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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #10401  by Justabeekeeper
 27 Mar 2021, 09:58
The BBKA news arrived this morning.
There was a full page article regarding the possible importation of packages of bees from Southern Italy, the article talked about the risk of importing disease and called for the government to stop the importation of bees through Northern Ireland.
The BBKA is AGAINST this importation.

About 10 pages later there is an advert for the packages!!!!!

What is going on ?
How can the BBKA be so against something but still take money and advertise it to their members.
The hypocrisy is astounding.
Does money outweigh principles ?
Beggars belief.
There is a disclaimer in the classified section but that is another 10 pages from the advert for the packages.
 #10403  by AdamD
 27 Mar 2021, 10:26
I haven't seen BBKA news yet - and have posted an email that the Chair of the BBKA sent by my association. here: https://www.bbkaforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1176

It does seem rather absurd that the BBKA can have paid adverts for imports and complain about imports at the same time. (MY guess is that it's one hand not knowing what the other is doing). However it has 'always' been the case that the BBKA don't encourage imports however there are often adverts for bees in the magazine which may or may not come from abroad. I believe that SHB has been moved around southern Italy in the past by beekeepers not abiding by the rules there, resulting in destruction of many colonies, so to take imports from the same area without a chance of UK inspections is not something I would encourage. Currently the petition has a tally of 5250. Interestingly, whilst we were in the EU, the BBKA did nothing to complain about imports from southern Italy when SHB was discovered there.
 #10407  by Alfred
 27 Mar 2021, 15:44
One hand not knowing what the other is doing but yet another fully aware of the running cost of physical media publishing and turning a blind eye to the ads.
Unless the rag goes digital it's something to expect
 #10411  by Patrick
 27 Mar 2021, 19:55
Not seen the mag but also agree I doubt there is any grand conspiracy.

I am not sure there is a conflict between carrying advertising of legal commercial activity whilst carrying opinion pieces on whether it should continue to be legal.

If you don’t carry the advert you are open to accusations of stopping firms carrying out their legal business due to political correctness.

If you don’t carry the article you are accused of suppressing members views for fear of offending advertisers.

Maybe the best compromise is to simply allow both. We increasingly live in a media world of polarised perspectives where we increasingly expect to see our chosen media only view any issue through a single monocular. Not sure it’s good for any of us tbh.
 #10417  by MickBBKA
 28 Mar 2021, 03:13
I don't recall any poll by the BBKA or our delegates before taking a political position on this issue. What if the members are in favour of imports ? I don't import bees from regions of this country never mind foreign country's but there are many members that do. Surely the correct political position of the BBKA should be to demand inspection of bees before they enter the British mainland.
 #10421  by Patrick
 29 Mar 2021, 09:41
Just had a glance at mag this morning. In the letter from the chair bit, it says “at the 2015 ADM we were directed to take a stand against importing bees”. So thats presumably when an association’s proposition on it was passed by other associations delegates votes. No, I don’t remember it either.