party members, environmentalists and ideologically aligned people around the country. It is events like today, in Balcombe, that she is able to properly represent those who have contacted her over and over again with their opposition to fracking, Cuadrilla and the Government’s poor attempt at being the ‘Greenest’ ever.

Caroline should serve as an inspiration to all of us and a role model for other members of the House. As an MP who does her job, of representing her constituents, rather than giving in to the party whip, defined by the party donors, she remains one of few who really holds the government to account. The pictures of Caroline being dragged away from the protest by police, whilst doing her job, show her standing with dignity, accepting her fate and believing in her cause.

What is ludicrous is the utter hypocrisy of our political state, where the companies set out to destroy our environment in the name of keeping the lights on, are protected from those who present a risk of “damaging property”. The MP who represents her constituents and other likeminded citizens in an attempt to make society better is arrested while those sitting on the benches in the Houses around her are ignored while they avoid tax and accept bribery. Caroline Lucas’ arrest today is an eye-opener to the backwards nature of policing tactics – the big, greedy and powerful are protected, whilst the small do-gooders of society are punished.

Congratulations to Caroline Lucas, her son, and the many people who have taken part in protests today, standing up for what they believe in and uniting against the Government’s ignorant plans.

Also published on Redbrick

Cameron Demands Complacency on Fracking

Photograph by Push Europe

"Get behind fracking" demands David Cameron in The Telegraph today. Think of the benefits to the economy, he lays on. Ignore the environmental impact, he infers. As anti-fracking protests continue strong in Balcombe, Sussex, the Tory Prime Minister adds yet another controversy to his premiership's legacy, so what substance lies behind his words?

The pro-fracking alliance of Caudrilla and The Conservative Party announce the godsends of the new energy initiative at any hint of disapproval: cheap energy, self-sufficiency and enough jobs to provide for the unemployed and the millions of illegal immigrants popping out of the sewage system. Meant to be a bit of good news, the Nasty Party must be in disarray that their distraction from their widespread attacks has only added fuel to the fire. Rather than prompting street parties and celebrations akin to those on New Year's Day, simply the possibility of fracking has resulted in angry gatherings. 

The potential of fracking is vastly outweighed by its potential to wreck the environment. Carving up the countryside, destroying habitats and contaminating water, it's hardly going to be Beautiful Britain. 1,300 trillion cubic feet of gas doesn't exactly suggest a short-scale and isolated project; if David Cameron's partners manage to find shale gas, which is a certainty, there's no doubt that they'll continue to exploring elsewhere in the country. It really should come as no surprise that fracking is being favoured over other options when one of Cameron's advisors, Lord Browne, is the chief executive of Caudrilla. The big black bags of money that the Government are saying will drop into the Treasury or the local public's back pockets are empty promises. If anything is reinvested into the economy, it will be minimal. We only have to look at the 'Big Six' to recognise this; despite their massive profits this year, they still have the cheek to demand more money from their customers. Here is where Cameron's promise of cheaper energy can be called into question.

The latter two promises, self-sufficiency and jobs, also raise eyebrows. Although it may be the case that fracking can provide them both, they are not the sole approaches that can offer, and they are far more the cleanest. Fracking is a dirty process, and presents the highly likely chance of water contamination in the local area. Add the certainty of increased traffic from unclean lorries through the local area, and the noise created during the process, and it the pollution is an abysmal thought. Furthermore, climate change is a real concern in the present day and as we continue to rely on finite and dirty resources to power society, we are forgetting the long-term problems and solely thinking of the short-term benefits. It has been predicted that 60-80% of resources in the ground must not be extracted if we are to avoid any of the catastrophic results of climate change. In contrast, there are various green energies that can be invested in for all the same benefits. Additional money placed towards procuring energy-efficient homes and building technologies to catch renewable energies is far more sustainable and financially viable. The jobs created by implementing a shale-gas service are equally required for a large-scale investment project in sustainable and clean resources, that will not just benefit us, but generations to come and have far more public support than dirty fracking.

The language used by the pro-fracking alliance is misleading and ignorant of alternatives and public opinion. Despite widespread opposition, the technology, which is in its infancy, is being favoured over far more sustainable technologies, which can provide the very same benefits. There is enough shale gas to keep us powered for decades, they say. But there is enough sun, water, wind and heat to keep us powered indefinitely.

Also posted on Redbrick.