David Maddox: Flight of the bumble bee

On my way into Holyrood this morning I bumped into the ever convivial Green MSP Robin Harper giving a tour of the parliament to a bee expert from Stirling University.
Bees are a favourite subject of Mr Harper's (when he's not playing his trumpet) and Dr Bob Dawson was there to brief him on the importance of bumble rather than honey bees. Apparently they are responsible for more than 50 per cent of plant pollination and are vital in greenhouses with things like tomatoes because of the way they pollinate plants. One of the differences with the honey bee is that they live in small colonies and have different behavioural paterns.
But there are some concerns about the British bumble. Apparently large numbers of bumble bees are being imported from Turkey and could be mixing with the indiginous population.
However, in defence of the Turkish immigrants, they apparently work harder and, unlike the British variety, are willing to keep going through many of the colder months of the year.
You can just imagine the British bumble (something like this Simpsons picture) staying at home with its benefits moaning about how these foreign bumble bees "come here, take our flowers, steal our honey and **** our Queen!"
Meanwhile the industrious immigrants get on fixing British nature's plumbing.
How strange it is that nature so often seems to accurately reflect our lives.