Betty Does Democracy

Hello Betty Badger Fans,
This week I saw Democracy in action and I was not very impressed.  Me and Mary went to the Parlyment and here is a picture of one of their chairs to prove it:

Last week I told you that Chris Williamson had arranged a Debate so me and Mary and her Chums went to London to protest and have speeches and a vigil while we waited for the Debate to start.  Here we are with Dominic Dyer who is in charge of The Badger Trust and likes to give speeches.  

And here are some of my friends.  It was good to meet them again.

We had some moving speeches from Dominic, the MP Chris Williamson and a surprise visitor called John McDonnell.  He is from the Labour Party and involved in something called Momentum.  He is Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.  I have no idea what that means except that if all the Hupeople vote for Labour and they take over running the country then he will be very powerful and a good friend to have.  He likes Badgers and thinks the Kill-Cull is wrong and if Labour gets in he will stop the Kill-Cull immediately.  I know that not everyone likes him but we Badgers have a good sense of smell and we can sniff out bad Humen. He seemed very kind and I want to be his friend.

I wish I could vote but Badgers can't vote so I will tell all my Hupeople friends to vote Labour.     

A famous Vet whose name I don't remember gave an impassioned speech about the reality of the Badger Kill-Cull.  What was very interesting to me is that a lot more Deer than Badgers have TB yet they are killing us and not Deer.  This doesn't make any sense at all.  

Also DEFRA is making money by selling the slaughtered TB Cows and these are going into the Food Chain, especially for Pets.  If they are not properly cooked then the Cats and Dogs- and Hupeople-  will get TB from the Cow meat. That is how the Kimblewick Hunt Dogs got TB which they are spreading around six counties. Hupeople who feed raw meat to their Cats, such as those big Bengal Cats, may catch TB from them.   Strange how Hupeople are not talking about this.

I forgot to mention that Mary was feeling very unwell on Tuesday .  I tried to stop her going to London but she is very stubborn where saving Badgers is concerned.  So while her Chums went to the pub, we curled up on the steps under the statue of King George 5th in Old Palace Yard and fell asleep for a couple of hours.  We felt very safe being protected by a King:

We were not moved on by the police.  Perhaps they were worried about catching TB or maybe they thought we were Street Theatre.  I know that lots of tourists took our picture.  Eventually we were woken up by a man giving a tour called "Palaces of London".  He was very noisy.

Then it was getting close to the time for the Debate.  The Security Hupeople had said earlier that Mary could wear a Badger suit, without the head, in protest but when we came back they wouldn't let her as there had been "a change of Policy".  Here she is when they made her take her head off:

Nor was she allowed to wear her Stop the Cull T-shirt.  Here she is wearing it.

At this point she started taking all her tops off and showed the police officer her underwear but then remembered that she had another top to wear so we were all spared our blushes.  It was very funny.

And nor was Mary allowed to bring me in to see the Debate but Mary hid me and one of the older Cubs in her bag;  Here we are climbing inside.

Lovely Nikki, who does so much for Badger Folk, went with Mary into the ancient Westminster Hall.  Then a young Huwoman showed us to the Debate room.  She must have been new because she showed us into a room where there was a reception being held with the Albanian Ambassador and all sorts of Important Hupeople from the tourism industry. We were offered wine and tea and food:  Mary took a picture of the food:  

And her friend Nikki with her free wine 

The MP who was there asked Mary what her interest in Albania was.  She said she was here for the Badgers and that confused him a bit.... 

The Albanian Hupeople said that Albania was lovely like Greece or Spain but cheaper.  I think Mary might go there for her next holiday, once she has stopped the Kill-Cull.

Finally the Debate started.  This is how Democracy worked.  It was so very sad to see only five Hupeople in the big room to discuss killing us Badgers and one of them left after a while. Chris Williamson MP is very clever and articulate and spoke about how unscientific, expensive and cruel the Kill-Cull is.  He said how Badgers can suffer for five minutes before they die when shot.  He said killing Badgers has already cost £50 Million, money that could be used to make difference to Farmers. He said that 70,000 Badgers will be killed by the end of this year and may be wiped out of areas where we have lived since the Ice Age. He said how Cattle movements cause the spread of bovine TB, not Badgers, and that important Experts such as the Zoological Society say that vaccinating is a better option.  Another Labour MP supported him and a Human from the Scottish Nationalists.  

Then the Farming Minster Mr Eustice got up and spoke.

He told lots of half-truths and twisted statistics so it looked as if killing Badgers was helping stop TB which the experts agree is not true.   Mary had to stop me leaping out of her bag to go and bite him and had to restrain Nikki from shouting at him.  It is so wicked that he didn't tell the truth.  

By this time there were 3 Hupeople against the Kill-Cull and Mr Eustice for it, so I thought "This is Democracy so the 3 Hupeople will win".  But just before the end of the Debate three Conservatories walked in and sat behind Mr Eustice just so he could win the vote.  They had not heard the Debate nor taken any part in it.  All the words are in this link to Hansard which is a Human who copies down all the words  said in Parlyment:

Debate on Badger Cull

Mary is very downhearted and has lost all faith in Politics.  If we can draw anything even slightly positive from the Debate it is that Mr Eustice spoke about the eventual "Exit Strategy"  which suggests that killing Badgers will stop one day. But Betty Badger will have met the Great Badger in the Sky long before then I think.

Mary took to her bed in despair and illness, only getting up to go to DEFRA on Thursday for a couple of hours, because she has to.  This is Mary's bed:

But there is good news.  Mary is feeling a lot better now and also, yesterday she got her metal box on wheels back after 2 weeks.  She said not being able to drive was like not having legs, especially as we live in the Country and there are no shops or transport.  I was worried about her and her cats starving. 

I said she should focus on the positive such as how the taxi drivers got lots of money, and her friends Pauline, Nikki & Charlie and ex-mates Larry and Richard helped her out by giving her lifts.  And, better still, she did grocery shopping online for the first time and a lovely young Human called Stephen in a big green metal box on wheels covered in apples brought us loads of food yesterday. The two of us had a little party. 

Thank you for reading my story about Democracy and thank you to all those Hupeople whose Pictures I used, especially Badger Heather, another amazing Huwoman. 

Night Night,

Betty  🐾🐾🐾