I was interested to see that Scientists at Newcastle University have been ‘asking’ pigs if they were feeling good or bad about life! They were able to do this by studying two groups of pigs and watching their behaviour which they connected to the environment in which they live!
The pigs were taught to respond to noises, and those in comfortable and entertaining accommodation reacted with optimism and those in basic and boring accommodation were rendered fearful and pessimistic by the unusual noise.
It was also reported that Diary cattle which are given names and are treated as individuals and made a fuss of, produced more milk than unnamed cattle.
I wonder how much time and what the cost of these studies have been. It is a pity that those involved in this research did not go and spend a few hours at the nearest livestock market or agricultural show and talk to the farming community. In a matter of minutes they would have reached the same conclusion without going through what was obviously a long and expensive research programme.
Every competent farmer knows that if you treat your livestock with kindness and respect they will do well and flourish producing offspring, milk or meat. This is the message that the farming community demonstrates to the public at every opportunity, including on open farm Sundays and at Agricultural Shows.
I am not sure that such headlines as ‘pigs have feelings’ is either helpful or necessary. I could suggest a better use of the scientist’s time and valuable funds than demonstrating the obvious.
My concern following the appointment of Chris Huhne as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, along with many others, appears justified. The Conservatives published an energy strategy prior to the general election in which they emphasised the urgency to promote nuclear and renewable power as well as raise the important issue of energy efficiency.
Charles Hendrey MP for Wealden, argued before the election, that it was vital to ensure that a programme was put in place immediately to start building new nuclear power stations, if we had any hope to ‘keep the lights on’. The existing reactors are rapidly approaching their sell by date, which is why Mr Hendry promised that if and when the conservatives won the general election they would ‘hit the ground running’ and put in place the building of an adequate energy capacity, through the promotion of nuclear in particular, and renewable power supplies.
The statement issued last week by Chris Huhne, on Britain’s energy future, should cause us all to be very concerned indeed. He is obsessed by ‘climate change’ and insists this is the greatest global challenge we face, and that we must cut down drastically on our ‘carbon emissions’. But, he quite obviously has failed to address the fast approaching situation when our existing power stations have to close and we have nothing but his planned wind farms and a programme of bio-digesters to take their place.
However many thousands of wind turbines spring up across the country and around our shores, they will never produce an adequate supply of energy required to keep our economy running. If the present government were to build these turbines to meet the target set by the last government, it would apparently be necessary to erect two of these turbines, each the height of Blackpool Tower, at a cost of £100billion, every day of every week for the next ten years. The result would be the production of only a tenth of the country’s electricity requirements at double the cost of building the necessary nuclear capacity, which is far more efficient and produces less carbon emissions at the end of the day.
As a back up to wind turbines more gas-fired power stations would have to be built and kept running simply to fill the gap when the wind was not blowing. These would be pumping out vast quantities of CO2 – this surely would not comply with Mr Huhne’s ‘green’ credentials.
It would appear that Mr Cameron chose the wrong man for the job. Mr Huhne has been ‘brainwashed’ by years of green propaganda and has failed to understand the issues of cost and inefficiency of wind power and the critical situation which is fast approaching.
I sincerely hope that during the summer recess the Prime Minister will reconsider both this appointment and indeed a number others which I believe he made too hastily after the election and as a sop to the Liberal Democrats.
Charles Hendrey unlike Mr Huhne has studied and understood the case for nuclear energy and has done the sums both regarding cost and energy requirement. The energy provision required to keep the lights on, computers, businesses and industry running is far too important an issue to leave to someone so obviously unworldly and narrow minded.
The statement regarding building both coal fired and nuclear power stations was so full of ifs and buts and impossible hoops to jump through, and unbelievably the required technology is still on the drawing board. The private sector will be financing future power stations with no support from central government; surely they need incentives and encouragement, not a minister who apparently, has no understanding about the job he has been given.
Carola Godman Law
The pigs were taught to respond to noises, and those in comfortable and entertaining accommodation reacted with optimism and those in basic and boring accommodation were rendered fearful and pessimistic by the unusual noise.
It was also reported that Diary cattle which are given names and are treated as individuals and made a fuss of, produced more milk than unnamed cattle.
I wonder how much time and what the cost of these studies have been. It is a pity that those involved in this research did not go and spend a few hours at the nearest livestock market or agricultural show and talk to the farming community. In a matter of minutes they would have reached the same conclusion without going through what was obviously a long and expensive research programme.
Every competent farmer knows that if you treat your livestock with kindness and respect they will do well and flourish producing offspring, milk or meat. This is the message that the farming community demonstrates to the public at every opportunity, including on open farm Sundays and at Agricultural Shows.
I am not sure that such headlines as ‘pigs have feelings’ is either helpful or necessary. I could suggest a better use of the scientist’s time and valuable funds than demonstrating the obvious.
My concern following the appointment of Chris Huhne as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, along with many others, appears justified. The Conservatives published an energy strategy prior to the general election in which they emphasised the urgency to promote nuclear and renewable power as well as raise the important issue of energy efficiency.
Charles Hendrey MP for Wealden, argued before the election, that it was vital to ensure that a programme was put in place immediately to start building new nuclear power stations, if we had any hope to ‘keep the lights on’. The existing reactors are rapidly approaching their sell by date, which is why Mr Hendry promised that if and when the conservatives won the general election they would ‘hit the ground running’ and put in place the building of an adequate energy capacity, through the promotion of nuclear in particular, and renewable power supplies.
The statement issued last week by Chris Huhne, on Britain’s energy future, should cause us all to be very concerned indeed. He is obsessed by ‘climate change’ and insists this is the greatest global challenge we face, and that we must cut down drastically on our ‘carbon emissions’. But, he quite obviously has failed to address the fast approaching situation when our existing power stations have to close and we have nothing but his planned wind farms and a programme of bio-digesters to take their place.
However many thousands of wind turbines spring up across the country and around our shores, they will never produce an adequate supply of energy required to keep our economy running. If the present government were to build these turbines to meet the target set by the last government, it would apparently be necessary to erect two of these turbines, each the height of Blackpool Tower, at a cost of £100billion, every day of every week for the next ten years. The result would be the production of only a tenth of the country’s electricity requirements at double the cost of building the necessary nuclear capacity, which is far more efficient and produces less carbon emissions at the end of the day.
As a back up to wind turbines more gas-fired power stations would have to be built and kept running simply to fill the gap when the wind was not blowing. These would be pumping out vast quantities of CO2 – this surely would not comply with Mr Huhne’s ‘green’ credentials.
It would appear that Mr Cameron chose the wrong man for the job. Mr Huhne has been ‘brainwashed’ by years of green propaganda and has failed to understand the issues of cost and inefficiency of wind power and the critical situation which is fast approaching.
I sincerely hope that during the summer recess the Prime Minister will reconsider both this appointment and indeed a number others which I believe he made too hastily after the election and as a sop to the Liberal Democrats.
Charles Hendrey unlike Mr Huhne has studied and understood the case for nuclear energy and has done the sums both regarding cost and energy requirement. The energy provision required to keep the lights on, computers, businesses and industry running is far too important an issue to leave to someone so obviously unworldly and narrow minded.
The statement regarding building both coal fired and nuclear power stations was so full of ifs and buts and impossible hoops to jump through, and unbelievably the required technology is still on the drawing board. The private sector will be financing future power stations with no support from central government; surely they need incentives and encouragement, not a minister who apparently, has no understanding about the job he has been given.
Carola Godman Law
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