It's poor farming, not the poor badger, that spreads disease

A badger cull will not solve the problem of bovine TB. It could even make it worse

A badger cull is not scientifically justifiable ('On the hills and farms of England, friend and foe await the badger's fate', News, last week). The government's own independent scientific group found that killing badgers would not significantly reduce bovine TB and could even make it more prevalent because it causes the badgers to disperse to new areas.

However, the government (not for the first time) has been overly influenced by the National Farmers' Union, which is why it supports a cull. One reason that the NFU is so keen on a badger cull is that it does not wish to accept that today's agricultural practices are largely responsible for TB in cattle.

Stressed animals, selectively bred to grow at an unnatural rate, and living unnatural, unhealthy lives in factory farms, are vulnerable to disease. Illness then spreads rapidly within overcrowded intensive farms. Long-distance travel and livestock markets spread disease around the country, and live export spreads it even further. Badgers are not the problem; poor farming is.

Richard Mountford

Animal Aid
Tonbridge, Kent

Do we want US-style courts?

Nick Cohen (Comment, last week) missed the danger of an increasingly politicised judiciary in an era with a weak and distrusted parliament. Parliament has to show an increased willingness to hold the executive to account and the electorate has to demand that they do so, rather than engage in noisy, schoolboy games.

The courts, through the growth of judicial review, are being used by aggrieved individuals to question executive authority, a true role of a robust and independent parliament. Judicial inquiries, likewise, take the duty of scrutiny and accountability away from parliament into an increasingly politicised judiciary.

If a weak and inactive parliament is not made more effective, we are in danger of gaining a politicised court system, like exists in the United States. That would be a mistake.

Jeremy Ross


We drivers fear for your safety

There has been a lot of noise in the news about Olympic bonus payments. A large number of people are focused on the point that some people are asking for extra money just to do their jobs during the Games. In reality, unlike the government, who are more worried about our global image, or Boris Johnson, who wants the roads to be clear, or the transport management who insist the extra volume of travellers will not be a problem, most of us train drivers are concerned about your safety. At this present time our transport system is overloaded and is barely coping.

We drivers are very worried as to how and where these extra passengers are going to fit in. Yes, the bonus money would be nice but us drivers are more concerned about getting you there and back in safety. When an incident occurs, it's the driver who has to deal with it. The management just worry about the image factor, it's the driver who has to contain the situation as it occurs. So please don't tar us all with the same brush. A bonus would be lovely, but we just want to help you have a safe journey too.

Ola West

London SE8

Immoral banking foretold

Some 20 years ago my father took early retirement from a senior position in a leading high street bank. He returned to his country cottage, painted it and dug the garden. It was during that early, busy period, that we found ourselves together in his local hostelry where I ventured to suggest that he was missing work. I remember his reply well: "Not really, glad to be out of it. The morality has gone out of banking."

Father then went on to describe one or two events that had occurred recently and what he thought would happen in the future. Allowing for a few nips and tucks, he has been unerringly correct. The really annoying part of this is, he was derided for being an old fuddy-duddy. (His words – I suspect the actual expressions were a lot more disingenuous).

Father was not, apparently, a lone voice. It seems many of his generation had similar thoughts, most only voiced at the time of his funeral.

What price experience? Is it not time morality returned to banking, and business in general?

Roger Thomas


Sweetness? Not exactly

Just you wait, Barbara Ellen, just you wait (You must be sick if you object to being called "sweetie").

When you are 80, have all your marbles and are in hospital, I doubt if you will appreciate being treated as if you are five years old. It's not "slightly irritating", it's patronising and unnecessary. A minority of nurses use this habit as a substitute for the real qualities of caring. It could easily be remedied by proper training and supervision.

Just you wait darling, flower, petal, sweetie and (the worst I experienced) sweetness.

She got that one wrong – as anyone who knows me will tell you.

Joan Purkiss

East Yorkshire