Stand by for a badger-war with England

Badger-lovers seem determined to turn into an international issue the cull of badgers proposed by Welsh minister Elin Jones in order to curb bovine TB.

If Plaid Cymru tried to play off Cardiff against London in order to gain a political or policy point, you can imagine the rumpus which would result from London unionists and their “rwy’n eisiau bod yn Sais” friends in Wales.

Yet the Badger Trust, the self-pronounced friend of badgers, is playing exactly that line in their current moves to force Wales to follow England and abandon all plans for a cull.

Of course, to the trust, with its bases in Britain’s richest suburbs near London and around the Midlands, it must seem almost an (unadmitted) nationalistic battle. When the English rural ministry (Defra) launched a consultation on the issue about two years ago, the responses came OVERWHELMINGLY from the South East and the South West – England’s areas of opulence, where live the upper middle classes who once ruled the world and now have only Wales to concern themselves with.

Of the total responses, an incredible 24pc came south east England, and 25pc from the south west. The government’s own figures show that a pressure group had been solidly at work – in some English regions, no less than 99pc of responses were opposed to a badger cull.

One must congratulate East Grinstead-based trust on its hard work in its own region.

But, as with all pressure groups, one must examine closely what they say. They always cry out that they base their views of “science”. But “science” is never that simple.

And the group is adept at changing facts to accord with its policy. In a release just out aimed at Elin Jones, it uses a headline which is contracted in the official London government report on which it is based.

The heading said baldly, “Badger culling not possible.” The government document is totally different on page 6 – “If a cull of badgers is required, the following methods of killing badgers have potential for further consideration: a, the use of CO to fumigate sets; b, shooting of free-running badgers; and c, restraint followed by shooting.”

Elsewhere, the trust often insinuates that farming practices and restocking after the foot-and-mouth outbreak with beasts from much affected south west England are to blame – rather than your dear badger. Yet Defra official advice has for long centred on “measures aimed at keeping cattle and badgers apart”.

The Badger Trust has indeed for some time been getting itself into a mess in its opposition to the democratically-ordained forthcoming cull of badgers in parts of Wales. It also fails to realise the antipathy which can exist between its East Grinstead core area – where farmers are decidedly inferior to commuters taking the half-hourly electric train to Victoria.

The trust has consistently failed to realise that devolution has arrived. And that Miss Jones is one of its toughest proponents. Last month, the trust proclaimed that the rural affairs minister had “confirmed” that she had NOT decided to go ahead with a cull.

I can quite understand how a press officer based in the Midlands can’t really be bothered to attend a plenary session in faraway Cardiff to check on what was really said and – just as important – the tone of delivery, to judge the seriousness of the threat.

Clearly Miss Jones is a country hick who doesn’t even speak with a Surrey burr.

Well, let us tell London’s outer suburbs that Ms Jones, Welsh farmers, Cardiff vets and civil servants have already considered the various methods. And the final decisions will be made with the help of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The RSPCA in Wales is part of one of the Welsh expert groups deciding the way forward, concentrating on how to handle the killing fields….

Having made themselves fools on “facts”, and a monkey over “science” – which is surely defined as those titbits from a complicated situation which will appeal to the trust’s own members…

And now the trust is fooling around with the UK’s constitution, making the issue as political and nationalistic as is possible.

No doubt, in the eyes of most in East Grinstead and the Midlands – where the press officers is based – no real need exists for a Welsh Assembly. And in any case – in truly colonialistic mood – the natives when they get restive can be overruled by higher authority.

That is where parliamentary statements of opinion come in. I detect the hand of Lorraine Barrett (Labour, Cardiff South and Penarth) in the Statement of Opinion tabled in Cardiff – with a similar Early Day Motion tabled in London three days later. Cardiff’s has attracted six names (four Labour, and one each of Lib Dems and People’s Voice).

The trust blundered by turning the cull into an international issue. Seven Welsh Labour MPs (the inclusion of Alun Michael, the charter Assembly First Secretary is no surprise, as Mrs Barrett was for years his constituency assistant) has called on Ms Jones to “set aside her intention”.

Now, if Miss Jones had been Labour, this sort of pressure might have worked. But she’s Plaid. The Ceredigion AM will never be heard obviously undermining the Union. But her quiet words conceal a tight intention to ensure that the few powers handed to Wales are worked to their limit.

If you want to start an international war, Miss Jones will happily oblige. Some Plaid people might indeed look for a way out. But Ms Jones can easily see through the dodgy science (the “scientific evidence-based approach” which the trust demands, as long as it is East Grinstead science); she’s of farming stock, and therefore knows of the bTB troubles at closer hand than does either East Grinstead or the Midlands; and she’s entirely happy to be at the head of the first battle between Cardiff and London which attracts the headlines.

Perhaps East Grinstead is at last realising that international aspects exist to this row. Until last week, all the trust’s press releases contained merely a non-geographical phone number (in the Midlands, in fact).

But this week’s has changed. Another mobile number is given in addition – and it’s Cardiff based. The Cardiff man speaks on behalf of Badger Trust Cymru.

But don’t be fooled by that Welsh word. Most “Welsh” organisation fielding that suffix are no more than Welsh-based voices for English-centred organisations which have no knowledge of Wales. Their only aim is to ensure that Wales continues to do the same as England – as always.