You may remember in June there was an article in The Press in which I was exhorting people to sign a petition for the Government to fund research into 'colony collapse' in the bee population.

See earlier 'blog item.

Anyway, the petition has now ended.
This is the Government's response: www.number10.gov.uk/Page16488

Well, what a waste of time that was!

I strongly supported the British Beekeepers' Association in its call for £8M more in funding to investigate Colony Collapse Disorder.

The Government's response is to do precisely nothing.
No additional money for the National Bee Unit (based in York). No more resources to investigate the problem.
It's policy seems to be to hope for the best and maybe it will just go away. You'd despair if this was the response in relation to a pandemic like AIDS or Bird 'Flu!

However, this isn't just about bees or honey. As 35% of the world's crops are pollinated by bees, (and 80% of all insect-pollinated crops) the Government really ought to be taking more interest in this issue. If bees are wiped out then we starve. It's a simple as that.

I think that it is also quesionable whether No10 actually takes these petitions seriously. Perhaps it's just window-dressing and the Government isn't really listening at all to people's concerns.