Welcome to issue 16
The bse crisis dominated the media headlines at the end of the 1990s just as it had done at the start of the decade. For ten years the issue has simply not gone away. Despite all that has been done by the labour government, the media, the maffia, and pharmers to push it into oblivion, bse and bse-cjd keeps resurfacing to haunt them - like a terrible ghost from their evil past. It has to be said, however, that there is a crucial difference between 1990, when the tory government and pharmers denied that bse could spread to oomans, and 1999, by which time 48 people had died from bse-cjd - people no longer feel worried about the disease and have lost interest in the issue.
This work consists of three parts. The major part of this work is a diary of the events in the bse crisis since the election of the labour government in may 1997. Tf10 'The Offal Truth' published in april 1996 had focused primarily on how the tory government had allowed bse and bse-cjd to fester throughout the country's livestock populations. This magazine updates that work by looking at the events in the bse disaster which have happened whilst labour have been in government. Many hoped the labour government would eradicate the appalling corruption and malpractices carried out by the coalition of tory pharmer mps, tory landowners in the lords, the tory pharmer members of the maffia, and the nfu, but it has ended up approaching bse and bse-cjd in almost the same way as its predecessors. It is remarkable that a labour government could become indistinguishable from its rancid, despicable, and corrupt, tory predecessors.
The second part of this work is an article highlighting the dirty tricks perpetuated by tory-pharmers which continued to put bse-infected beef into the food-chain. To date, may 2000, 53 people have been murdered so far by the country's pharmers. The bse disaster is the most blatant example of rural contempt for the health and life of urban consumers. The pharming industry put up all-out resistance against the drastic actions needed to curb the spread of bse. Pharmers didn't care in the slightest what risk this disease posed to the health of their consumers - urban people. They were not going to lose money because large numbers of urbanites, whom they despised, might die as a result of eating diseased meat and dairy products. One of the main reasons this country is so vile is because it is run by pharmers who have nothing but contempt for urban consumers. Like the rural pillocks who strut around the countryside on Horses engaged in blood-letting, the name of the game is total indifference to the interests, values and concerns of urban people.
The third part of this work is a list of some of the country's most distinguished lovers of bse-infected beef. Over the past 15 years, the more it has been realized just how virulent and deadly bse-cjd is, the more this has provoked carnivores into making more and more extremist arguments that people should be free to consume bse-infected beef - whilst denouncing, of course, the health threat posed by mild Plants such as Cannabis.
A Dairy of the Bse Disaster the election of a Labour Government.
May 1st 1997: Tories Suffers Cataclysmic defeat at the Polls.
The tory party suffers a cataclysmic defeat in the general election. Despite the fact that during the preceding four years the labour party had a huge lead in the opinion polls, and that during the election campaign the opinion polls continued to predict a landslide, the scale of the tory defeat is still a shock. There should be little doubt the main reason for this defeat is the bse scandal which exploded the divisions within the tory party over europe; revealed the scale of the tory government's lies to protect pharmers' interests; and drastically undermined tory support in scotland. Bse had taken its revenge on the most stroppy, bombastic, belligerent, decadent, degenerate, sleazy, yobbish, governments in living memory. Still, it has to be admitted, if a person ever needed a group of friends who would systematically lie, cheat, and deceive to protect that person's interests then it would be difficult to find better friends than the members of the last tory government. Their willingness to go to any extreme to protect pharmers' interests would be regarded as totally unacceptable for a trade union but it proved to be political suicide in a society where pharmers are a tiny minority. Pharmers constitute 50% of the houses of parliament but they make up only 1% of the population.
May 1997: Dorrell Claims people are no longer Mad.
John major resigns as leader of the conservative party the day after the election defeat and, almost immediately, various tories start campaigning for the leadership. One of those who puts himself forward as a candidate is stephen dorrell. His campaign slogan is, "It wasn't the voters who got it wrong but the conservative party which failed to get the message across that it would look after people's interests." This seems to have a vaguely familiar ring to it. Now what was it? Ah yes, after dorrell made the announcement in march 1996 of the 10 bse-cjd fatalities he tried to placate public anxieties by stressing, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that brutish beef is not a threat to public health. When the public did not believe him he retorted, "It's not the Cows that are mad its the people."
Dorrell presents himself in the leadership contest as someone who possesses the virtue of being a "clean-break from the past" - as if his performance in the bse crisis hadn't tarnished him as being a critical member of the old guard and a prominent exponent of the vilifying, denunciatory tendency of rabid toryism. It would have been impossible for dorrell to have cleaned up the mess he'd left behind. Dealler quotes from an article submitted to the phillips inquiry into bse a few years later, "The papers revealed the abyss facing ministers on March 20 1996. Information showed that Heseltine, deputy prime minister had thought that all 11.8 million cattle might have to be slaughtered, while Dorrell, health secretary warned that the government should not accept responsibility for compensating human victims of BSE." [1]
May 14th 1997: Scientists Fears over Ooman Blood Transfusion.
The labour government has hardly been in power for a fortnight when government scientists demand there should be a curb on ooman blood transfusions to prevent the spread of bse-cjd, "However, no human cases have yet been causatively linked to blood transfusion. If cjd is transmissible in blood, cases should occur in young persons, particularly if the incubation period is short. Even if the incubation period is decades long, one would expect cases in young persons because of transfusions given to infants and children. However, cjd is rare in young persons and remains rare over time. The investigation of a patient with cjd who donated 35 units of blood in 20 years identified 27 persons who definitely received his blood and eight who probably received blood; for 20 units, the recipients could not be identified (64). Eighteen (33%) of the identified recipients had died. None of the recipients had exhibited neurologic disease, although some were observed only briefly; only eight were observed for longer than 5 years." [2]
May 21st 1997: Tories want Compensation for Asking Parliamentary Questions.
Norman fowler is interviewed on itv about blair's new approach to prime minister's question time. He complains about the number of easy questions which labour mps are feeding the prime minister - as if what the tories had done over the previous 18 years was no longer of any relevance. For many tory mps, like fowler, the immediate past, whether bse or cash for parliamentary questions, no longer has any reality, "If mps can't ask their own questions they shouldn't be in parliament." One wonders how many tory mps would be left if this was the case.
May 24th 1997: Tory Pharmers Murder Another Bse-Cjd Victim. Girl eats only the Best cuts of Meat.
Louise adams dies today. "Mrs adams said, "Louise loved good food. She never had hamburgers - hated them. She always enjoyed the best cuts of meat." [3] The government does not regard this as convincing evidence of the need to ban beef.
June 4th 1997: Sorry but us Truckers just can't take this silly disease Seriously.
"The mirror has discovered that lorries which carry mad Cow waste are also used to transport Animal feed and supplies to firms all over brutland. Regulations state that the trucks must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected after moving waste from Cattle slaughtered in the government's battle against deadly bse. Food safety expert richard lacey, head of micro-biology at leeds university, warned: "The health risks are appalling. This should be stopped immediately. The lorries carry remains which have been crushed, shredded and boiled down to a smelly mess - dubbed 'the dust of death' - that has bits of bone in it. The mirror found the dust, which could carry mad Cow disease, being transported in trucks which also made deliveries to a host of familiar names. They include sun valley and rank hovis mcdougall." [4]
June 15th 1997: New Study into Bse in Children.
"Health chiefs have sparked a new search for children under 16 who might be showing symptoms of brain illness. Now the department of health is funding a special three year study. Stephen dealler said, "The incubation period is around 10 years, so new cases would start to show about now. There have been a number of reports of children with unusual brain disorders which could be cjd."" [5]
June 15th 1997: Labour Plans to Ban Sheep Spleen/Spinal Cord and Compensate Pharmers for yet more Shoddy Products.
Scrapie was made a notifiable disease in 1994. After the announcement of 10 bse-cjd victims in march 1996 a number of scientists alleged that it was highly likely that Sheep would also be infected by the disease. The labour government is not willing to admit this possibility but jack cunningham did take some immediate precautions, "The brutish government is to ban human consumption of Sheep spleen, plus the spinal cord and meat recovered from the vertebral columns of Sheep more than a year old. Jack cunningham, the agriculture minister, announced the plans last week in a move that will extend the ban on the consumption of Sheep brains. Cunningham also announced plans to compensate farmers for the market value of Sheep suspected of having scrapie." [6]
June 26th 1997: Judge's Verdict pays off for Macdonalds.
A few days after a right wing, rural, tory judge found in favour of macdonalds in their high court case against two anarchists, the multi-national Earth wrecking corporation announces it will resume purchasing of brutish beef. It has to be wondered what it would have done had if it lost the court case. It's almost as if the judge knew that if he didn't find in macdonald's favour then it would continue its ban against brutish beef being produced by his aristocratic chums.
July 12th 1997: Demand for New Search for Bse Victims.
"A controversial report published last week (by manuelidis) argues that public health officials should broaden their search for evidence of the transmission of mad cow disease to people. The report warns that some forms of transmitted disease may be lurking undetected in the human population."[7]
July 16th 1997: Pharmers still ignoring silly Beef Laws.
Once again jack cunningham takes action against pharmers over bse .. "the latest embarrassment in the handling the bse crisis, the undercover export of more than 1,600 tonnes of beef. In a commons written answer at westminster, jack cunningham announces new secondary legislation would be introduced to clarify and strengthen the powers of officials to prevent illegal exports and increase checks at ports. The government last night acted to extend powers to stop the illegal export of brutish beef and prosecute offenders following an admission that the tory government failed to block the loophole during its beef war with brussels. .. in brussels the european commission accused britain of waiting nearly two months before launching a full investigation into whether beef had been illegally exported. The commission reappeared yesterday that it is still considering whether to take legal action against britain for inefficient controls." [8]
August 4th 1997: Pharmers murder two more Bse-cjd Victims.
"A mother of four has become the twenty-first victim of the new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which scientists have linked with eating beef. Sue Carey, 36, used to live in Mersham, Kent, near where the first "mad cow" was identified on a farm in High Halden in 1985, and where a cluster of people have since died from cjd. Between 1985 and 1987, Mrs Carey and her husband, Henry, 43, a labourer and tractor driver, lived in a tied cottage on an estate owned by the film producer Lord Brabourne, which was home to a dairy herd and beef cattle. "We ate plenty of beef and Sue would eat a hamburger as a treat when she went into town," Mr Carey said. "In those days we didn't know anything about bse."" [9] ; "A woman judo star who died in hospital this weekend is believed to be the 21st British victim of the new strain of cjd - the so-called human mad cow disease - it was revealed today. Mandy Minto, 27, died on Saturday in Sunderland Royal Hospital, a hospital spokesman confirmed. He said she was a suspected victim of `new-variant' Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, which is believed to be caused by eating meat from cows infected with bse." [10]
August 22nd 1997: Clare Tomkins, yet another Bse-cjd Victim - New Public Relations Disaster for Pharmers.
Since march 1996, the deaths of most bse-cjd victims have passed virtually without comment in the pharmer loving media. Their deaths recive far less attention in the media than the new subsidies being given to the pharming fraternity. However, the discovery that clare tomkins is suffering from bse-cjd generates stirs up media interest because she has been a vegetarian for twelve years which suggests the bse-cjd incubation period is far longer than had previously been suspected. The news is a publicity bombshell to pharmers who have been insisting that the worst of the disaster is now over, "A woman who has been a vegetarian for 12 years has been confirmed as having the new variant of cjd .. Clare tomkins, aged 24, has been a strict vegetarian since 1985, before the first case of 'mad cow disease' was diagnozed. Ms tomkins, from tonbridge, kent, is now in the final stages of the disease after first showing symptoms in early 1996. Clare is the 22nd confirmed case of cjd, but has the longest known incubation period. Ms tomkins's family first raised concerns about their daughter when she was diagnozed as suffering from acute depression in 1996, the first sign of the new variant of cjd .. Ms tomkins's weight fell to just over five stone." [11]
August 27th 1997: If Meat wasn't the Cause of Clare's Death is Milk and Cheese a Danger?
"John Pattison, chairman of the British Government's Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC), admitted that the case (the diagnosis of bse-cjd in clare tomkins) showed the longest incubation period, "The fact that this woman was a vegetarian for such a long time is an unusual feature and we will think about what the implications for that are,"' he said. Evidence discounting milk or cheese as an infectious agent should be re-assessed, he added. Richard Lacey, who first highlighted the bse threat, warned that scientists should not dismiss the possibility that drinking milk, with low concentrations of the agent over a long period, might be the same as eating highly infected meat. "The experiments (using milk) are not satisfactory,"' he suggested. "It just means you can't pump enough infected milk into a mouse. But milk might be infectious if consumed over a long period."" [12]
When the pharming industry suffers a public relations' disaster like this, the rural contras invariably appear to soothe away public anxieties, "Peter Smith, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and another member of SEAC, said the relatively low rate of new diagnosed cases made estimates of "millions of future victims look rather implausible. I think the final toll will be at least some hundred or more. I would be much more concerned if there had been a rapid increase over the last year. More cases are going to occur for some years, even decades, to come."" [13]
September 4th 1997: Yet another person murdered by the Pharming Industry. Michael Connor, 23rd Bse-cjd Victim.
"A man who worked part-time at a butcher's has died from the human form of mad cow disease. Grandad michael connor, 59, began losing his memory last december. She said michael never ate much meat but worked saturday's for a butcher for ten years until 1987." [14]
September 13th 1997: Worries about Bse in Sheep.
Since the discoverof bse in 1987 there have been only sporadic outbreaks of public anxieties about bse. There were long periods of time when the public wasn't interested in bse followed by short periods of public outrage after the discovery of facts contradicting the government's and maffia's wild, unscientific, speculations. The phenomena of bse in Sheep has followed a similar pattern. This disaster is as old as bse in Cattle and it too occasionally turns into a public scandal when new information emerges showing the threat is much greater than the government suggests. However, most of the information about bse in Sheep has appeared in small circulation magazines which do not generate any public response, "Bse may now be lurking in Sheep, which until the late 1980s were fed the remain of Cows. Although bse may have its origins in scrapie, its transfer back to Sheep would be worrying because the bse agent seems to be more virulent than most scrapie strains, perhaps because it changed subtly in passing into Cattle. In response to such concerns, the british government last year banned the sale of Sheep and Goat heads, and three months later extended the ban to spleen and spinal cord. The second worry is that a strain of scrapie might mutate to produce a new strain just as nasty as bse, which could also infect people. Controlling scrapie will be much more difficult than eradicating bse. In Cows, rates of transmission from animal to animal are sufficiently low that, now exposure to infected feed has been stopped, the disease should die out. But in scrapie, transmission from ewe to lamb and probably between adults as well, can sustain an epidemic indefinitely." [15]
September 29th 1997: Surprise, Surprise - Bse-cjd is a Form of Bse.
Government scientists announce definitive evidence that bse-cjd is mad Cow disease. The head of the government's cjd committee, john pattison calls for an independent inquiry to be set up to investigate the spread of bse. The chair of the government's bse-cjd research group supports this call.
October 10th 1997: Government Refuses to carry out Investigation into Bse Murders.
Given the large number of people who have been killed by mentally ill patients released into the community as part of the tory government's sickening 'care in the community' policy, and given the spread of a disease which is eating people's brains, it is surprising the chief medical officer has not investigated whether some of the mentally ill killers are afflicted by bse-cjd - but then he's probably too busy denying that bse poses a threat to ooman health to do anything about this issue, "Two people a month die at the hands of persons with mental illness released into the community, according to figures from the Zito Trust. Since 1992 .. it is claimed that 104 people have been murdered in similar circumstances. Many of the former patients who lapse into violence attack members of their own family but according to the zito trust, 40 of the 104 victims were unknown to their assailant." [16]
October 31st 1997: First Case of Bse in Belgium.
The first case of bse in belgium is detected.
November 10th 1997: Pattison Raises Fears of Bse-cjd in Ooman Blood.
Scientists make a another attempt to force the labour government to take measures against the dangers of bse-cjd in blood transfusions. John pattison, head of seac, announces there is a danger of bse-cjd getting into the national blood supplies. What is bizarre about this announcement, however, is that whilst pattison admits that bse-cjd could be present in ooman blood he still seems unwilling to admit that bse could be present in Cattle blood and that eating beef and drinking milk is a threat to ooman health.
Itn's lunchtime news treats the announcement with a substantial degree of irrelevance, "Fresh controversy over bse. It follows claims that the human form of bse could be present in the national blood supply. The government's adviser professor john pattison says, "It's a significant risk."" [17] This is a ten second news clip in a news programme lasting twenty minutes (a few months later coverage of the queen mother's hip operation took up 12 minutes). Notice that the word "claims" is used as if this was just an opinion rather than a scientific finding. Notice also that pattison is referred to as a mere government adviser rather than the government's chief scientific officer investigating bse. Such is the way of death in pharmer dominated, news broadcasting industry.
The bbc treats the subject a little more seriously - primarily because the news item is also a plug for a panorama programme on the topic later that evening, "The head of the government's advisory body on mad cow disease says there's a significant risk that the human equivalent, cjd, may be present in the blood supply. In an interview for tonight's 'panorama' professor john pattison calls on the government to treat donated blood." The news goes on to mention that there is another measure which could reduce the risk - patients waiting for operations may wish to cut down the risk of infection by giving their own blood in advance, "And the committee has also urged the government to consider treating blood to remove the white blood cells which is where the agent which causes cjd may be hiding." [18] This last sentence is somewhat fanciful - suggesting that prions 'hide' in white blood cells as if they knew that if they came out and showed themselves they might be incarcerated. The description is politically correct, however, since it agrees that bse is present in ooman blood but without making the admission obvious. If this announcement had been made a year ago it would have required the abandonment of virtually the whole beef industry because it implies bse is present in Cattle blood but now the issue has drifted out of public consciousness the government doesn't need to do anything about it. The majority of the public does not seem to understand the enormity of the implications of this announcement.
November 10th 1997: Panorama Reveals that Bse is in Blood and Raises new Fears about a Bse Epidemic.
The panorama programme shown this evening is only the second on bse by this flagship documentary series. It is nevertheless a powerful indictment of what has unfolded since its last broached the subject. Firstly, it highlights the conclusive evidence that bse-cjd is bse in oomans, "Four weeks ago (october 1997) scientists formally announced a breakthrough in the race against the disease thanks to a study of infected Mice brains. Moira bruce at edinburgh's Animal health laboratory wanted to know if they (bse and bse-cjd) were the same." She states, "This set of results leaves very little room to doubt that new variant cjd is bse in humans." [19] "Scientists finally had proof. Humans had got mad cow disease." [20]
These tests could have been completed a decade ago so what they actually reveal is that tory governments have been successful in denying what is a common sense conclusion. Tory governments have been extremely good at using Mice experiments to delay acceptance of even the most obvious conclusion about bse.
The second major point made by this programme is that bse seems to have a far longer incubation period than previously suspected. It suggests the reason an epidemic has not yet manifested itself is not that bse-cjd isn't highly infectious but that it has a longer incubation period than originally predicted. Claire tomkins was 22 when she got the first symptoms of bse-cjd. She was a strict vegetarian for over eleven years, "It was a discovery with alarming implications for all of us. "It is possible that the incubation period may be 10, 15, 20 years or even longer and this is very important because any predictions about what is likely to happen are crucially dependent on what the average incubation period is." [21] Claire's case has demonstrated all too clearly that the incubation period might be very long indeed. Her experience shattered the assumption that if there was to be an epidemic we would already be experiencing it now. Instead it showed that many could currently be carrying the disease and not show any symptoms for years to come. The peak of an epidemic could still be years away. "I would certainly say that there is still a possibility that there could be many thousands or even tens of thousands of cases of new variant cjd." [22]
The programme's third revelation is that bse has been discovered in a ooman organ involved in the body's immune system and that bse prions can invade oomans' white blood cells i.e. it is present in ooman blood, "A new test carried out on pamela (tomkins) and several other new variant cjd victims showed that the new disease was very different (from cjd) and much more dangerous. Tissue taken from their tonsils was examined. Instead of confining itself to the brain scientists found the abnormal prions in the tonsils as well. "Tonsils are part of the immune system, the lymphatic system, and lymphocytes can travel between the blood and the immune system quite readily so if they have the abnormal prion in the tonsil it could easily also be present in the circulatory blood." [23] But the suggestion that the disease could be carried by lymphocytes i.e. white blood cells was alarming. Although no evidence had yet been sought about people catching the disease from blood, this new evidence suggests they might. Last week the scientists on the government's advisory body, seac, decided that something had to be done. They announced there is enough evidence to suggest there might be a risk of bse-cjd being in blood supplies." (This seems like a sane precaution given that millions of people have consumed bse-infected meat and could be incubating the disease at the time they donate blood). "On thursday (november 6th 1997) seac told the government .. "it is logical to seek to minimize any risk from blood or blood products .." They recommended that the government should consider treating blood supplies by luco-depletion to remove the white blood cells. The government has now agreed to prepare for this mass treatment of donated blood but says it won't give the final go-ahead until it has taken advice from its own scientists. That could be months away." [24]
That the labour government refuses to take advice from its own scientists but seeks advice from another set of, unknown and unnamed, scientists is absurd. What is the point of setting up seac to make recommendations and then ignoring them? But this is not so surprising given that the blair government seems to be following in tories' footsteps.
The panorama programme resurrects the spectre of a bse epidemic. For the last year or so government 'scientists' have been encouraged by the fact that there have been only a small number of bse-cjd victims. This has led them to believe the total number of bse-cjd victims would be small. The recent crop of new evidence - the proof that bse-cjd is the same as bse; bse's long incubation period; and the presence of bse-cjd in blood - suggests the threat is much bigger. Now scientists are talking about tens of thousands of fatalities.
Another major breakthrough for this programme is that a bse-cjd victim is shown on brutish television for the first time - a mad ooman. For the last ten years whenever new items have mentioned bse they have often been accompanied by clips of bse-infected Cows stumbling and falling over; this is the first time an infected ooman has been seen. The similarities between the two are all too obvious. It's a sad spectacle.
These clips have never been shown on tv again. On the rare occasions when television news mentions a bse-cjd victim this clip is not shown again. Doubtlessly television news journalists believe this would have a detrimental impact on the beef industry's recovery which is far more important than warning people not to eat diseased meat.
The main propaganda trick played by sarah powell in this programme is refusing to draw the conclusion that if bse-cjd prions are in oomans' blood cells then there is a strong possibility that bse must also be present in Cattle blood and that current regulations covering the consumption opf beef are a farce. There is no way that a disease which is transmitted by ooman blood is not also being transmitted in the same way by Animals and therefore all the measures currently being taken to prevent the disease being passed to oomans are inadequate. One scientist drops the maffia's pretence that bse is not present in Cattle blood and that only a limited number of Animal organs contain prions, "It's clear that the level of infectivity in brain and spinal cord is enormously higher than in any other tissue." [25] And yet quite surprisingly, the head of the government's advisory committee makes an unequivocal statement that beef is safe to eat, "I have no doubt that beef is now safe, at least that beef which is allowed into the human food chain. I have no doubt that in 1997 beef is safe to eat." [26] There is no scientific evidence for this statement. This person could well be responsible for condemning many more people to die from bse. It is gross irresponsibility. This statement lacks credibility because the maffia have refused to test the Cattle being slaughtered in the country's abattoirs to determine whether the prevalence of the disease - primarily because the labour government, like its tory predecessors, is more concerned about protecting the beef industry than consumers' health. The labour government are contributing to the spread of bse.
The panorama programme presents so much new evidence about bse it is surprising that it is virtually ignored by the rest of the media. The news continues to devote huge slabs of time to the trial of louise woodward. It is extraordinary how the media is stage-managing this disease to such an extent that the fate of one person is more important than an epidemic.
November 11th 1997: Drop in Beef Sales.
"Sales of burgers and meat pies tumbled by a quarter after the bse scare, figures revealed yesterday. Shoppers opted for Chicken and Turkey dishes instead of beef-based products after indications of a link between infected meat and bse-cjd. The amount of raw beef bought to be cooked and eaten at home also slumped by up to a fifth." [27]
November 22nd 1997: Vicki Rimmer finally dies from Bse-cjd.
On average bse-cjd victims suffer from the disease for about two years before dying but poor vicky rimmer had to endure it for four years, "Tragic vicky rimmer, one of the first and youngest victims of cjd, died in the arms of her grandmother yesterday. The 20 year old former kennel worker had been in a coma for four years before being struck down by the human form of mad cow disease at 16." [28]
November 27th 1997. Renewed Fears about Bse-cjd in Ooman Blood.
A few weeks after the panorama documentary about bse-cjd in ooman blood, the doctors concerned with the provision of blood for haemophiliacs express their concern that patients might contract bse-cjd from infected blood supplies. It is bad enough that haemophiliacs have caught aids from infected blood but to catch bse-cjd as well would be horrendous. Channel 4 news reports that although there is no evidence that anyone has contracted the disease via this route, two batches of blood products were withdrawn from the national supplies after it was discovered they had been provided by people who later contracted bse-cjd.
It is interesting that the government refuses to test blood for bse - presumably because if it is shown to be the case it would cause pandemonium. On the contrary, the government continues to make strenuous efforts to avoid the introduction of such a test. The department of health, in its usual defence of the spread of bse, states that the news about bse-cjd in blood would cause additional worry to patients and consequently has no plans to prevent bse from getting into blood.
It is amazing that, once again, the likelihood of bse-cjd in ooman blood is discussed withouy any reference to the possibility of bse in Cattle blood and thus meat. John snow is highly respected in his profession and many commentators regard him as one of the most independent newscasters on tv and yet even he does not draw attention to the parallel between bse-cjd in ooman blood and bse in Cattle blood.
December 1st 1997. Lawless, Anarchists (i.e. Pharmers) Hijack Lorries.
Pharmers demonstrate against the importation of beef by blockading various ports around the country. Their anger boils over one night and they hijack a lorry and chuck its load of beef burgers into the harbour. There have never been any prosecutions for this destruction of private property. There's clearly one law for pharmers and one law for the rest of society.
December 3rd 1997. Pharmers in Uproar once Again: Government Announces a Ban on Beef on the Bone.
Jack cunningham announces a ban on bse-on-the-bone. The bse issue suddenly erupts again but not because the public is worried about a new bse health scare but because stroppy tory pharmers don't like the decision, "Agriculture minister jack cunningham announced a ban on cuts such as ribs and T-bone steaks after government researchers found that dorsal root ganglia, swellings on nerve branches near the spinal chord that lie within the vertebrae, are infective. A sample of bone marrow also showed signs of infectivity, but this result needs to be confirmed to rule out contamination from other tissues. Other tissues known to be infectious are the brain, retina, spinal cord, and the end of the ileum, part of the small intestine." [29]
The antecedents of this ban go back to march 20th 1996 when tory pharmer mps could no longer cover up the bse-cjd epidemic and announced there 10 suspected cases of bse-cjd. In response to this tragedy, the government's scientific advisers, seac, recommended that all Cattle meat should be deboned. The tory government ignored this scientific advice because it would have meant that brutish beef would have become very expensive. It therefore made a political decision to combat the spread of bse-cjd by accepting the nfu's proposal for a cull of Cattle over 30 months and no deboning. This meant that only beef from Cattle under this age, including unboned meat, could be sold to the public. Thereafter the tories believed the deboning issue had become an irrelevance but seac continued to support the proposal even for Cattle under 30 months old.
Logically, if the culling of Cattle over 30 months old made the deboning proposal irrelevant then it should also have made the offals' ban irrelevant but the tory government felt it wasn't politically expedient to rescind these regulations two days after announcing the arrival of a new fatal disease. Unfortunately for the tories and the country's pharmers the continuation of the offals ban had the side effect of keeping the deboning issue in play.
Channel four news interviews richard lacey on cunningham's decision. He points out that bse is in Cattle blood and that the deboning regulation is just a cosmetic measure because even more draconian actions are necessary. It also interviews colin blakemore who demands a public enquiry into the disease. He doesn't want the enquiry to be a witch hunt against the previous tory government or tory pharmers but fears another epidemic could happen. Jon snow actually gets around to asking, some 20 months after the first bse-cjd announcement, whether bse is present in Cattle blood. Pharmers are extremely distressed by the ban especially because their biggest sales occur in the run up to xmas. A channel four reporter interviews a pharmer who said he felt the ban was unavoidable but wanted the government to delay the announcement until after xmas - yet another case of the 'I just can't get my head around the view that beef carries a fatal disease'.
This announcement is made in the midst of a strange constellation of political circumstances. Ironies abound. Over the last couple of days pharmers have been blockading various ports around the country. At the same time it is also announced that coal pits are likely to close in the near future with the loss of 5,000 jobs.
In the mid-1980s the tory government brutally dumped tens of thousands of miners onto the scrap heap. A decade later, when it was discovered that consumers didn't want to eat diseased meat, the tory government decided to fork out billions of pounds in compensation to their tory pharming friends so they wouldn't end up on the same scrapheap as the miners. It could even be argued that in the mid 1990s the tory government was more willing to give pharmers subsidies than reduce income tax by 2p when such a tax cut might have enabled them to win the 1997 general election. Now the labour government is faced with the prospect of having to bail out either the pharmers or the miners. It will be interesting to discover how much welfare benefit handouts, sorry, subsidies will be given to pharmers. Even more ironic is that pharmers are using flying pickets to blockade the ports just as the miners did in the 1980s and yet they are not being brutally beaten into submission by thug loads of coppers. So far blair has given the pharmers only a billion quid in compensation, "The taxpayer will pay £1.4 billion this year in support of the brutish beef industry." [30]
December 5th 1997: Nfu Demand a Billion Quid for not Flogging Bse-Diseased Carcasses.
The president of the nfu is interviewed on bbc one's breakfast news about pharmers' continuing blockade of ports to prevent imports of foreign beef. (When Animal rights protestors blockaded ports against the export of live Animals the media did not invite any of their leaders to amiable studio interviews). He supports the pharmers' actions, as long as they are within the law, (nod, nod, wink, wink) and says that legitimate protests will continue until the government compensates the pharmers for the loss of income incurred by beef imports (pharmers also want compensation for the cost of transportation to picket lines and the loss of earnings whilst on picket duty). When asked what sort of figure he had in mind he says, "It roughly works out to £850 million." Hitler used to argue that if you were going to tell a lie then tell a massive one and plainly the head of the nfu has taken a leaf out of his book - if you're going to make a claim for compensation then make it big.
It was revealed on channel four news that jack cunningham's decision to ban beef on the bone had been taken after advice from seac scientists and after talks with the families of bse-cjd victims. His son had known one of the victims at university before she'd died of the disease. This was perhaps the most courageous decision taken so far during the entire bse crisis since virtually all previous decisions have been taken only after the government has been forced to act by public pressure. Even more courageous given that cunningham made his decision when there was very little public pressure on him and when pharmers were becoming more and more violent in their demands for subsidies - indeed, there is the distinct possibility that pharmers mounted the blockades against the importation of beef because they'd been forewarned by members of the maffia about cunningham's decision and were desperately trying to get him to change his mind.
The great brutish livestock responded to the news of the ban by buying up the remaining stocks of 'bse on the bone' before it disappeared from the shops.
December 6th 1997: Revolting Pharmers.
Pharmers continue blockading ports around the country. At first their protests were about the unfairness of the e.u's ban on brutish exports of beef. However, it now appears as if many of the protestors are Sheep pharmers protesting about the rising value of the pound increasing the cost of exporting brutish Lamb. Both Cattle and Sheep pharmers are so used to receiving welfare benefit payments they believe they deserve compensation even for an appreciating currency. As far as is known this is the only group of workers in the country who believe they not only have the right to compensation for selling diseased products but also have the right to compensation for increases in currency costs. By pretending these protests are about the injustices of the ban on beef exports they believe it will be easier to get the government to cough up, "Cattle prices crashed in the bse crisis yesterday - as Cows were auctioned off for the cost of a beefburger meal. Premier tony blair appealed for calm and warned pickets that they will make it harder to end a euro ban on british beef. He spoke out after rowdy confrontations in dover, holyhead, fishguard, stranraer and other ports, sparked by farmers who want to keep out cheap irish beef. The PM signalled there will not be extra cash for farmers on top of the amount already being spent on the crisis. Downing street insisted that no "pot of gold" existed to boost farming aid." [31] Everytime that blair states he's not going to give the pharmers any more subsidies he reverses his decision within a matter of weeks.
December 6th 1997: Animal Rightist Jailed by Eco-Nazis.
Whilst pharmers are ransacking lorries at the country's ports, intimidating lorry drivers bring beef into the country, and protecting their right to charge consumers extortionate prices for home-grown bse-beef, it is announced, "An Animal rights activist who launched a multi-million pound firebomb blitz was jailed for 18 years yesterday. On one night barry horne caused such damage to stores on the isle of wight that fire crews were called from the mainland. Horne, 45, destroyed a Boots branch causing £2.8 million damage, and hit halford and cancer research shops." [32] The Earth party has a manifesto commitment that when it is elected to power it will release all Animal rights prisoners and throw the judges into jail for crimes against the Earth. The subsidies currently being given to pharmers will be transferred to these prisoners in compensation for suffering so much injustice.
Why is it that judges give paedophiles a measly couple of years in prison whilst giving Animal rights activists trying to save lives an extortionate 18 year jail sentence? The most obvious reason is that all judges come through the public school system receiving chastizements which leave them with a deep sympathy for paedophiliacs. But it is also the case that many of them are pharmers with huge spreads of land in the countryside who don't want their interests challenged by urban Animal lovers. Is it not amazing that rapists and even murderers get smaller prison sentences than barry horne?
December 10, 1997: Renewed Fears about Bse in Sheep.
Fears about bse in Sheep are raised again, "Uk scientists will add to doubts about the safety of eating lamb tonight, just a day after european union experts suggested a ban on meat on the bone from British lamb over six months old. In a programme for Channel 4's Dispatches, some members of the UK's scientific advisory body on bse will warn that it is likely the disease has been transmitted to sheep and "possible" that the disease is endemic among the national flock, even though it has not yet been detected. "Professor John Collinge told the programme: "Given the amount of contaminated feed that was fed to sheep and given that we know that sheep are quite susceptible to bse by the oral route, it will be surprising to me if some cases haven't happened." He added: "It's certainly a possibility that bse could be endemic in sheep. It certainly is a worry." Their comments come a day after a European Union scientific committee dealt a new blow to the meat industry across Europe, recommending a ban on sales of lamb on the bone from animals over 12 months old. The scientists also suggested even tighter controls in high bse-risk countries such as the UK with an age limit of six months on sales of lamb on the bone from animals slaughtered in Britain. Farmers warned that the extra controls had "massive implications" for the industry in the UK. Nearly 80% of lamb slaughtered in the UK is under 12 months old - and up to 90% of it is currently sold on the bone. The main recommendation of the EU Scientific Steering Committee was to extend controls on banned beef offal to the lungs, vertebral column and "dorsal root ganglia" of all sheep and goats older than 12 months across the EU. But commission officials pointed out that the age limit would be redoubled in areas already facing a serious risk of bse." [33]
The Sheep industry responds with its usual deep seated concern for consumers' health, "John Thorley of the National Sheep Association noted that meat from sheep had not been identified as the cause of any cases of CJD. "It's absolute nonsense," Thorley said. "The idea that we should change the whole sheep industry as a precaution against a risk which frankly doesn't exist is ridiculous." "It's a sick joke in very bad taste," he said. The British government's advisory body on bse had ruled out the need for a ban on the sales of sheep meat on the bone. Of the estimated 17 million sheep slaughtered in Britain this year, only about 2 million were more than 12 months old, a spokesman said. And many of those, he said, were used by food manufacturers rather than being sold as cuts of meat." [34] One of the main protestors about bse in Cattle was, rather surprisingly, dismissive of the possibility of bse in Sheep, "Professor Richard Lacey, a leading microbiologist who was among the first scientists to raise the alarm about beef, said last night that he could see no danger from lamb and described the Brussels proposals as "wildly over the top"." [35]
Jack cunningham is not convinced about the need for further action, "The Scientific Steering Committee, an influential 16-member advisory panel, said the European Union should apply the ban to meat from all animals more than 12 months old, but added in a footnote that in "high risk" countries, apparently meaning Britain, the age limit should be reduced to six months. Dr Cunningham said last night that the Government took guidance from its own scientists and not from an advisory committee in Brussels. The Government had already decided to require the removal of skull and spinal cord (not bone) from all sheep over the age of 12 months from January 1, Dr Cunningham said, and his scientists had advised him that no further action was needed. The ban proposed by the Brussels committee would chiefly affect the vertebral column and associated nervous tissue." [36]
December 11th 1997: EU Delays Implementing a Bovine Offals Ban.
"EU efforts to control mad cow disease suffered a setback on Wednesday after member states failed to back a proposal outlawing animal remains and scientists advised a list of banned material was not extensive enough. Legislation to remove rendered cattle brains and spinal cords from products was due to take effect on Jan. 1, but it has run into a series of trade and now scientific complications, leaving a delay the only option open to the European Commission. The United States in particular has voiced concern at the proposed ban, calling it unscientific and unjustified, and saying the issue could prompt a full-scale trade war. It argues it has no history of bse (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) and therefore should be exempt. Washington has estimated some $4.5 billion worth of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals could be jeopardised." [37]
December 14th 1997: Secret Testing for Bse in Oomans but the Government still will not test Livestock for Bse.
Seac announces that doctors will start carrying out tests for bse-cjd without the permission of patients. This was virtually inevitable once seac had raised doubts about the safety of the country's blood supply. But still no tests on Cattle being executed in abattoirs!!!
December 15th 1997: Brutland Bans Foreign Beef.
The labour government announces it is to reimpose a ban on foreign beef which the tories had imposed in the summer of 1996 and then been forced to drop during its dispute with the european comission. Although the ban is more in the interests of saving brutish beef than in protecting the brutish consumer, the fact is that cunningham is right to impose the ban not merely because this will help to curb europe's beef industry but because it is likely that foreign beef is increasingly becoming riddled with bse. This measure also helps cunningham to deflect criticisms of his decision to ban bse-on-the-bone. The measure he has taken is more symbolic than practical since the regulations are unenforceable and easily evaded, "The government last night engaged in tit-for tat retaliation against meat imports from the european union after the e.u. delayed regulations forcing continental abattoirs to meet the same slaughtering standards for Cattle and Sheep as those in britain. Jack cunningham imposed the ban from midnight on Beef, Sheep and Goat meat from which materials suspected of harbouring bse - including skulls, eyes, brains and spinal cords - have not been removed. Imported beef on the bone is also banned under parliamentary orders. A committee of e.u. vets decided yesterday to delay from january 1st to march 31st implementation of regulations - agreed by agriculture ministers last july - that "risk" materials should be removed. All member states except britain voted for the delay, with at least six claiming they had no need of the regulations because they had never had a case of bse. .. almost half of all beef imports come from ireland and france which already have regulations to remove risk material. A third of the beef eaten in britain is imported, last year amounting to nearly 140,000 tonnes." [38]
December 20th 1997: Butchers still selling Bse-on-the-bone. They know that 25 people are now dead but they still can't take the disease seriously.
In a front page article, the daily mail reports that butchers are ignoring the bse-on-the-bone ban. This is just the latest ruse by lawless, anarchist butchers who in the past have minced up diseased beef and passed it off as Lamb.
December 22nd 1997: Cunningham gives go-ahead to Public Enquiry into Bse. More Subsidies for Scrounger Pharmers.
Cunningham gives the go ahead for a public enquiry into bse, "Jack cunningham said the bse inquiry would be led by judge lord justice phillips. It has a year to draw up a report. The inquiry will look at the 'history and emergence' of bse and its human equivalent bse-cjd and the response to them." [39] Taking a leaf out of the tories' book of evasive tactics, the announcement is made on the final day of the parliamentary term when most of the opposition have gone back to their pharms to bank their welfare benefits cheques. The labour government has a habit of mixing up the good news with the bad news. It also announces it will make £85 million available for pharmers hit by the bse-currency crisis.
December 29th 1997: Public Enquiry into Spread of Bse into Sheep.
"An inquiry is being launched into whether bse has spread to Sheep in britain, after e.u. calls to ban lamb on the bone." [40] As of may 2000, there has been no further news about this inquiry!
