QUESTION: - Should the badger be culled?

T here are two main types of badger. The first is the animal pictured on the left, which belongs to the to the family Mustelidae: the same mammal family as the ferrets and weasels...

...whilst the second is the animal pictured on the right, Alistair "Badger" Darling, who belongs to the family Politicianidae: the same mammal family as the ferrets, and weasels!

In fact the similarity between these badgers is even closer as there are three subfamilies of badger: Melinae, Mellivorinae and Taxideinae, and the badger on the right is clearly a member of the latter, as denying taxes (only later to impose them) seems to be a key element of the role.

In fact denying anything and everything appears to be a fundamental part of his role; Denying responsibility for: -

1. the Northern Rock crisis,
2. the missing HMRC data of 25m taxpayers,
3. the stagnating housing market, AND
4. spreading Tuberculosis to cattle
   

OK maybe point 4 above, may be slightly more associated with the badger on the left but the way Alistair's luck has been going lately it is only a matter of time before he gets blamed for this also.

Anyway back to the question - given that one of the above badgers has been proved to cause devastation to whole communities, he (Alistair "Badger" Darling that is) should definitely be culled, whereas there is no concrete evidence that the cute looking animal on the left causes TB, and should therefore be spared.

As a supplementary answer to those who actually know something about the subject, i.e. that there IS scientific evidence to prove that badgers cause TB in cattle, I would simply say (because most of what I say is simple) that as cattle have been proven to be one of the greatest producers of carbon gases (by their belching!), if badgers are allowed to live, they may actually help to save the planet!

So in summary, the answer to the question is YES and NO. I hope that this has proved helpful.