On the 10th.of July, the Bank of England again concluded its monthly struggle with the interest rate decision, trying once more to reconcile this government’s controversial early decree that it is they the Bank of England and not our elected government who will be best able to make this judgement. . After all the Bank have only the ’single lever’ of interest rates to control inflation for which they have now been charged since Gordon Brown abdicated his responsibility. . . The underlying principal of interest rate policy is that if you keep interest rates above inflation nobody can make money out of simple inflation, as many did back in the 1970s and have again in the past boom. . The value of money (our savings) and equity is then protected.

It could be argued that inflation is just the corrective market mechanism ensuring that those who turn any purely ‘inflationary’ gains into cash, do not retain them. . The big City bonuses could also be well described as ‘inflationary’. . Is that why Harold Wilson and his chancellor James Callaghan chose devaluation in 1967 in the face of wage inflation I wonder, or was it just simply our chronic balance of payments deficit?. . Of course it only delayed things for Callaghan’s successor Roy Jenkins, and handed an inflationary bombshell to Edward Heath’s chancellor Iain MacLeod in 1970. . . Maybe if house prices had long ago been included in that ‘basket of items’ used to calculate that oft disputed figure, we wouldn’t be in this mess now. . . My advice? . Invest in ‘real’ things. . . A bag of potatoes will always be worth ‘a bag of potatoes’.

In the event, if house prices had been included in that original ‘basket’, interest rates may well have been coming down again at this time; so more reflecting this country’s current needs in the face of spiralling food and energy costs. . . History will almost certainly record that Gordon Brown did in fact ‘hoist his own petard’.

Charles Henry

I think we are talking at cross purposes ‘Errol’. . .

. . Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity)

A ‘must read’ for the thinking man.

NOT content with fouling up the marking of SATs exams, the Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, is embarking on a much more dangerous scheme.

He is planning to lay down strict conditions for the education of under-fives. Starting in September, there will be an exhaustive list of 69 goals to which all four-year-olds will be expected to aspire by the time they are five, along with 500 “development milestones” they will be expected to pass.

There will have to be continuous assessments by teachers and childminders. Four-year-old children will be expected to “understand what is wrong, what is right, and why". They will be expected to “understand that there need to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people to work together harmoniously".

Children as young as four will be encouraged, or even required, to write in sentences and use punctuation. Educationists, parents and teachers have protested about this manipulation of young children’s minds, so far to no avail.

They have accused Beverley Hughes, the Children’s Minister, of ignoring her advisers and ditching research that contradicted her policies. Her so-called concessions proved not to be concessions at all. Those of us who remember this woman when she was forced to resign over her handling of immigration are not surprised.

The dozens of educationists who have signed a letter of protest say that parents should have the right to choose how their pre-school children are cared for and educated. Young children have a right to be protected from an imposed, target-driven system which could harm their future development.

They are right. This crazy Dr Strangelove meddling in children’s lives must be stopped in its tracks.

WHEN it comes to ingenuity, you can’t fault Romanian fraudsters. One thief is believed to have made more than £1m by cloning cashpoint cards. He was so proud of his success that he photographed his nine-month-old son surrounded by a £40,000 mountain of stolen banknotes and sent it home to Romania to show how easy it was to make money out of the dumb British.

He was originally an illegal immigrant, but when Romania joined the EU, he came in legally with his wife and son. Cashpoint machines in Beverley and Willerby were just two of the treasure troves he plundered. He took more cash in Wakefield, Batley, Halifax and Dewsbury, usually from supermarkets without CCTV.

He was eventually caught only by chance when he produced a fake driving licence after being cautioned for speeding on the M62. He dressed in designer suits, had two new BMWs and had a taste for fine champagne.

He has been sentenced to five years in jail. Would anyone bet against him resuming his career when he comes out? One safe bet is that he won’t spend five years in jail.

A POLICE constable strangled by red tape cannot get on with the job of fighting crime. For a police sergeant, it is even worse.

A sergeant with more than 20 years’ service describes the unnecessary paperwork that keeps him off the streets for most of the time. A single action by one of his officers requires an entry on a Problem Management Form, a Ward Profile Form, an EPIC (Enforcement, Prevention, Intelligence, Communications) Form and a weekly Return of Work Form.

The Personal Development Review Form, a worthless and lengthy task, has to be completed twice a year. An officer reporting sick requires four pages. The Stop and Account Search Form takes 20 minutes to complete. He is unable to answer the phone, deal with an inquiry, and then get on with his work because he has to log details of the caller and the action taken, which can be a lengthy job.

Do you wonder that crime is thriving — unless you believe the Government’s statistics, which no one does.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A WEAK politician was once described as being like a cushion which bore the impression of the last person who sat on it. That is not a bad description of Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, who goes through life trying not to offend anybody. He doesn’t like making enemies.

The animal rights pressure groups spotted from the start that they could get their way with him, and he promptly caved in over bovine TB, which is a curse for Britain’s cattle herds.

No one really doubts that the major cause is TB-infected badgers. Until the 1980s, they were culled and TB in cattle was reduced dramatically. Then killing badgers was outlawed at the behest of the pressure groups, who said we must not be cruel to the cuddly little chaps. The fact that many of these groups were major donors to the Labour Party doubtless proved persuasive.

Disease in cattle is now at epidemic proportions and the bill for compensation has risen by 40 per cent this year alone to £2bn.

Hundreds of vets and veterinary scientists have called for a systematic cull, to no avail. Against the cuddly, sweet-faced badger, they don’t stand a chance. The fact that thousands of TB-infected badgers are dying in agony is ignored.

As I have remarked before, what a way to run to a country.

You see I am not alone in my thoughts ‘Errol’.

. . Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity)

Western Daily Press. . . . News

War was yesterday (23 July) declared on the Nimbys blamed for the rural housing crisis in a bid to keep the countryside alive.

The Government signalled it would stop villages dying by relaxing the planning rules that prevented new homes being built, especially at affordable prices. . cond. .

No one wants burgeoning housing estates destroying the landscape. . Particularly not the indigenous populations. . But what they do want is an end to the invasion of the countryside by groups of travelling interlopers, and due respect to be given to the aspirations and planning applications of the indigenous young people. . Destroying the ‘rural idyll’ to ‘get even’ with the ‘rich’, smacks of all the old bigotry of Labour ‘class war’ politicians

Charles Henry

This is a difficult problem with no easy solutions. Government has to take the initiative, but will it? If nothing is done then quite soon there will be few indigenous people left in the countryside. In some areas this has already happened. Most villages close to a town are in effect little more than suburbs at a distance as most people commute to work in the town. Probably a problem beyond the means or will of the present government to solve.

Chris Noble, Yeovil

There are many opportunities for ‘controlled’ extension of residential curtilages in most rural communities. . Country dwellers will tell you that ‘officious planning staff’ will immediately quote ‘Green Belt’ and ‘Village Boundary’ at every opportunity, often in a venomous way, determined no one will ever ‘profit’ from any new development. . . . Is it any wonder therefore, when Government make high-handed attempts to destroy large swathes of the countryside there is an outcry and immediate resistance?. . Put on top of that the anger felt because of their failure to deal with planning breaches by travelling interlopers, and you have a recipe for ‘Outrage’.

Charles Henry

. . . wot live out dere wiv aw dey bleedin’ cows !!?. . .

. . . . . no fank you ! . . . i’d sooner stay yer ! . . .

Each to his own ‘Errol’. . .

. . Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity)

The Editor
Letters
Western Daily Press

Dear Editor

The main difference in their approach to badgers and Mycobacteriun bovis, between the Welsh Assembly and the Westminster government is the deafening silence from Westminster about the obvious threat to children now it has become endemic in wildlife. . The so-called animal lovers (except for farmers’ cattle that is) choose always to totally ignore that threat.

Here is another quote from the Welsh incidence when a 4 yr.old child from Powys in Wales developed lesions which later burst. . “In the last 3/4 years, eight or nine children, not including this little one, have had treatment for enlarged neck glands. This has involved either a 6 month course of antibiotics, or operations to remove. Veterinary Surgeons will tell you these are classic m.bovis legions; but they are euphemistically referred to by ‘Doctors’ as “Atypical tuberculosis from a non human source". They have just been telling these children that they picked it up on the ground.”

Up to 300,000 Mycobacterium bovis bacilli have been measured in a single millilitre of badger urine.

The letter from the ’so-called’ Animal Welfare Consultant from Kent, John Bryant and those from David Thomas and M.Hughes in today’s paper are in my opinion ‘a disgrace to humanity’. . We all love animals but the human population must take precedence.

Yours

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press — OPINION 5th. July 2008

The great badger TB debate has taken another dramatic U-turn with the Government shying away from making a decision on the matter.

Flying in the face of a former chief scientific adviser’s recommendations that a cull could be an effective measure, the Government has made a dramatic statement over this issue. Unfortunately the statement is that it still does not know how to handle this situation.

This is because Ministers have instead accepted the scientific arguments of the Independent Scientific Group that culling badgers would not be economic.

Whether you support the idea of a cull or not, what is inescapable is that the Government has yet again flip-flopped over an important and pressing issue.

Ministers have a host of studies and tests at their fingertips on which to make a decision on how to proceed.

They may argue the many conflicting solutions is the reason for the delay as there is no clear cut way forward.

But situations like these call for clear and decisive leadership, which is severely lacking.

Cattle farmers are under enormous pressure because of the spread of TB and this delay will make matters worse.

The result will be frustrated farmers, some of whom will feel they have to take matters into their own hands and take care of the badgers themselves.

Although we cannot condone this action, it is a result of years of indecision from the Government.

At the moment the badger TB debate remains a problem unresolved, costing the industry millions.

So it is time decisions were made to sort out this mess.

Editor, . I now believe because of the intolerable inaction in the face the overwhelming evidence of the part that badgers play in the continual reinfection of the national cattle herd with Mycobacterium bovis; not only do farmers appear to have a Prima facie case against the government and their paid servants for damages, and also exemplary damages; any parent whose child now falls ill or has fallen ill as a result of badgers infecting their play areas, as was thought to be the case in Powys, South Wales in 2005, (and another reason why the Welsh Assembly have given instructions for a cull); will now be able to call for criminal charges to be brought against the government.

The thing the badger groups can’t accept is that we once conquered this problem by clearing badger setts and culling any reactor cattle. . The national herd was clear of disease and all herds in the UK were officially designated ‘Brucellosis Free’ in October 1985. . That is ‘all such pathogens’. . With anti-biotics, Streptomycin, the Tetracyclines and other drugs; we had beaten tuberculosis and all the sanatoriums had long been closed. . . Then some bright spark decided the risk from badgers was ‘now’ minimal. . With the explosion in the badger population we can all now see just how ‘minimal’ that was.

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . News

AFTER a decade of rule by a socialist Government, we might have expected a major move towards greater equality and a more just society. The evidence otherwise is overwhelming.

If you have had a skinful on a Saturday, and wisely left the car at home, you might still well be over the legal alcohol limit when you drive to work on Monday morning.

The penalties if caught are likely to be severe, even if no one comes to any harm. Likewise, if you are caught driving in excess of a speed limit which may well have been set by a politician who has been dead for 50 years. . . . But if you kill someone while cycling down a pavement, all you are likely to face is a simple fine.

If you are a property developer, and the site being developed is found to contain rare bats or crested newts, you could face major delays with any consequent cost borne by yourself.

If you are a farmer, and your livelihood is allegedly affected by another protected species, you will likely be demanding a generous amount of compensation.

The last statement is incorrect. Payment is not paid to farmers for any inconvenience caused by any protected species.

If you are single, or a childless couple, but run a “gas guzzler", you risk being financially penalised for the presumed long-term adverse effect on the environment.

But if you are profligate in raising children, you will be amply rewarded by the Government, despite the fact that the long-term effects on climate change will be infinitely greater.

The late great comedian Michael Bentine was right when he intimated that, in a crisis, the last person you would call for assistance would be a politician.

Anthony G Phillips, Salisbury, Wiltshire

STOP PRESS!! . . .We are being told on the Lunch Time News today (17th.July) that ‘RECORDED CRIME’ is at its ‘LOWEST FOR A GENERATION’. . Our prisons are overcrowded and bursting at the seams and prisoners are having to be released early. . We have to put alarms on our businesses and our homes. . We have alarms on our cars and must never leave anything visible when unattended. . Internet credit card crime and identity theft is soaring, and even our pets (horses and dogs) are no longer safe. . . Would someone please teach Avon and Somerset Police how to switch on their computers, or at least send them a pencil sharpener.

Charles Henry

GOOGLE CONDEMNED FOR BIG BROTHER-STYLE CAMERAS PATROLLING BRISTOL STREETS

Big Brother-style spy cameras, condemned as a “gross invasion of privacy", have been spotted in the West.

Shocked Bristol residents saw the black Google Street View car driving around city streets this week. . cond. .

It used to be called ‘Casing the joint’, but I can’t help feeling the ‘Spy in the Sky’ is a greater threat. . Maybe people will now wake up to the invasion of our privacy with all the CCTV cameras everywhere and the growing numbers of ‘Web Cams’. . . The young have long been being softened up with the ‘Big Brother’ TV show culture. . 1984 means nothing to them. . At least Google is just ‘one moment in time’. . But we don’t really know how much spying is really being done by ‘Big Brother’. . . Do we really all want to live in one giant glass bowl?. .

Charles Henry

The Somerset Standard July 17, 2008, has blazing headlines about a violent mass attack by ‘yobs’ on an entirely innocent grandfather in a quiet and select part of Frome.

From the nasty to the ludicrous, a second incident happened about the same time. On Tuesday midnight a bone-headed demolition of several council litter-bins, concreted into the ground took place; followed by chucking them into the river.

The sheer horror of the cowardly attack is atypical of Frome where friendliness and consideration are the norm. People are at a loss to know why such things can occur because they don’t recall it from their own youth. We know CCTV cameras are effective - remember Jamie Bulger. On one hand, we will hear calls for drastic punishment; on the other, moans about our ’surveillance society’. To condemn the use of technology to monitor our streets is, to say the least, short-sighted.

Jack Ancliffe, Frome

What is ’short sighted’ Jack, is the fact that because CCTV is rarely, and cannot realistically be monitored at all times; prosecutions only result “Well after the event.” . They give a false sense of security and merely “Record Crime". . Though it appears to still be lacking in the Police’s Records. . If we had the type of policing that I suspect both you and I both remember. . They would have known which doors to knock on long before and ‘nipped it in the bud’. .

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . Your Say/Letters

I Do enjoy my Western Daily Press, especially the Helen on Monday page. I have a good laugh at some of it, and there’s a lot of truth in her article on women bishops.

It is about time people realised the words of the Bible are God’s covenant or promise to man (sorry, I should say mankind). It was written and interpreted by man in a male-dominated world (they would not allow women to be educated) just to suit his frame of mind and his way of life.

If you take the creation story for example, God created woman to be a helpmate for man, as he said “it is not good for man to be alone", and never once does it quote that women should be a slave to man. Yes, it does say wives should be obedient to their husbands.

It is high time man tried to be and live like God instead of trying to outdo him.

All through the Bible, God has used the female of the species to provoke the man into his ways.

God is still doing so by calling the women to the priesthood to chivvy the men into following him, and if that means women priests and bishops as well, so be it.

Perhaps when our lovely men realise that it is God’s work to bring all people to himself, they will bring peace on Earth.

I am not a theologian or an academic, just a humble woman who tries to live by God’s rule.

B. Sutton, Cheddar

Your degree from ‘The University of Life’ Mrs.Sutton (if that is not being too presumptuous) is worth so much more than many of the accolades that are spread so liberally in academia these days. . There can be no greater wisdom to be had than that imparted by a good woman.

Having just read the drivel from Gill Purser of Cheltenham (page 15. Letters), It has to be said that there are clearly exceptions to this rule. . Anyone who wants Gordon Brown, ‘Master of Indebtedness’, or the Labour Party to remain in power after the next election, has to be ‘a few bob short of a quid’.

My reference is often shortened to M.D.(Master of Dept.) . This should in no way be confused with a ‘Doctor of Medicine’, though considering the escalating cost of the N.H.S., no doubt many will consider it should.

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . .Features/Letters

Finally, it looks to me that we’ve found a Food and Rural Affairs Secretary who takes notice of sound scientific evidence, and its conclusions based on decades of study, instead of hearsay, guesswork and country tales. . cond. .

M J Haines
Cirencester

M.J.Haines is mistaken as always. What we have in the Rural Affairs Secretary is a vegetarian with no experience whatsoever of the subject to which he was appointed as Minister, deciding he knows better than the Chief Scientist. . His comments further demonstrate how dangerous ignorance of this subject is being perpetuated by bigoted animal rights activists, who now somehow believe that badgers, the main reservoir species, have a greater right to life than the farm stock they infect that are regularly tested. . I am sure the courts will be taking note of this.

Charles Henry

BEING VEGAN IS THE ANSWER

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn’s decision not to authorise the mass slaughter of badgers in England is to be congratulated. It’s a victory for both common sense and science. cond. .

Justin Kerswell, Viva!, Bristol

Hilary Benn’s decision is both a denial of the science and a threat to the nation. . If unable to take the right decision because of their perceived concerns about the impact on their vote they should have resigned and called an election. . Ministers will now be fully culpable in the light of the Chief Scientists conclusions, together with the action taken by the Welsh Assembly to protect Welsh citizens.

Charles Henry

CANCEL MILK AND BEAT TB

How sick I am of hearing farmers banging on about badgers. cond. .

Boycott dairy foods and tell the farmers what to do with their milk, and to leave our wildlife alone.

Roy Franklin, Bridgwater

It is just this sort of moronic, inane ignorance; left over from the ‘them and us’ days when our motor industry was destroyed, that will finally destroy Gordon Brown and the Labour Party if he and they don’t soon distance themselves from it, and deal with this insidious threat to us all from Mycobacterium bovis in badgers.

Charles Henry

KILLING IS NOT THE ANSWER

I am concerned at the term “badger men". . Just who are they?. . cond. .

Pamela Dean, Stroud, Gloucestershire

A vaccine may yet still be decades away Pamela, and there is no guarantee one can be produced even. . There are still many diseases over which we have little control. We cannot keep sleepwalking into letting them take over as we have done with the likes of MRSA and C.dif, and now many of the venereal diseases are raising their heads again that we rarely heard of and have always assumed were things of the past. Not forgetting HIV. . This is real life. . People around the world are dying in their millions.

Charles Henry

It has to be said that it is perhaps time that instead of every time showing pictures of ‘cuddly’ badgers when this subject is broached, The Western Daily Press publishes pictures of young calves or a prize heifer maybe nibbling at a farmers ear. . We have enough problem with the BBC always treating badgers anthropomorphically. . I am sure there must be plenty of farmers’ wives and daughters with some delightful pictures readers would love to see. Perhaps you could offer a prize Editor. . . Best Charles.

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . . Letters

“We can only applaud the Government for standing up and saying no to a badger cull. Despite a huge amount of lobbying by the NFU and other political bodies, Hilary Benn has taken on board the sound science of the 10-year trial with final findings that “badger culling played no part in the control of bovine TB in cattle". . cond. .

“I have followed the bovine TB problem in cattle for 20 years, have a background of dairy farming and experienced a cattle TB outbreak in our herd. On being involved with badger rehabilitation, I have been a driving force in a testing regime in badgers, so please don’t call me a bunny-hugger.” . cond.

Pauline Kidner
Charity Founder
Secret World Wildlife Rescue

So Pauline Kidner ‘the dairy farmers’ worst nightmare’ has only been ‘at it’ for 20 years. . That explains it! . In October 1985 when the National herd was officially designated ‘Brucellosis Free’, what was she I wonder? . A spotty teenager plotting to get fur coats banned to put all the furriers out of business? . She obviously has no experience of the problems the nation suffered when TB was a constant threat to every family in the land and the sanatoriums were full. . There will be a price to pay for this lady’s obsession. . And I hope the first to suffer at the hands of the electorate will be Hilary Benn and Gordon Brown. . There is another election in Scotland soon. . They will know all about the ravages of tuberculosis in the slums of Glasgow East. Badger setts and overcrowded slums have a lot in common.

My Grandfather was a Scotsman Editor. . Alex Salmon is sure to know all about tuberculosis. . Mycobacterium bovis is a growing problem up there again. . He knows all about Labour’s duplicity.

Charles Henry

I’d be very interested to know what if anything Pauline thinks should be done about bovine TB in badgers.

Giles Bradshaw, Rose Ash

Yes Pauline you can say all those things. But you still do not understand the worry of it all. . No one loves animals more than me. The badgers have never really been sorted out. . Not what I would sort out anyway. I am nearly 70yrs old and was very poorly as a baby. I nearly did not make it. I cried for six months, until they found out what it was. By then I was skeletal and lost all my curly hair. I had spinal TB. I was put in plaster for eight years flat on my back. The treatment for all this was not very nice . Then came the big abscess which did not go very quickly. It was syringed out every day, with a huge needle, then one night it burst in bed. Two young nurses came to see and ran out screaming. What was a 9yr old child supposed to think of that? . This is just an insight into what happened all those years ago. I was told it was from the badgers. I still do what I can with animals. Although I am disabled I do what I can. . The Doctor gave me a bar of chocolate for being a good girl. . I can’t say any more as I want to write a book about it. . So don’t go telling people what to do, that goes for Mr Lawson as well. I have a very foreboding feeling about all this. Something has to be done, and soon. I would love to have gone to the meetings, but I don’t travel very well. Listen to Charles he is very good. . Regards Toots

Toots, Wells. Somerset

Western Daily Press. . . . NEWS

Farmers gathered today to protest against the Government’s decision not to go-ahead with a badger cull designed to tackle tuberculosis in cattle. Dozens of farmers descended on Westminster to complain about the move announced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) yesterday.

National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Peter Kendall said the decision was a “tragedy” and a “disgraceful abdication of political responsibility".

Mr Kendall said the NFU would mount a legal challenge and withdraw from any talks on cost and responsibility-sharing to try to reverse the Government’s decision. .cond. .

With the BBC; the Labour Government’s ‘not so secret’ weapon; giving interviews on Points West with Pauline Kidner of the ‘Secret World Wildlife Rescue’, allowing her to spout her usual anthropomorphic nonsense about ‘the science’, without making any mention or reference to the chief scientist Sir David King’s considered opinion that a badger cull was necessary if TB in cattle was ever to be controlled, shows clearly that farmers still have an uphill task ahead of them.

Of course with the BBC’s gravy train and their obscene salary structure at taxpayers expense, sailing sweetly along as the nation heads for even more financial turbulence; can the farming community really expect anything different from them?

Charles Henry

“‘SPINELESS’ MINISTER DUCKS BADGER CULL”

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn triggered a storm of protest when he finally confirmed he would not allow a cull of badgers to tackle bovine TB.

He was attacked by MPs from all sides, as he instead put his weight behind vaccination yesterday, pledging an extra £20 million for research in the next three years.

A drop in the ocean compared to the salary levels and extravagances of both the BBC and the Government.

Mr Benn was accused of being spineless, weak and gutless, and was warned farmers would react with anger and dismay. .cond. .

Editor, . It has already been shown that producing a usable vaccine for Mycobacterium bovis is an enormously complex task that scientists around the world have been struggling with now for many many years. . Research will tell the thoughtful that the efficacy of Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine against pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) varies enormously in different populations. The prevailing hypothesis attributes this variation to interactions between the vaccine and the very varied mycobacteria common in the environment, but the precise mechanism has so far not been clarified. . This is in humans! . Even before anyone begins to seriously try to find one for cattle or badgers. . . There is NO alternative to a Badger cull in the foreseeable future if we are to safeguard the human population. . A vaccine may still be decades away. . Sir David King the chief scientist,(retired) clearly did not come to the conclusion he did lightly. Some now believe that TB presents a much greater threat to mankind than even terrorism.

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . NEWS

Farmers are to launch their biggest anti-government protest in years over the Department of the Environment, Food, the Regions and Agriculture’s (Defra) refusal to cull TB-infected badgers.

Hundreds of farmers will descend on Westminster for a mass demonstration and to lobby MPs tomorrow.

And on Thursday, National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Peter Kendall and director-general Richard Macdonald will hold a series of meetings for farmers in the South West - the country’s worst TB hotspot. . cond. . .

Clearly these NFU henchmen are “sick and suffering". Perhaps they could be put down? The usual spoon-fed NFU news release obediently gobbled down by the WDP. It is NOT in ANY WAY true that ALL farmers are frothing at the mouth to kill badgers. As this militant organisation admits here, it will “rustle up” rent-a-gobs at any political opportunity. If only these people put the same energy into improving their husbandry as they do into lashing out at our - yes OUR - wildlife, we’d all perhaps be a little less cynical about this toddlerish tirade. If this paper wants to interview Gloucestershire farmers - including one who farms where the whole badger-to-cattle theory began - it need only contact me. Frankly the degree of noise and heat emanating from the NFU today will only be believed by those who don’t understand the degree to which farming is dominated by loud-mouthed land barons. The science shows this is overwhelmingly a cattle-to-cattle problem. It’s another of our great country traditions to revile badgers. Benn’s agreement to have a cull would be a surrender to that entrenched prejudice. I for one applaud his courage in the face of these brutal people.

Simon Hacker, Wotton-under-Edge, GLOS.

Well you’d know all about ‘Rent a Gob’ wouldn’t you Simon Hacker; and obviously not much else. . Your time is over. . Those who treat farmed livestock as lesser beings than nature’s pests and so deserving of less consideration, speak for no one except themselves. . .They should all perhaps be made to live in a desert starved out by locust.

He says, “If this paper wants to interview Gloucestershire farmers - including one who farms where the whole badger-to-cattle theory began.” It need only contact him!! . . Don’t tell me! . Your not the ones who discovered actinomycin, the prelim for the first antibiotic successfully used to treat M.tuberculosis; purified from Streptomyces griseus are you Simon?

Charles Henry

That’s enough of that ‘Errol’.

. . Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity)

Badgers suffer horrendously from TB. However the idea that the badger population will ever become TB free by culling more and more cattle is ludicrous. The badger population should be controlled so that overcrowding does not lead to these disease outbreaks. What is the argument for controlling a disease by slaughtering cattle and not badgers?

Giles Bradshaw, Rose Ash

No one really knows how badly Tb effects farmers lives until they are there witnessing it! . So until you are one of those people I don’t think you can make a fair decision on whether culling is the way forward. In the paper on Saturday somebody said that by not allowing the culling of badgers this will enable farmers to move forward and tackle the problem. How in the world this makes sense I don’t know. . The problem is the badgers and the disease they spread, and until something is done about that you can’t move forward!

Naomi, Wiltshire

The ‘public acceptance’ the government talks of is based on the propaganda the media (particularly the BBC) feeds to the urban populace, the teachers and school children. . ‘Brainwashing’ the children’ is the Marxist way. . It is the way North Korea works and the way Europe is trying to go.

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . . NEWS

First it was BSE, then foot-and-mouth disease, and lately bluetongue. But now farmers and rural communities in the West are suffering at the hands of burglars and thieves. . cond. .

Maybe Chief Justice Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers was wrong after all!. . He is quoted as saying: . . “It must be recognised, however, that any sanctions for a failure to comply with the agreed terms of mediation would be drawn from the laws of England and Wales,” . . He went to say severe physical punishments like flogging, stoning and cutting off hands would not be acceptable. . Of course he was talking about marital disputes, not the thieving bastards we have roaming around now.

Charles Henry

In May, the Badger Trust called for cattle to be tested for bovine TB before they went to agricultural shows.

Mr Rundle accused me of being a “ranting mouthpiece” making “ludicrous demands".

He said that there was “not a scintilla of scientific evidence” that cattle could infect one another with bovine TB at shows.

Yet cattle entries at shows are declining, year on year, and show organisers blame the fear of bovine TB. . cond.

Trevor Lawson
The Badger Trust

I believe is time people like Trevor Lawson, the Badger Trust and government ministers were brought before the courts to explain why their actions fly in the face of advice given by the Chief Scientist. (to cull badgers in certain areas and start removing the threat). . There is certainly now a case for them to be held personally responsible for their actions, and for farmers to be awarded punitive damages(exemplary damages). .

In England and Wales, exemplary damages are limited to the circumstances set out by Lord Patrick Devlin in the leading case of Rookes v. Barnard.[3] They are: . .

1. Oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional actions by the servants of government. .

2. Where the defendant’s conduct was ‘calculated’ to make a profit for himself. .

3. Where a statute expressly authorises the same. . . . . .

There can now be little doubt that these decisions are being taken to defend their own positions and their own causes to the detriment of others.

Charles Henry

You may have a point ‘Errol’. . .

. . Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity)

Western Daily Press. . . NEWS

The full extent of the explosion in the numbers of patients dying in West hospitals from superbugs caught in the wards was finally exposed yesterday.

From just a handful of deaths attributed to either MRSA or clostridium difficile in the early years of this decade, patients were dying in their hundreds by 2006. . cond. .

It appears that while the numbers of cases of patients contracting the likes of MRSA and c.diff may be falling in total, the number of deaths has rocketed in recent years.

Virtually ALL this government’s statistics are now worthless. . They can no longer be believed. . What is even more disturbing is the fact that in the face of almost daily reports of murder with knives and an explosion in internet and credit card crime, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown stood up in parliament yesterday and told us crime was DOWN by 30% since 1997. . Just as worrying was David Cameron’s and other MP’s failure to challenge this blatantly false claim.

Charles Henry

NHS CELEBRATES 60TH ANNIVERSARY

In 1948 Britain was recovering from World War II, food was rationed and the working classes went without medical treatment - relying instead on dubious and sometimes dangerous home remedies.

Many often hoped for the charity of a minority of doctors who gave their services free to their poorest patients while the wealthy paid for private consultations. . cond. .

The statement “relying instead on dubious and sometimes dangerous home remedies.” . . is a distortion of the truth. . Here is a quote from one Victor Painter 1906-2000. . Growing up in Kingsdown. . . ."Now at that time there was only one doctor for the whole of Box, Box Hill, Quarry Hill, Washwells, Henley, Kingsdown, Askley, Middlehill, Shockerwich, Alcomb, Sidderidge, also Colerne and every house and farm in between. Now this wonderful doctor brought every baby into the world that was born in these places including myself. Very few people ever went to a hospital because whatever trouble one had this wonderful doctor could put right. You could break your leg, arm or whatever and he would set whatever limb it was and you stayed home until it was all well. He would also pull out anybody’s teeth if you let him. He gave nothing for the pain. Very few children would ever let him know they had toothache, rather put up with it. Anyway he was wonderful, and turned out night and day on his horse. This doctor had several horses in his stables and a groom to look after them, and before the groom went home at night he would fix the doctor’s saddle up over the horse that was being used that night on a pulley. The doctor’s bags were always strapped to the saddle. So in the night when the doctor was called out he only had to pull a rope and the saddle came down on the horse’s back. He just had to girth up and put the bridle on and he was away crossing over fields, the nearest cut to wherever he was going. He always tied his horse up to someone’s gate, the nearest one, it didn’t matter whose it was. They say anyone that was really poor and most of the folk around were, then he never sent them a bill. I think he was rather rich himself, for when he went to Box first, long before my time, he had rather a large house built with a long drive, and big garden and lovely stables for his horses.”

Charles Henry

I’LL HAVE TO QUIT IF I CAN’T MAKE MONEY RUNNING MY LORRIES

Drivers accelerated their protests at soaring motoring taxes yesterday with a double-pronged attack on Gordon Brown.

The beleaguered Prime Minister was faced with two road rage rebellions as truckers set course for Westminster over fuel prices and MPs attacked vehicle excise duty (VED) increases. . cond. .

Why is it that the blatant EXPLOSION in STEALTH TAX with the rise of the cost of oil has not been exposed by all opposition MP’s? . Is it only the TRUCKERS that realise the higher our fuel bill rises, the greater the proportion of our income we pay in TAX?. . No wonder Tony Blair let the standard of numeracy in our schools fall so rapidly.

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . Features/Letters. Ist. July 2008

Keith Likeman’s letter “Elderly get a bad deal” (Your Say, June 23) is a gross understatement. Britain’s 12 million pensioners have simply not been regarded as having any worth to society whatsoever since the Thatcher government broke the state pensions link with national average earnings in 1980, 27 years ago.

This is a policy that New Labour have not reversed, nor that David Cameron has apologised for. The Liberal Democrats have not got the guts to stand up and be counted by saying that they will restore the link that kept state pensions increasing in line with British prosperity, or inflation, should they get elected to government at the next General Election.

The nationalisation of Northern Rock by this New Labour Government has proved it can find money when it wants to, but the Government constantly pleads poverty when it comes to increasing state pensions for our elderly people.

For more than two decades, pensioners’ NI contributions, taxes and sacrifices have been forgotten.

Pensioners are treated like second class citizens, having to rely on a meagre state pension and means-tested handouts following a 30, 40, and 50-year working life funding the system.

Our elderly people should be above party politics, but they are not. They are victims of apathy, caused by British complacency from the top down.

Our MPs must be challenged and reminded of the contributions retired people have made to this country, because they currently treat our elderly people as a nuisance, surplus to requirements and a burden to society as a whole, and they are getting away with it.

Link-Age/Countrywide, which I founded in 2000, is a non-party political pensions pressure group, calling for the UK state pension for single pensioners to be increased to £250 a week, with a relevant increase for couples.

We also want the abolition of the council tax, the abolition of taxing pensioners (because this generation has already spent a working life paying taxes) and the abolition of means testing.

For a free copy of the manifesto to send to your MP, ring 01803 857020 after 7pm and have a pen and paper at hand. Your phone call won’t last more than five minutes.

Michael Thompson
Founder, Link-Age/Countrywide

A line from the Two Ronnies, ‘Frost Report’ Michael. . “I look up to him because he is upper class, but I look down on him because he is lower class.” . Clearly all the MPs are now aspiring to join the Upper Class as the European Commissioners and MEPs already have done. . . I can understand how they might have once felt index-linking the state pension would be unsustainable, but to now be expecting the differential between ‘them and us’ to be so great has now become truly offensive; almost ‘Mugabe like’ I feel. . Wouldn’t you agree?

Charles Henry

Charles Henry, I well remember the Two Ronnies Sketch, and I do believe that our MP’s are career minded above everything else. They have no scruples to keep their seats in the House of Commons. But unaffordability in state pension is a myth when we can send billions round the world at the flick of a pen, while having our elderly people live on a £90 a week state pension, with means tested handouts costing the tax payers 10 times more than the restoration of the earnings link would cost, ( hansard ) And I do agree that our rich and poor devide is no truly offensivce, all thanks to dear old Margaret Thatcher setting the ball rolling in 1979 when she cut the link with earnings. Michael Thompson Founder Link-Age/Countrywide, and member of The Devon Pensioners Action Forum

Michael Thompson, Brixham-Devon

Yes of course, dear Margaret; if only she had realised. . But if people had listened to her ‘NO NO NO’s’, after returning our country to solvency, we might not have wasted the £billions we have keeping French farmers, Spanish olive growers and European civil servants in luxury. And we might also have had the maligned ‘Poll Tax’ which meant everyone paid a fair share, was intended to only be about £100.00, and would have kept politicians accountable to the voters for any extravagancies.

Charles Henry

Charles Henry, The poll tax was an unjust tax because it was not based on ability to pay, and we still have it as the council tax, as we still have all of Margaret Thatcher’s policies under New Labour. Including much less money going to local authorities UK wide, which is why Council Tax is increasing, because the poll tax/council tax was meant to be a replacement for income tax increases to fund local communities UK wide, ie devolving local communities by stealth from central government funding, and this has been part of the reason for our ever widening rich and poor divide. The other facts are that this Government are spending 10 times more of income tax payers money means testing pensioners than it would cost to restore the link with earnings, plus the Government have an NI “surplus” around £40 billion. Michael Thompson Link-Age/Countrywide & member of The Devon Pensioners Action Forum.

Michael Thompson, Brixham-Devon

You do yourself a great disservice Michael. I assume you have never been on the ’supply side’ of the economy actually creating wealth. . Your cause is a good one, but your reasoning has large gaps. . The original concept of the Poll Tax, before it was destroyed and put into disrepute by civil servants and bureaucracy, was supposed to be a relatively low charge for the basic council services, like emptying our dustbins, shared equally with those of working age. It would have meant and end to the prolific waste of taxpayers’ money as there has been for the last 10 or 12 years. . We have a tax system to pay for all the other things that are the government’s remit, all the health and welfare items that have been dumped onto council budgets. It is called Income Tax. . The ‘Rates’ or Council Tax as it is now called was never supposed to be funding the great swathe of things it is now expected to.

Charles Henry

Western Daily Press. . . News

The parents of missing Madeleine McCann will “never give up searching for their daughter” despite reports that police in Portugal are dropping their investigation, their spokesman said today.

Kate and Gerry McCann, who are official suspects in the case, were awaiting official confirmation of Portuguese media reports that detectives are to end the case due to lack of evidence.

The McCanns’ spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, called for their arguido status to be lifted but urged police not to leave the investigation files to “gather dust".

He said: “I still haven’t got this officially yet. We are aware of reports in the Portuguese press this morning suggesting that the case is to be dropped or archived without charges to Kate and Gerry.

“The information in their files surely cannot sit on the shelf gathering dust. Kate and Gerry will never give up searching for their daughter.

“I’m not going to criticise the Portuguese police at this stage. We still have to work with them.”

He said that if the inquiry is to be discontinued, then police files should be handed over to the McCanns’ ongoing private investigation and that the search would continue.

I am sorry, but if I were Gerry or Kate McCann I would be looking to sue the Portuguese Police for defamation of character. . There is no evidence, nor has there ever been any evidence of their involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance. . If the police had got their asses into gear a bit quicker and closed the borders, Madeleine’s and her parent’s nightmare may have been over by now. . Too often these days, police everywhere are just ‘pointing the finger’ without evidence, leaving people with their names and reputations in tatters and irrevocably tarnished. . . Not only that, government is now also trying to do away with ‘The Great Writ’, Habeas corpus, that can demand that a prisoner be brought before the court, together with proof of authority, allowing the court to determine whether that custodian has lawful authority to hold that person, or, if not, the person should be released from custody. . David Davis is fighting for the rights and freedoms of all of us. . He should be supported by everyone no matter what their usual political persuasion is.

Charles Henry