I think this is a very difficult subject and I think um, it's a dangerous one for a Prime Minister to dive in and come up with an instant answer...I think, y'know, a big conversation needs to happen about this, and frankly I think the people we need to listen to are, y'know, people who really understand this issue...and the potential effects that it's having...We do have a problem. And I was listening to the MP's about this last night, and I think it's the start of a conversation about something needing to be done.”
BBC Radio Cornwall Breakfast Programme, 17/07/2015, from 2'44'26.
And...Cameron was talking about ? Climate Change ? ISIS ? The crisis in Ukraine ? Immigration ? Poverty ? Homelessness ? Inequality ? Radicalisation in the inner city ? FGM ? The number of working families under his government relying on foodbanks ?
No, no, Silly, of course not. He was addressing, of course, the Velociraptor's deadly cousin, the seagull.
David Cameron has said he wants to start a “big conversation” about a recent spate of seagull attacks on local people in Cornwall.
MPs called for a change in the law which would allow the protected status of seagulls to be axed so that their population in urban areas could be better controlled.
One MP suggested that the scavenging birds should be sterilised to stop them reproducing, while another said their eggs could be removed and swapped for moth eggs.
In the March budget, £250,000 was pledged for a research project into "aggressive" seagulls. However, following the general election, this was judged to be “low priority” and funding was axed.
The Prime Minister said that he wanted to take action after learning about an increase in attacks from the aggressive birds.
This week seagulls killed a dog in Newquay, Cornwall leaving a sight “like a murder scene” while a tortoise was pecked to death in nearby Liskeard.
The commitment comes despite his own Government axing a £250,000 fund research into aggressive urban gulls which was scrapped because it was a "low priority".
The Prime Minister told BBC Radio Cornwall on Friday morning that the issue came up at a dinner with Cornwall's six Conservative MPs on Thursday night. One of the problems is that seagulls are protected and so a cull is not possible.
He said: “I think this is a very difficult subject and I think it is a dangerous one for the Prime Minister to dive in and come up with an instant answer with the issues of the protection of seagulls, whether there is a need for a cull, what should be done about eggs and nests and the rest of it.
"I think a big conversation needs to happen about this and frankly the people we need to listen to are people who really understand this issue in Cornwall, and the potential effects it is having.
"Reading the papers this morning about how aggressive the seagulls are now in St Ives for instance - we do have a problem. I was listening to the MPs last night I think it is the start of a conversation about something needing to be done.”
Though seriously, why the hell are seagulls a protected species ? Was there a regional taste for seagull-pies that at some point led to them being endangered ?
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