Betty has a big secret!

Hello Hupeople! 

Betty Badger here.  I didn't get to Downing Street after all because when I  popped along to DEFRA for a quick visit I discovered that Mr Gove was working and not on his holidays.  And there was so much going on! 

The first exciting thing was that a bunch of Huwomen from a group called 38 Degrees were delivering Mr Gove a huge painted plastic bottle to thank him for agreeing to bring in a deposit scheme on plastic bottles.  When I saw him later and he said hello we had a quick chat and I congratulated him on the bottle deposit thing which will, apparently, save the world.  I am sure it will be very complicated to administer; he is probably hoping that the Labour Party will get in before he has to do that, then they will look silly when if it goes wrong.  Here is Mr Gove having what is called "a photo opportunity"




Do you notice Mr Gove is not as smart as usual.  He was wearing his country clothes with his brown trousers.. probably getting ready to go down to his place in Surrey for the Easter Holidays.

As the 38 Degrees Huwomen were leaving we spoke about the Badger Kill and I asked them to make getting rid of the Badger Kill Cull their next mission.  They seemed very sympathetic.

I have a BIG SECRET to share with you.  I have heard through the grapevine that Mr Gove has on his desk a picture- not of his wife or his family, or of Mrs May, but of a Badger!  I wonder if it is a picture of me Betty Badger!!!  I think that, perhaps, he really loves Badgers and he likes to remember us.  However, when I am feeling sad, I believe that the DEFRA staff who hate badgers have instructed him to stare at the badger picture for a minute every hour and chant, "I hate Badgers, Badgers are Evil, Badgers spread disease.." over and over again to brainwash himself. 

Mr Gove had lots of meetings but eventually he came down to his shiny car and I asked him to focus now on ending the Badger Kill.  I do wonder if he listens.

Here is a picture I took on the way from Pimlico  today just to remind you that Spring is coming:  

After Mr Gove left along came a Huwoman with short dark hair, who looked like she had been eating lemons, like the lady last week, and she shouted "Cattle are Innocent". But she wouldn't talk to me about the issues and ran off in through the DEFRA door.  She did break the rules and "Engage with the Badger" but not in a way that would help her to learn the truth.

Another exciting thing happened when yet another Huwoman came and spoke to me and I noticed that we were wearing the dame scarf.  She said she got hers in Monsoon which Is a posh shop but I think Mary got mine in M&S sale.  I complimented her on her excellent taste.  She was also lovely and kind. 

Here is me in my scarf:

Something else really important happened this week.  Mary took me to a meeting of her Badger Group.   Mary didn't cry this time because the speaker had some good and optimistic News. (Mary does cry a lot- she is soft hearted) He was Professor Malcolm Bennett of Nottingham University who has been carrying out DEFRA funded research on dead Badgers and Cows. His research has shown that the movement of Cattle from areas with TB, such as The West Country, into TB free areas such as Derbyshire causes the spread of TB to Cattle to those areas !  Even a badger could work that out and we are not very bright.  So in Derbyshire they have found TB in Cattle but NOT in Badgers.  Of course, we Badgers might get it off the Cows and then get blamed for spreading it to Cattle and then they will kill us. However, science is on the Badgers' side.  The type of TB in Derbyshire Cows has been shown to come from The West Country so, unless Badgers can fly across the country they cannot blame us. 

The same thing happened when Cows came over from Ireland to Scotland- they brought Irish TB with them,  Even Irish Badgers cannot swim across the sea....

Mary has been spent much of the day at her computer filling in DEFRA forms replying to Defra consultations about killing Badgers in lots more areas such as Berkshire and Hertfordshire where there is a very low risk of TB.  I found her very boring today but I know she is doing important work, so I went out to play with the cubs who are getting very big.  The sun came out and we enjoyed  watching the buds beginning to burst.  If you sit still for long enough and are very quiet you can see and hear them open.  Horse Chestnut trees are especially noisy with their sticky buds.  This is a Horse Chestnut tree I met today.

Time to go now.  I will go down to DEFRA again on Thursday and try to talk to Mr Gove about the new research.  Wish me luck.

Night Night,

🐾🐾  Betty