Now it Begins

The badger cull is about to start and you don't need to look far in the media to find polarised attitudes and entrenched views slugging it out.

To my knowledge I've never listened to Brian May's music but I'm tempted to agree that there's been something of a campaign to discredit the RSPCA. To say the charity has become politicised is of course a political act itself. You just have to look at the people who are saying it.

But I have a modest proposal. Farmers and landowners stick together and are very well versed in singing from the same sheet. Let's see them working together on this. TB is a problem in the west country not the eastern side of England. Farmers should swap their businesses, and maybe their land. Grow arable in the west and livestock in the east. I already know the main arguments that would be made against but if they're really bothered the problems can be overcome. They get enough from the state via farm subsidies to be able to fund the changes.  And leave the wildlife alone. And remember, farmers themselves cause more farm animals to die than TB or badgers. To extend Shakespeare's Touchstone they not only get their living by the copulation of cattle but also by their slaughter.