http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/ An insider's view of Welsh rural life en Copyright 2008 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:17:53 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss They certainly know how to badger a girl, both sides in the argument over Mr Brock's involvement in the epidemic of bovine tuberculosis that is sweeping through parts of rural Wales. Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones has bitten the bullet and ordered a cull of badgers in an as yet undefined bTB hotspot. http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/04/badgers.html http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/04/badgers.html Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:17:53 +0000 It's not what you spend, it's who you are that matters when it comes to accounting for taxpayers' money. The news that the European Commission has decided to publish the full details and postcodes of all farmers in receipt of the Single Farm Payment comes as the House of Commons takes legal action, using taxpayers' money, to prevent publication of similar details of MPs expenses. http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/03/double_standards.html http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/03/double_standards.html Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:13:55 +0000 The National Farmers Union celebrates its centenary this year and in Wales that will mean a black tie dinner in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on November 26 followed by a centenary conference the following day. It's only three years since the rival Farmners Union of Wales celebrated its 50th year. http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/03/one_union.html http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/03/one_union.html Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:02:00 +0000 It might seem the fairest thing in the world to make farmers pay towards the cost of clearing up animal and bird disease like foot-and-mouth, bluetongue, avian flu, swine fever and bovine tuberculosis. After all, as we're told so often, the polluter pays. It's their animals or birds that get ill. Why should that poor overburdened individual, the taxpayer, pick up the tab? http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2007/11/let_them_eat_money.html http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2007/11/let_them_eat_money.html Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:24:16 +0000 Not so long ago Welsh farmers were horrified to find they had a woman exercising political control over their affairs - and a vegetarian at that. In fact Christine Gwyther was not so much exercising control as trying hard to handle an extremely hot potato. http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2007/11/women_woo_farmers.html http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2007/11/women_woo_farmers.html Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:22:13 +0000 When a leaking drainage pipe from a slurry store pollutes a stream or a river and causes off the fishes and invertebrate life for even a single kilometre the Environment Agency investigates and prosecutes and the farmer has to pay up thousands of pounds in fines and costs.. When a leaking drainage pipe from a laboratory handling seriously dangerous viruses pollutes the countryside, causes the deaths of thousands of animals, devastates the food industry and costs thousands of farmers thousands of pounds the Envirionment Agency does nothing. http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2007/10/a_thousand_farmers.html http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2007/10/a_thousand_farmers.html Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:12:10 +0000 I felt like a country bumpkin today. I count myself fortunate that the straw did not drop from the corner of my mouth and that I did not keel over from the noxious fumes of Cardiff city centre. It's not often I have to visit the Western Mail HQ, so this was my first encounter with the newly blocked roads of the city centre. I managed to make the meeting on time by luck rather than judgement, but had an unwanted tour of the environs on the way out. http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2007/10/militant_farmers.html http://upcountry.welshblogs.co.uk/2007/10/militant_farmers.html Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:59:37 +0000