Professor Sir David King is Director of Research in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, at the top of the science academic ladder. You would not expect any less in the Chief Scientific Advisor to Her Majesty’s Government. He has won respect and admiration from many environmentalists for his forthright views on climate change and in particular for the way he reminded Tony Blair that climate change is a greater threat than terrorism . However, he is not infallible. This became clear when he dogmatically led the opinion that the H5N1 bird flu outbreak at the Bernard Matthews turkey farm was introduced by wild birds, and even stuck to the view as evidence mounted that the source of the outbreak was contaminated turkey waste from Hungary. He is a proponent of “hi-tech” farming especially, but not only, the use of genetic engineering, a view held by most of those running the UK’s National Farmers’ Union, much of Defra and by the former Prime Minister himself. Organic farming practices and wildlife are inconvenient obstacles to progress. Perhaps this is behind Sir David’s unexpected volte-face on badger culling to control bovine tuberculosis (bTB). He now says that, contrary to previous scientific advice, culls of badgers should be carried out to control the TB epidemic in cattle. Where is the fresh evidence to support this change of direction? What happened to the tighter controls on livestock movement? What is the progress on effective pre- and post-movement TB testing? Where is the research and investment in husbandry and bio-security? All of the above were non-badger related approaches to tackling bTB recommended in the 2003 report of the Government’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. This latest pronouncement is made without justification and is not supported by any new scientific findings. This is not what we expect from the top scientist in the land - we should be given clear explanations of the evidence on which recommendations are based.

Congratulations to Viola Tuckey for being so eagle-eyed! She was first in Suffolk to spot the Rosemary leaf beetle - way back in June, before the ink was dry on the summer White Admiral that included an appeal for records; so, apologies to anyone who sent in records later. The sighting was made at Lower Holbrook. The photograph on the cover of this newsletter shows two specimens from the colony observed by Miss Tuckey.