Plaid Cymru were silent on the media this morning on the reversal of the badger cull they forced on the Welsh coalition. Labour has sensibly and humanely decided to revise the decision on the basis of science and not on the need to obey every whim of the farming lobby.
Elin Jones, their minister in the coalition admitted that being beastly to badgers cost Plaid votes. Their opposition to the hunting ban did not make them loveable either. One of them told the Commons that foxhunting was 'pleasurable'. Plaid may have noticed that the public support for the badger cull is a massive 16%. Even rural areas don't want it. Moch daear (earth pig in Welsh) will remain unmolested in Wales. The Tories in England are planning a Big Society Big Shoot to slaughter them in a disorganised unscientific killing spree.
Elin won a prize as the AM of the year in 2009 for her courage on culling badgers. What will she do now?
Choose opposition or silence, principle or popularity?
Con defeated
At last some good nuclear news.
The Achilles heel of the government's mad plans for nuclear power expansion is cost. When first announced by the bewitched last Government the plan was to have the first new nuke operating in 2017. Now it's 2021. All without subsidies of course.
The Government has now been forced to remove a controversial clause from its new Energy Bill which could have made the nuclear industry eligible for bailouts.
Ministers argued that the clause - highlighted by Friends of the Earth in April - was essential because it reduced risk for those investing in nuclear power. It was a bribe to coax money from profiteers already nervous after Fukushima. Friends of the Earth said it simply transferred a subsidy.
Ministers must agree a clean-up plan and the funding arrangements required from any company building a new nuclear power station. Under the original clause it made it possible for nuclear companies to refuse to agree to new safety measures unless Government funded them.
The Government jumped the gun with the Weightman report and their soothing assurances on Fukushima were made months before the full costs and horrors of that disaster are known. It is certain that more precautions will be essential for British nukes - at unaffordable costs. The investors will reject the gamble. The taxpayers should not be conned into subsidising the unnecessary anxiety of having potential Fukushimas within danger reach of their homes.
I fully agree. Taxpayer's money has to be spent wisely. Especially now during hard times.
Posted by: Marc Clayton | June 23, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Far better to spend the money on culling cows instead of badgers.
Cattle are far less cuddly - and they are guilty of introducing bovine TB into the badger population, so they should pay the price!
Posted by: Siôn Jones | June 24, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Badger culls failed in Krebs survey and in Ireland. If farmers insured against losses as every other industry is forced to do, they would support the solution that works not the line of least resistance that leaves the taxpayer picking up the bill.
Culling is bad science deployed by poor politicians.
Posted by: Paul Flynn | June 25, 2011 at 11:11 AM