It could not have happened 20 years ago.
The first meeting of what is now the British-Irish Assembly was harangued by both sides at their first meeting in London in 1990. Irish Republicans said that cooperation was impossible with their traditional oppressors. Conservatives were equally vitriolic at people they saw as murderers.
Today in Cavan in the Republic, not far from the Ulster border, The Supremo of the Republic's Garda and the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland shared a platform. The audience was made up of British MPs, members of the Northern Ireland Assembly including Ulster Unionists, DUP and Sinn Fein and members of all parties in Dail Eireann.
The talk was about co-operation across the border. The atmosphere was tolerant, respectful and practical Policing throughout the Island of Ireland is now working against criminals not separating warring communities.
Happily, 20 years is a long time in politics.
Grave politics
The things politicians have to do.
"Five?" I asked in astonishment. A member of Dail Eireann told me "Of course, you don't have to do this in your country? But, yes, I attended five funerals on Saturday, four on Friday. It's expected".
I recall the late Councillor Jim Kirkwood from Caerleon telling me that a voter told him he was not voting for him, because he did not attend his brother's funeral. "Sorry" said Jim, "Did I know your brother"? 'No you didn't but the Independent Councillor was there. "Did he know your brother?". "No, he didn't.'.
It altered Jim Kirkwood's life. After that, he attended every funeral he heard about. He never lost his seat and serve Caerleon for forty years.
Badgered
Will they listen?
Another authoritative challenge to the Welsh Assembly's planned slaughter of badgers comes today.
Dr Chris Cheeseman has asked for a re-think. He said the decision "flies in the face of the science" and could make bovine TB worse.
Dr Cheeseman is the retired head of wildlife diseases research at the Central Science Laboratory. The ten year Krebs inquiry slaughtered thousands of badgers and concluded that evidence indicated badgers would move out of the area and settle elsewhere, potentially taking the infection with them.
Sadly sound science comes second to giving in to farmers' demands.
P.S.
A sketchwriter sent me a text today. As a post script he said that 10 Downing Street had sent his newsroom a message,' If you don't stop going on about bullying at No 10, we'll come across and smack you in the mouth.'
The supposed bullying story whipped up by the supposed anti-bullying hotline has been one of the funniest stories to follow in years.
3 or 4 calls from prime ministers office
become 3 or 4 emails
2 from the deputy pms office, none involving brown in any way and to the best of her knowledge may not have been taken any further but denials of bullying so incensed her she felt the need to contact the bbc to say something that may or may not be true and may or may not be relevant.
Even as the sponsors put as much space between her, her lead generating charitable hotline and themselves, the Mrs Pratt still seemingly blissfully unaware of the complete fool she is making of herself starts criticising at least one of the erstwhile sponsors for not having been sufficiently involved.
"Appointing her as a patron was with hindsight a mistake." said Mrs Pratt.
How long do you think before someone points out to her precisely who it is who is coming out very badly from this whole sorry tale.
Posted by: HuwOS | February 22, 2010 at 07:28 PM
The Krebs experiment gassed , snared ,and slaughtered Thousands of Badgers over a Ten year period at a cost to the British taxpayer of over £50 Million pounds.
At the end of the trial which was chaired by Professor John Bourne the Independant Scientific Group concluded;
"In summary, the ISG conclude that neither the proactive or reactive culling of badgers can be recommended as a means of controlling bTB in cattle. Reactive culling, where badgers were trapped on and around farms where TB outbreaks had occurred, led to an overall increase in cattle TB of approximately 26%. Proactive culling, where the strategy was to trap as many badgers as possible annually in cattle TB hot-spots, resulted in a 23% reduction in cattle TB in the core of the culled area, while there was an increase of similar magnitude on the edge, thus negating any potential benefits over the time and scale of the study. These somewhat counter-intuitive negative effects of culling were explained by what has been termed the ‘perturbation effect’ , which is simply the disruption of the stable social structure typically found in undisturbed badger populations, leading to increased movement and enhanced contact, both between badgers and cattle. Indeed, it is entirely plausible that past culling policies have exacerbated the spread of bTB."
In the seperate case in Ireland the end result was an increase in TB following their own massacre.
The forthcoming cull by Elin Jones only makes sense to the NFU, the vets , and to her own stupid Assembly.
What a great time of year to do it as well.
Badgers will be giving birth between late winter and early spring to then be gassed, snared , or whatever.
What's unique about our present government is that it conducts expensive experiments, employs expensive scientific advisors only to either sack the messenger and ignore the message or both.
SHAME ON THE WELSH ASSEMBLY!
Posted by: Patrick | February 22, 2010 at 07:42 PM