UK -- CURRIE CONDEMNS TORIES OVER BSE!!!

[Guest guest]

-- BBC -- Former junior health

minister Currie has made a SCATHING ATTACK ON THE CONSERVATIVES

RECORD ON BSE, the so-called MADCOW DISEASE.....Mrs. Currie, in evidence

she is to give to the BSE Inquiry on November 23, says the position

taken by Margaret Thatcher's GOVERNMENT WAS " ASTONISHING " .....A Tory MP

from 1983 until last Year's election, Mrs. Currie was under-secretary

for HEALTH from September 1986 until her RESIGNATION a week before

Christmas 1988.....She started a nationwide debate while in office with

her WARNING THAT EGGS WERE WIDELY CONTAMINATED WITH SALMONELLA.....IN

HER EVIDENCE, Mrs. Currie says there is STILL NO TEST FOR BSE IN LIVING

ANIMALS, " SO IT IS STILL NOT KNOWN IF AFFECTED ANIMALS ARE ENTERING THE

FOOD CHAIN " .....She says the policy of the Ministry of Agriculture,

Fisheries and Food (MAFF) at the start of the BSE OUTBREAK IN 1987 WAS

SLOW " AND CONSTITUTED IN ITSELF A POLICY WHICH " ADDED " TO THE SCALE OF

THE " SUBSEQUENT DISASTER " .....Examples she cites from the time when she

was involved include: THE DELAY FROM THE DATE THE DISEASE WAS FIRST

IDENTIFIED (NOVEMBER 1986) UNTIL THE FIRST REPORT IN THE WEEKLY

VETERINARY RECORD 11 MONTHS LATER.....THE DELAY FROM THE DATE MAFF

MINISTERS WERE ALERTED (June 1987) until the NOTIFICATION - IN MARCH

1988 - TO HEALTH MINISTERS.....THE FURTHER DELAY UNTIL A SLAUGHTER

POLICY WAS ANNOUNCED, IN JULY 1988, THE TIME FROM THEN UNTIL FEBRUARY

1990 DURING WHICH FARMERS RECEIVED ONLY HALF THE COST OF A BSE-INFECTED

ANIMAL IN COMPENSATION.....MRS. CURRIE SAYS FARMERS IN HER CONSTITUENCY

TOLD HER THAT 50% COMPENSATION RATE WAS " AN ACTIVE INCENTIVE TO

UNSCRUPULOUS FARMERS TO OFFLOAD SUSPECT STOCK TO THE ABATTOIRS AS

QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE " .....She comments " I consider this long delay

TOTALLY REPREHENSIBLE, AVOIDABLE AND THE DIRECT CAUSE OF BOTH THE

PROLONGED DURATION OF THE DISEASE IN CATTLE AND A SUBSTANTIALLY

INCREASED RISK TO HUMAN CONSUMERS " ......Some of her most DAMNING REMARKS

are directed at her former fellow ministers.....She credits her

successor as health minister, Freeman, with " A DEGREE OF

COMPLACENCY WITH WHICH I COULD NOT HAVE AGREED " ......And she calls

former agriculture minister MacGregor " ASTONISHINGLY SHORT-SIGHTED "

IN HIS POLICY TOWARDS OTHER DISEASES OF FARM ANIMALS.....And in one

passage, Mrs Currie widens her field of fire.....She writes: GOOD

GOVERNANCE APPEARED TO BE EXTRACTED FROM MINISTERS AFTER 1989 BY A

PROCESS AKIN TO " PULLING TEETH " !!!!!But IT IS MAFF which attracts her

DEEPEST ANGER. OFFICIALS THERE " APPEAR TO HAVE ACCEPTED BOTH " BSE " AND

" SALMONELLA " AS A FAIT ACCOMPLI.....On SCRAPIE, A SHEEP DISEASE VERY

SIMILAR TO BSE, MRS Currie says " THE SAME ATTITUDE PERVADED..... " A BIG

SHRUP " .....She writes: " I consider that the entire approach of MAFF

from the 1980's onward to issues of PUBLIC HEALTH " LINKED " TO

INFECTION IN THE FOOD CHAIN WAS WRONG!!!!!IT WAS CRASS, INCOMPETENT,

HOSTILE, DANGEROUS AND COMPOUNDED PROBLEMS INSTEAD OF ERADICATING

THEM!!!!! " THE MINISTRY HAD LONG SET ITSELF UP AS THE TRADE UNION FOR

PRODUCERS...AN ASTONISHING POSITION FOR A CONSERVATIVE ADMINISTRATION TO

MAINTAIN " .....///////////////// " AND THEY ARE GOING TO START " EXPORTING "

BEEF " ??????? MADSON