Badger Bash

Now that Rupert Murdoch has gone home with egg, if not shaving foam, all over his face, it's time to ask why the BBC is so cosy with the National Farmers Union (NFU). Is it because BBC directors own farms? Is it some forelock tugging toward the royal family? Whatever the reason, the BBC seems unable to be objective or scientific about badger culling. Before Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman addressed the House yesterday, BBC News was trumpeting "Government 'to back badger cull for South West'" (CLICK). Later, it reported "There will be no culling of badgers in England this year to curb cattle tuberculosis" (CLICK). Curb? There is no evidence that killing badgers will curb anything. The NFU's headline is "Industry's sigh of relief at progress on bTB" (CLICK). Progress? The prospect of pointless slaughter is progress? Ireland has virtually exterminated badgers, but it has a higher incidence of bovine TB than we have. Badgers are sedentary. Some of their sets date back to the Middle Ages. Cattle are moved up and down the country. Ergo, it is cattle that spread TB, not badgers. But the NFU needs its scapegoat and Government and the BBC suck up to this powerful lobby. The BBC's latest ploy, shown on its News and on Countryfile, is to have some nice farmer say how much he likes badgers, "but something's got to be done". That is devious propaganda from the Badger Bashing Corporation. Click the title link for more BBC propaganda: "Are we silly to be so sentimental?"