Life and Death in Badger World.... And the General Election

Hello Betty Fans. 
Today we met  Sue Hayman outside Defra Nobel House. She is a Huwoman MP, but more importantly, she is the Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.  That means she keeps an eye on Theresa Villiers and George Eustice;  more of him later.... Anyway Sue Hayman likes Badgers and she wants the Kill-Cull to stop.  She had her picture taken with me so she will be famous now,,,  I told her that Defra had killed 130,000 Badgers and said I would help her in any way I could to stop the killing.  Here is a picture of her so you can see what she looks like:

The Hupeople are having a General Election soon. That means you vote and decide who runs the country and makes the rules.   Mary says that you have a democracy but that is not the same as a referendum.  In a referendum the result can be ignored, like the vote for Brexit, whereas in a democracy in the UK even if one party doesn't get most of the votes they can still run the country.  I find it very confusing.   Life is much simpler for Badgers, except we are hated and get shot. 

Sue Hayman is a Labour MP. Mary says that if we want to stop the Badger Kill-Cull then we have to vote Labour .  Mary is normally a floating voter but she is very clear who has to win to save the lives of Badgers, Foxes and other wildlife the Conservatories enjoy killing. 

I have more good news.  I have decided to have some more Cubs and Bertie Badger has been helping me.  I know I am quite old to be a mother again but we Badgers have to do something to replace the 130,000 Badgers the Conservatory Government has killed.  And a Badger has needs....So I am having a bit of a fling with Bertie and were are both enjoying the slap and tickle.  You might remember Bertie from the pictures of us having an intimate meal outside outside Defra in Marsham Street.  We were eating the world cake together left on the table by Extinction Rebellion when they were protesting.  Here we are whispering sweet nothings and eating cake.

I have even more good news. In some areas the Badger Kill-cull has come to an end for this year and Badger families in those areas can breathe a sigh of relief and  quietly mourn their lost loved ones.   However in three areas in Somerset, Gloucestershire and North Dorset the killing continues and will continue until 64,400 badgers die this Autumn. It breaks my heart.  Even worse, Mary showed me a picture of some Badgers after they had been shot.  They were bagged, binned an burned.  Mary's eyes leaked again when she saw this very sad picture of my friends in bags:

Mary has asked Defra if those Badgers were tested for Bovine TB before they were burned.  We are waiting for their reply.  I think they burned the bodies quickly to prevent testing because so few of them will have had TB.  Last time they tested Badger bodies in a High Risk area, fewer than 3% of Badgers had TB which they probably caught from Cow slurry and there is no evidence that Badgers spread TB to Cows.  

Last Thursday we all got very very wet.  Bob the security man told us to go home or we would catch our Death... but we didn't go home and I don't know if we caught Death because I don't know what Death looks other than bullet holes and I don't think rain gives you those.  Mary squeezed the Cubs out as if they were wet washing.  We were all so heavy with rain that Mary could hardly carry us up the 80 steps at Finsbury Park and the other 85 steps at her home station.  We thought she would have a heart attack.  Her red Betty Bag leaked all over the train- it was like a river running down the carriage. When we got in Mary had hot shower and we all went in the washing machine and dried out on the radiators (again!) .  We are all lovely and clean now and smell of Lavender.  One of our fans at Defra today said how sparkling clean we looked.  

In the many years me and Mary have been fighting the Badger Kill-Cull we have never brought politics into the issue.  This shouldn't be a matter of politics but a matter of science and compassion.  We have always been courteous in our dealings with politicians and visited the Conservatory Party Conference 4 times where we have  been polite and friendly.  But having seen George Eustice in action in Parliamentary debates, distorting statistics and bringing in back benchers to win votes, completely ignoring the facts given by other political parties we think it is time to take sides with the politicians who might stop the killing.  So here I am with a new sign.

Mary and I are on the third year of our Defra vigil together.  She really needs a new Betty Bag, which will be our third.   We always buy the same one because it is very light so she can carry me and lots of cubs.  But Mary is refusing to buy a third bag even though it is full of holes because it might suggest that she believes the Kill-Cull will go ahead next year and she will need to come to Defra with me for yet another year.  That feels like defeatism.  Here is me in the Betty Bag in better days..

The nights are beginning to get cold now so we cleared out our setts and filled them with new dry grass to keep us snug thought the winter.  When Mary wasn't looking I stole some of the Chickens' straw as it was lovely and dry. I have put extra layers to keep my home even more cosy than ever in case we have the patter of tiny paws in a few months. On which subject, I had better get back to Bertie. We have work to do.... 

Night Night!

Betty ⇹⇩🐾🐾🐾🐾