Some care is required in interpreting the article quoted by Brian.  The
"quote" about honey bees disappearing by 2018 does not look to me like a
lifted quote from a press release, but a journalist's interpretation.
Further down the article, quotation marks appear around two sentences
suggesting that these are actual words from the release.


My understanding of the British Beekeepers Associations' approach is that
they are just quoting back to the government Ministers statements that the
government Ministers have themselves made.  On 27th November 2007 Lord
Rooker, a government Minister in the responsible department (Department of
Environment Farming and Rural Affairs) said in the House of Lords "We do not
deny that bee health is at risk.  Frankly, if nothing is done about it, the
honey-bee population could be wiped out in 10 years.  There is no question
about that."  And that is a genuine quotation from Hansard, the official
record of the proceedings in the UK Parliament, and NOT any reporter's
efforts.


The other relevant factors with which the Ministers agree are these:

1)  Bees add very great value to the UK farming economy.
2)  There are many threats facing bee health in the UK, both old (varroa and
nosema apis) and new (nosema cerana and, potentially, small hive beetle and
tropilaelaps).
3)  The government money spent on bee research in the UK has remained the
same in cash values over recent years and is in any case very small in
relation to the added value effected by bees.

The government controlled bee research facilities in the UK appear to have
first call on such government money as there is, resulting in job cuts for
eminent scientists in other institutions in recent years.

Given the "spin" and dirty tricks that governments get up to in defending
themselves in general, taken with the low priority that is given to
beekeeping by the UK government, is it any surprise that relatively poorly
funded beekeepers' organisations such as the BBKA have to use all the
ammunition that they have to get their points across?  If that means quoting
the Minister's statements back to him via the media is that a major sin?

Regards

Mike Rowbottom

3 Rutland Road
HARROGATE
North Yorkshire
UK


-----Original Message-----
From Brian Fredericksen
and what I assume is BBKA's leverage of the "crisis" to work the government
system. 

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