Useless

Badger cull called off in Gloucestershire

Many of the celebrations around the calling off of the badger cull in Gloucestershire come from those who would cheer any minor success for wildlife against the human oppressors.

But the big lesson here is that we should never be surprised when confronted by the surpassing incompetence of the landowning and land-managing classes. It is truly a case of 'you couldn't make it up' except that we did, or at least predicted it. So many farmers' leaders and spokesmen just don't understand the need to show humility in the face of the natural world - to them they are 'the people who understand the countryside'. The evidence does not confirm that. They have learned to define themselves as a class born to exploit nature rather than live alongside it. The aristos and their new money allies in the shooting fraternity see themselves as having a god given right to shoot all that moves. Defra and Natural England have shown themselves to be institutionally useless, places where the wise heads have to stay quiet while the bungling top layers of bureaucracy flounder around trying to satisfy vested interests. Will they learn? Will my premium bond come up?