F&D - UPDATE 13

Dr. Richard North PhD. [UKIP]
Research Director EDD [European Parliament]
27 April 2001
Dirty, devious and dangerous

Dirty, devious and dangerous 

After a week when the media went overboard about the calf Phoenix, the alleged survivor from a botched slaughter job, and recorded with joyful response the supposed relaxation of the contiguous cull, only now is it becoming apparent just what a dirty, devious and dangerous game the government is playing with foot-and-mouth. 

The trail starts last weekend, when all the signs were that the government would be shortly implementing selective vaccination for housed cattle in Devon and Cumbria - Blair himself was known to be in favour of this line. But then, on the Monday, agriculture minister Nick Brown told the House of Commons Agriculture Committee that, effectively, vaccination was off the agenda. 

It is now clear that he was launching a "pre-emptive strike" against Blair and it is also known that the reason that Brown took such an incautious move was that he had been visited - at the behest of Ben Gill, NFU president - by "men in grey suits" from key food processing industries. These men told Brown, in no uncertain terms, that vaccination of cattle would be totally unacceptable, supposedly because of "consumer concerns". 

Quite why the "consumer" should be so concerned is still not yet explained, especially as one of the "players" in this drama was the multinational food conglomerate, Nestlé, which has meat interests in Brazil and quite happily imports into Britain large quantities of canned beef originating from FMD vaccinated animals. 

The reason, of course, that Brown was able to get away with ditching vaccination was that the headline outbreak figures had declined dramatically, even faster than predicted, with the projected "zero date" conveniently occurring on 7 June to coincide with the general election. 

Here, Blair had been hoist with his own petard for, having assumed nominal control of the epidemic, and ordered that it should be brought under control, MAFF had embarked on a series of measures which ensured that the outbreaks would decline. It is now possible to say that these measures amount not to a simple massaging of the figures but a deliberate, calculated and sustained policy of falsifying the figures to a dramatic extent. 

Key to this policy has been the refusal of MAFF head office to accept clinical diagnoses of FMD by field vets; the reclassification of outbreaks as "slaughtered on suspicion", with their later inclusion as outbreaks only if laboratory samples prove positive (in the context that 60 percent of samples prove negative); and a change of policy where animals slaughtered as "dangerous contacts" and those on the contiguous cull, are no longer tested. Since many of these animals may be infected, the decision to stop testing them means that they too are no longer allowed to add to the outbreak figures. 

So successful has been this strategy that, on the day the government triumphantly announced that the daily outbreak level had fallen below ten, farmers were able to identify 24 outbreaks in Cumbria alone which never reached the official MAFF web site. 

To keep the ever-gullible media happy, the figures have been "fronted" by Professor David King, who is as a chemist whose speciality is given in Who's Who as "surface science". He has no background in disease control, and no means of knowing that he has been sold a dummy. He is there merely as the government "stooge", presenting the acceptable image of government science while the dirty work goes on behind the scenes. 

But while the government has been able to fool the media - and MPs - it is still acutely aware of the problem of vulnerable cattle being turned out to grass and catching the disease from sheep. Deprived of its most effective weapon - vaccination - there was only one alternative left to the government, to kill the sheep. 

Here, Phoenix the calf proved invaluable. With plans already in the pipeline to extend the slaughter of sheep, while dropping the cattle from the contiguous cull programme, up popped Phoenix with its dewy eyes and ungainly limbs, to become the instant media darling. 

This gave the perfect opportunity to grab the political high ground, announcing a "refinement" of the policy, a change which would - quite coincidentally - spare Phoenix. Besotted with the little moo-cow, almost the entire media failed to realise that they were simply witnessing a new round of frenzied slaughter. 

And frenzied slaughter there is - in south-east Scotland, anything with a woolly jacket dies. Plans have already made for a wholesale sheep slaughter in Northumberland, the Forest of Dean, and Devon. And, meanwhile, the media have gone to sleep. 

While they slumber on, Blair is plunging on, more recklessly than ever, with the greatest gamble of his premiership, trying once again to kill his way out of trouble. 

But it will not work. Despite MAFF assuming the ostrich position - and denying it is so - the disease has already spread to the deer population, creating a natural reservoir ready to re-infect farm animals. And, sickened by the continued slaughter, resistance is to the cull is building so MAFF will find it become ever more difficult to impose its will. It will not be able to kill the sheep fast enough. 

So far, with a wet cold winter, the government has been lucky. The grass has not come on and the fields have been too wet, so the cattle have remained indoors. But they cannot stay there for ever. Farmers are fast running out of feed and, with hay prices increase from £9 to £20 a bale in some parts, they cannot afford to restock. The cattle will be coming out and, when they do, we will go down. 

Soon the outbreaks will become too numerous even for MAFF to conceal and - in all probability - already mutinous vets will rebel and spill the beans. For Mr Blair the clock is ticking and he is about to run out of time - and luck. 

ends 

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