January 5th 2000: Start of French beef ban Case.

The brutish government takes the french government to court today over its ban on the importation of bse. The french government has decided it should take the e.c. to court for failing to protect public health. This means the legal process will be much longer than previously estimated.

The french government insists the brutish government carries out a random test of u.k. Cattle at abattoirs. [1] Dealler's view of this is that, "I would think that this would be extremely unwise for maff as they may well find such bad news as to cause much greater problems. As such I would expect them, and all other internal governments, to do their best not to randomly test any cattle. This is already done in Ireland but no results are available from there officially. [2]

January 18th 2000: It's alright for Publicans to sell beer all day, for tobacconists to advertise Fags; and Restrateurs and Butchers to sell Bse-infected beef but we can't have People Smoking Joints.

There have been no convictions of people selling bse-on-the-bone, "A pub landlord accused of selling beef-on-the-bone while it was outlawed has had the case against him dropped. Two undercover health inspectors, posing as a love-struck couple, ordered T-bone steaks at alan coomber's pub during the mad cow scare. When the food arrived they put it into bags and left to report him for breaking the law. Now rother district council has dropped charges against me coomber who runs the bell inn at iden, east sussex. Lawyers told him that as the beef ban had now been lifted the prosecution would serve "no useful purpose". Delighted mr coomber said, "It would have been a farce to carry on with the case. I think i will go and celebrate with a nice t-bone steak." [3] This is yet another example of the Animal exploitation industry making a mockery of the law.

This situation makes it appear as if the government's attitude towards drugs is completely corrupt. When blair first came into office the labour party had a manifesto commitment to ban cigarette advertisements. He then tried to block proposals for such a ban because the labour party had just been given a donation by bernie eccleston whose motor racing business depends on advertisements from the tobacco industry. In this country, tobacco kill tens of thousands of people every year. The blair government has also decided to relax the laws on the consumption of alcohol to enable more pubs to open for longer hours. It is also playing a prominent role in sustaining the big lies about bse i.e. that bse infected beef is safe to eat. Blair's even been using government resources to organize sales pitches to promote the spread of this disease. His government has done virtually nothing to enforce the law over the illegal consumption of bse-on-the-bone. And yet he is stridently anti-drug and shows no sign of wanting to even consider reforming the country's drug laws. It has to be asked why anyone taking drugs in this country should take this government's views on drugs seriously when it is encouraging the sale of bse-infected beef, encourages the sale of bse-on-the-bone, and boosts drugs such as alcohol and tobacco? - see the section on the extension of pubs' licensing hours dated April 11th 2000. Blair's stance is laughable - nobody could possible take his views seriously.

January 22nd 2000: Report suggests Bse-Cjd Fatalities will be Minimal - only thousands of Victims.

At present there seem to be three ways by which the scale of the bse-cjd epidemic could be assessed. The first is by a mathematical extrapolation of annual figures for bse-cjd fatalities. The first officially recognized deaths from bse-cjd occurred in 1995. Five years later there are more statistics which could be used to assess the scale of the epidemic. The second is by looking at the statistics for the numbers of bse cases and then assessing how much bse infected material has been consumed by oomans. The third possibility is sampling organs which have been removed from patients during routine operations over the last few years to see what proportion are infected by bse-cjd.

Southwood-Anderson Team Predict Bse-Cjd Victims.

The southwood-anderson team seem to be at the forefront of the statistical approach to the assessment of bse-cjd fatalities, "Researchers at the wellcome trust centre for the epidemiology of infectious diseases in oxford have worked with statistics on how many infected cows were slaughtered, how much infected material entered the food chain and the course of the Cattle epidemic. From this, they have produced a model describing the likely course of britain's bse-cjd epidemic." [4] Their latest prediction suggests that bse-cjd fatalities will be minimal - only thousands of people may die, "The horrific possibility that millions of people in britain will fall victim to the human form of bse is looking increasingly remote. The latest figures suggest that the final death toll is likely to be on the scale of thousands rather than millions." [5]

The Flaws in the Official Model of the Total Number of Bse Victims.

Before looking at some of the critical numbers involved in this analysis, a couple of points need to be made. Firstly, the oxford team relied exclusively on figures compiled by the maffia for bse fatalities. This means it is creating what could be regarded as a semi-official view of the bse epidemic - one which can be denied if the government doesn't like its conclusions. However, whether this reliance on the maffia is wise is doubtful. The maffia's record on the bse crisis is appalling - every single assumption it made about bse has turned out to be wrong. This might be surprising considering that it employs some of the most highly educated people in the country. Never in the history of bureaucracy have so many talented people, with so many resources at their disposal, managed to formulate so many irrelevant hypotheses. These errors are the consequence of the maffia's role over the last fifteen years in protecting pharmers' interests - no matter how many consumers might die as a result. In turn, the maffia's figures have relied on whatever information pharmers give them - so, if pharmers choose not to tell them about all of their bse fatalities then the maffia's records are correspondingly less accurate. The maffia's records do not take into account any of the innumerable illegal activities carried out by pharmers to cover-up the scale of the bse epidemic. It is well documented that pharmers have been systematically lying and cheating over the bse crisis so it is likely that the figures for bse fatalities, compiled by the maffia and used by the oxford team, could be anywhere between 50-100% inaccurate. However, given that one Cow could be butchered into x thousand portions which could kill y numbers of people, then what we are dealing with here is a huge multiplication in the errors that the oxford team are likely to make. In addition, the oxford team is also likely to ignore the possibilty that bse in Sheep is also helping to spread the disease amongst oomans.

The second point that needs to be made is that the oxford team is working on the assumption that bse will die out and that, as a consequence, there will be a finite number of bse-cjd fatalities - whether that number happens to be high or low. The assumption that bse will die out implies that bse-cjd will also die out so that eventually, perhaps some time towards the end of next week, this country will once again become a bse, and bse-cjd, free country. The government, the maffia, the nfu, the landed aristocracy, etc are promoting the big lies that bse and bse-cjd will die out so the oxford team, being loyal to their paymasters, adopt the same assumptions. Is it not amazing that the country's Animal exploiters haven't even eradicated bse from brutish Cattle and yet they're talking about a final death toll for the ooman victims of the disease? It is unlikely that bse and bse-cjd will die out. They are now endemic in brutish livestock herds. This means there will always be people dying from bse-cjd as a result of consuming bse infected beef - not forgetting, of course, that there is the distinct possibility that bse has polluted brutish genes so that people infected with bse-cjd will pass on this disease to their children.

It is necessary to remember not merely that the oxford boys are using offical statistics based on the big lies of the bse crisis, but that their past predictions have been so erroneous that their conclusions seem to have been designed to cover up the bse disaster. They seem to be more concerned with preventing the public from regarding pharmers and the nfu as mass murderers rather than trying to give the public an accurate forecast as to what they should expect.

The Figures for the Total Number of Bse-Cjd Victims.

Bearing these points in mind it's time to look at the oxford boys' arguments. They argue that .. "if 15 people or fewer died from bse-cjd in 1999, the model predicts that any epidemic will reach a maximum of half a million cases in total. If there is no increase and a similar number die in 2000, then it predicts that any epidemic will peak at a total of 14,000 cases or fewer." [6] Unfortunately there is no up-to-date table of figures for bse-cjd fatalities up to 1999 as there is a table for fatalities up to 1998 - see below - so it is necessary to interpret some of the other figures mentioned in the quote.

Figures for Bse-cjd Victims as Assessed at end of 1998

In the section dated january 5th 1999 it was noted that at the end of 1998 the annual bse-cjd fatalities were as follows:

1995 - 3 deaths

1996 - 10 deaths

1997 - 10 deaths

1998 - 12 deaths in first 11 months

Total 35

Figures for Bse-cjd Victims as Assessed at end of 1999.

When the bse enquiry closed at the end of 1999 (see section dated december 17th 1999) the chairperson stated there were currently 48 victims. This seems to suggest there were 48-35=13 deaths in 1999. However, in the new scientist article quoted above it is stated that, "So far, nine deaths from bse-cjd have been confirmed in 1999 .." [7] It is quite possible that 4 of the 13 deaths in 1999 have had to be back dated to 1998 because of the difficulties involved in discovering and confirming cases. This would mean that in 1998 there were 16 deaths whilst in 1999 there were 9. It is possible the figure for 1999 could change later this year.

Dealler's Estimates.

It was noted in the section dated 'December 19th 1999' that there are currently 10 suspected cases of bse-cjd. It is at this point that the issue becomes even cloudier. It might have been thought that if any of these suspected bse-cjd cases died this year th at they would be recorded in this year's statistics. However, dealler argues that .. "there are known to be 48 cases of nvCJD that have died and been fully diagnosed and a further 10 that would be added to this figure at this point. If these enter the data for 1999 then the fatalities would have risen a lot since 1998. [8]

Conclusions.

It is difficult coming to any definite conclusion about these figures. Dealler seems to suggest the figures for annual bse-cjd fatalities are determined by the date that people are confirmed as having the disease rather than the date they die - after the first symptoms have been recognized it is usually about two years before the victims die. If the former is the case then the trend of bse-cjd fatalities is as follows: in 1998, 16 died; in 1999, 9 died; and during 2000 10 could die. This suggests there is no marked upward trend in the annual numbers of bse-cjd victims. However, if dealler is right and the ten victims who are currently dying of the disease are added to the 1999 figure then this would mean that in 1998, 16 died and in 1999 it would be 19. This shows a marked rise in the rate of bse-cjd fatalities which suggests there could be huge numbers of fatalities.

January 22nd 2000: Vets yet again reveal their Abiding Contempt for Consumer Interests.

"In a move that has stunned environmental regulators, europe's veterinary scientists have decided to drastically loosen controls on the release of anti-biotics and other animal medicines into the environment. More than 10,000 tonnes of antibiotics are used in the european union each year, roughly half of which ends up in animals. Up to 50% of some drugs passes unchanged through our bodies and enters sewage systems or is poured onto the land in pharm waste, and may end up in rivers. Europe has no ceiling on the amount of drugs allowed into the soil. But veterinary authorities across the eu had said that any compound likely to accumulate at above 7.5 milligrams per hectare on a farm must undergo an environmental impact study. Now as a result of an agreement reached last year between veterinary regulators from the eu, us, and japan, who are members of a little known body called veterinary international co-operation on harmonization (vich) this threshold is to be raised tenfold to 75 grams per hectare. Stebe killeen, head of chemicals policy at britain's environment agency told new scientist that he first heard about the changes earlier this month. "The agency has had no involvement in this decision," he said. "I think there are real questions about whether vets are taking environmental issues sufficiently seriously." [9] Vets are good at maximizing profits from incarcerated Animals but their regulatory functions should be removed since they are just professional hired pharm hands. Vets are pharmers with a degree.

February 2000: Blair organizes Pharmers' Charm Offensive.

Blair decides he needs to reconnect with his grassroots and launches a charm offensive .. in rural areas, "He held a reception last night for 200 representatives (from the pharming and rural communities) before a two-day visit to devon and cornwall." [10] When asked why he's not visiting labour's council estate heartlands he mumbles something about not wanting to go onto those crime-ridden, drug infested, rubbish-strewn, grotty dumps. Perhaps one of the reasons they are so grim is because the government has been giving rural areas billions of pounds in subsidies whilst council estates don't seem to be receiving anything like the same amount, lang=EN-US style='font-family:""'>"Blair has the facts on his side and he delivered a barrage of them yesterday: the countryside is doing pretty well. There is a farming crisis - but life for most people in the country is better than in towns. They are healthier, happier, safer, better educated and richer. In devon yesterday (blair) rightly sought to disentangle the tory farming industry from most of rural life. Agriculture is only 1% of gdp and only employs 2% of the workforce in england. Even in rural areas it only employs 4% of the workforce. There is no "rural crisis"."[11] These days it's deemed reasonable to give rural areas huge sums of money whereas giving similar quantities of money to council estates is regarded as an example of an old labour vice. If anything council estates these days are even worse off than they were before because billions of pounds are being siphoned out of these communities by the national lottery which has been taken over by a bunch of elitist prats who have used people's money to finance their favourite landmark projects in the arts, media, and heritage. Blair's publicity tour of rural voters is all too indicative that the labour party has switched the basis of its support from urban to rural areas.

Not surprisingly blair takes the opportunity of yet another meeting with the nfu to hand over yet more compensation payments - although apparently ben gill hadn't worked out what the compensation would be for but was hoping a rationale might be found before the cheques arrived, "Tony blair yesterday outlined a new contract between government and pharmers in which any extra cash support would be tied to long term reform of agriculture. Detailing £3.5b government and e.u. annual support for pharmers plus aid packages worth nearly £800m mr. blair did not rule out further cash support." [12]

It's almost impossible imagining blair receiving the same number of visits from the victims of bse-cjd as he does from the nfu. It's also impossible imagining him giving bse-cjd victims the vast compensation payments which he is currently doling out to their murderers in the pharming community. He seems to be totally embarrassed by the victims of bse-cjd - as if it would upset his friendship with the nfu. It can be argued that welcoming the nfu into 10 downing street for negotiations leading to further subsidies for pharmers is like welcoming visists from stephan lawrence's killers and giving them grants to buy new houses in safer areas after their terrible ordeal of being publicly accused of his murder.

February 3rd 2000: Fat Chops gets it in the Chops - from Poverty Stricken Pharmers Dining out at the Hilton.

Nick brown is pelted with a chocolate eclair whilst attending blair's reception with angry farmers (when aren't they angry - they seem to be permanently in a state of cold turkey brought about by their anxiety that one day the public is going to wake up and wonder why it's giving billions of quid to pharmers so that they can sit on their arses all day writing out claims for yet more compensation payments). "The furious exchanges were the worst possible start for tony blair's countryside charm offensive." [13] Paul routledge, a self-confessed bse-on-the-bone criminal, so no pharmers' enemy he, makes an interesting point about the circumstances surrounding this eclair bashing incident, "And where were these cash-strapped farmers meeting? At the hilton hotel, of course." [14]

February 4th 2000: Blair offers 63rd new Subsidy to the Country's Subsidy Stricken Hilton Pharmers.

This eclair incident leads tony to realize the country's hilton pharmers are desperately in need of more subsidies so he quickly dives into his cheque book to write out what must be his 63rd new subsidy to pharmers since he got into power, "Tony blair is to hold crucial talks with recession-hit farmers. The premier offered to meet the leaders while protests grow over the state of british agriculture. And he admitted, "Farming is in crisis. Farmers need short term help."" [15] Few of the millions of urban people who voted for blair in the 1997 general election realized their votes would enable him to heap vast sums of money on pharmers.

February 4th 2000: Wales starts to Desert Blair's Rural England Bias.

Over the last four years scottish farmers have been sacrificed by the maffia in order to protect english farmers. The eu has offered to allow scottish pharmers to resume beef exports but the maffia refused because it needs scottish pharmers to exert pressure on the e.c. to lift the ban for both scotland and england. This led to widescale resentment in scotland and, as a consequence the tories lost a lot of support during the last national elections. The labour government has persisted with the same policy and is also losing public sympathy in scotland.

Something similar seems to have been occurring in wales. The labour government has refused to accept e.c grants for welsh pharmers and rural businesses because it would have required matching sums from the treasury which could not provide the money because it had locked itself in to the tory government's spending plans for the first two years in office. The nationalist party in wales has made huge political capital out of this situation insisting that if it was in power it would apply for these grants, "The bitter infighting was brought to a head by a row over winning european money for wales. Plaid cymru, the tories and the liberal democrats accused gordon brown of going back on promises to back the eu cash with treasury funds - a charge fiercely denied by the government." [16] In the minds of both the scottish and the welsh electorates is the way e.c. regional aid has transformed the irish economy. What made matters worse was that blair rigged the election for a welsh leader to ensure that his own candidate won the election despite widescale protests from welsh party members.

The elections to the new welsh assembly were as much of an electoral disaster for the labour party as the elections to the scottish parliament. It lost huge sections of support in wales even from its political heartlands. The labour party barely achieved a majority in the assembly - a huge political reversal from the general election.

Labour's unpopular welsh leader eventually resigned after being threatened with a vote of no-confidence by the welsh assembly, "Tony blair was publicly humiliated yesterday as his right hand man in wales dramatically quit. The premier was taking mps' questions when william hague seemed to break the news to him that alun michael had resigned as welsh assembly chief, ahead of a no-confidence vote." [17] The labour party is losing its grip over both the welsh and scottish assemblies primarily because of its attitudes towards protecting english pharmers. [18]

February 21st 2000: There be Poisons on them there Pharm Lands.

"Farmers were angered yesterday by calls for parents to keep young children off their land. Prof hugh pennington said on tv, "Perhaps it is unwise to take under-fives on a farm visit. E-coli can be catastrophic when it strikes." Many farmers open their holdings to the public to avert finanvcial ruin. One said "We have a stringent health policy."[19]

February 23rd 2000: French Pharmer Highlights Spread of Bse in France.

"France is covering up hundreds of cases of mad cow disease, one of its farmers claimed yesterday. Camille guillou says that potentially lethal french meat is being exported to england and the rest of europe. He accuses his fellow farmers of a "conspiracy of silence". Guillou says the 87 officially reported cases of bse are just the tip of the iceberg. He slams his countrymen for routinely flouting hygiene laws." [20] The french government and its pharmers are following the same political pattern as brutland over combatting bse - they are covering up the spread of the disease as much as possible thereby helping to spread it even further afield.

February 29th 2000: French Scientists actually doing a job which Brutish scientists are too corrupt to Carry out.

"France plans to test tens of thousands of cattle entering its abattoirs for bse. However, the survey will not include cattle found sick or dead on farms which have been a more sensitive indicator of bse in swiss surveys." [21]

March 4th 2000: Germans still Drinking Cattle Blood - whilst denying the Existence of Bse.

"Millions of germans could be eating brain tissue in cooked meat products that are supposed to be 'brain-free', a new test reveals. German scientists have developed the first test for brain and spinal cord material in products such as pate and sausages. Their tests reveal that up to 15% of german liverwurst and mettawurst may also contain undeclared brain material. Countries (in europe) which recognize that their cattle may have bse destroy brains and spinal cords from slaughtered animals as these are the most infectious parts. But germany refuses. "We have no bse in out cattle" says dorothe heidemann of the action committee for german meat which represents farmers. It is not illegal to put brain in food in germany."[22]

March 18th 2000: Germans End attempts to Keep out Brutish Bse.

"Germany ended its ban on our beef (sic) yesterday - leaving france as the only continental country still blocking imports of meat from britain. The ban should have been lifted last august with the end of a trade blockade imposed by brussels. Germany's government wanted to comply with eu rules and continue the trade but some of its regional authorities forced delays." [23]

March 18th 2000: New Diagnosis for Bse-Cjd - but strangely still no early diagnosis for Cattle because of Maffia Corruption.

"Doctors will soon be able to tell if ill people have mad cow disease. New tests will be ablew to say cjd victims "probably" have the illness six months after the first signs." [24] Well at least there's a test for oomans who have bse but wouldn't it be more sensible to have a test for bse in Cattle to prevent people from getting this dreadful pharmers' disease? Isn't it amazing there are tests for everything these days except whether pharmers are continuing to send bse infected Cattle to abattoirs?

March 20th 2000: Fourth Anniversary of Bse-Cjd Announcement.

The fourth anniversary of the announcement of the 10 bse-cjd victims passes without a mention in the media. People's interest in this disease has almost virtually vanished. It is no longer a topic of conversation. This new disease is a mere four years old, very little is known about it, it is not known how it is transmitted, etc and yet people are not in the slightest bit interested in it. The pharming propaganda over the last four years has brilliantly coralled the livestock so that they are almost as docile as the Animals they eat. It really is impossible to tell which is more docile than the other.

One of the major political problems with the bse-cjd disaster is that there is no anniversary event which might focus the public's interest on this issue and lead to a campaign which could challenge the injustices this epidemic has exposed. It is not known when the disease first appeared. It is not known when the first oomans contracted the disease. Few people know the date of the death of the first bse victim - there is even a dispute over who is the first victim of the disease. The only date that could play such a political role is march 20th 1996 when the tory government announced there were 10 suspected cases of bse-cjd.

March 30th 2000: First Case of the Vertical Transmission of Bse-cjd in Oomans.

"It should be the happiest of scenes. A young mum, let's call her andrea, plays with her baby daughter in gramma's sitting room in the midlands. But this family will never know the joys of growing up together. In a few months both mother and daughter will probably be dead. The cause, a killer disease that still defies science to find a cure and, if worst estimates are true, could bring a death toll of millions. (Andrea started to display evidence of the disease). When the baby was born she had strange symptoms. One leg appeared wasted and she couldn't suck or swallow. Meanwhile andrea had a brain scan. The result confirmed the doctors' worst fears. Andrea had bse-cjd. But worse was to come. (The suspicion the baby might also have the disease). So far 53 people have died but up to now there's been no evidence that the disease can pass from parent to child. If it turns out that this baby does have cjd it will be the first known case in history and will have worrying implications for the futue of the disease in this country and beyond. The experts also wait with dread. It could be they'll have to change their predictions about what harm bse will cause the human population in the years ahead." Trevor macdonald reports that, "Tomorrow doctors will perform a biopsy on the baby which should confirm whether she is suffering from the disease.""[25] As of may 2000 there still hasn't been any news about the result of this biopsy.

March 30th 2000: The Spread of Bse France. French Pharmers involved in the Same Dirty tricks as their Brutish Counterparts.

Later in the news programme highlighted in the previous section, the same reporter, vanessa collingridge, presents a second report about bse. It might have been thought that after cuddling what she believed could be the first case of the vertical transmission of bse-cjd that she would be in a state of wariness about the spread of this disease. Quite amazingly, however, she extols the safety of brutish beef (even though there have been no tests to prove that brutish herds are free from the disease) and highlights the spread of the disease in france as a means of discouraging brutish consumers from eating french beef - thereby creating the illusion that brutland is now completely clear of bse whilst the rest of the world is infected, "With its lolling head and unsteady feet, this Cow is showing the early symptoms of bse. It's a sight we've grown all too familiar with since the disease took hold in britain more than 15 years ago. But this Cow isn't british. It comes from the one country which still bans our beef and which many believe faces a bse crisis of its own. Of course, you wouldn't get that impression from this month's agricultural show in paris. It's the most important event in the french farming calender. As for bse it's a case of 'Crisis? What Crisis?' (Various french pharmers are shown on film vehemently denying the existence of bse in france). If that's the official version then going against it can be costly as one french farmer discovered. Camille guillou (see February 23rd 2000) broke a conspiracy of silence surrounding the problems in france. Camille's farmed in brittany for 25 years. His herd of charolette has never had a problem. But elsewhere bse is on the march. Camille says, "It's obvious we see more and more of it. There are more and more cases of this disease. Maybe not the same numbers as in england but there has been an increase in france." Not only is bse on the rise camille says he knows the cause. While his beef Cattle just eat grass, dairy Cows are also being sold off for meat. They may have been fed with manufactured feed and that feed may have been contaminated. Now others are starting to believe him. Yesterday farmers staged a demonstration (a couple of hundred pharmers) outside a feed factory in the rhone-alp region. They blame feed companies for a new spate of bse cases - 4 in the last 10 days. So far this year nearly 2000 milk Cows have been slaughtered. Feed was the problem in brutland as well. Britain banned meat and bone meal (mbm) for Cows, Sheep, and Goats but it remained legal to export it. Thousands of tonnes were shipped across the channel to france. The french banned mbm for Cattle in 1990 and high risk parts are also taken out but, unlike brutland, the french still feed it to Pigs and Poultry. The Pig feed is made in the same mills, carried in the same lorries and sold side by side with dairy feed. Now the european commission has detected a 4% rate of cross contamination. While farmers blame the feed companies the e.u. blames the french government for failing to implement the proper checks and controls to tackle bse. This (collingridge is waving a sheef of papers) is what is causing the concern. A 34 page report by the european commission which is severely critical of french efforts to combat bse. Ironically it describes a series of lax french procedures that would be unthinkable in brutland today. (Don't believe it. This is the cue for a self righteous rant from ben gill of the nfu even though the nfu done more than anyone other organization to block the testing of Cattle going into abattoirs). The french don't take criticism kindly - not from a country like ours with 175,000 cases of bse. The official french figure is just 92 but 31 of these occurred last year and are currently running at one a week. When the french authorites find a mad Cow they take immediate action. The farm is cordoned off and the whole herd is slaughtered. But because they're not examined some experts say this drastic policy actually masks the spread of the disease in france. (More of the Cows in the herd might have the disease but they don't show up in the statistics). Despite generous compensation some say slaughtering the whole herd dissuades farmers from reporting cases. Hence the old accusation that french Cows don't have bse they get jcb. (This is the cue for a second righteous rant from ben gill even though the nfu sat back whilst brutish farmers did exactly the same during the 1990s - brutish pharmers are still dumping bse infected Cattle). If that sounds like an old farmer's tale the e.u. report seems to back it up saying some french farmers report cases with "a certain hesitation and considerable delay." It's the first official indication of french under-reporting. Prof jeanne brugere-picoux is a world authority on bse. She says some farmers may send off suspect Cows to the abattoirs rather than notify the authorities. In a high security installation on the outskirts of paris, scientists are developing a new test for bse. A measure of how seriously they take the problem they're planning to screen 40,000 french Cows. If the disease is currently going undetected it may be slipping into the food chain. This week the e.u. called for compulsory random screening and it wants france to tighten up its procedures. If the e.u. has got it right it's an extremely embarrassing blow to the french government which has taken the moral high ground in illegally banning our beef on the grounds of food safety. Back home this week saw a royal charm offensive aimed at convincing europe's top chefs that british beef is safe Charles windsor states, "You will not find i think better beef in the world than here in brutland." Convincing their customers may be tougher even if the french embargo is lifted. But when we tried to erercise our rights as consumers things weren't so easy. Last year's 'Just say no' campaign has petered out and while wine and apples are aesy to spot the key question is where's the beef? Our ministry of agriculture knows but won't tell us - the major supermarkets say they don't even stock it yet we import thousands of tonnes of french beef every year so where does it go? A part of the problem is labelling. At today's crisis summit at no.10 fArmers asked tony blair for a change in the law to ensure any food marked british is definitely produced in britain. They hope a buy british campaign here will balance the slump in sales abroad. Having the safest beef in europe is not, it seems, enough." [26]

This is a bigoted report. This can be seen in a number of ways. Firstly, it takes for granted that brutish beef is free from bse whereas that from france is not. The programme thus seems to be designed to dissuade brutish consumers from buying french beef and encouraging them to eat british muck. Secondly, it implies that only french farmers have tried to hide cases of bse even though there is considerable evidence that it happened on a widescale in this country as well and it has certainly happened over a much longer time scale. Thirdly, it implies that whereas the french are not abiding by e.c. regulations the english are - despite the fact that the e.c's demand for the random testing of Cattle is being carried out in france but not in brutland. Stating that brutland has the safest beef in europe is just jingoistic nonsense when the brutish government refuses to ascertain the number of bse infected Cattle being sent to the abattoirs. Fourthly, brutish pharmers spent the first 15 years of the bse crisis blocking consumers' demands for the labelling of brutish beef in case consumers refused to eat their disease ridden stuff and it has only been in the last quarter of 1999 that it has suddenly started demanding there should be labelling to prevent consumers from not eating their disease ridden beef!

Overall, this report is appalling because it is reinforcing the prejudices that whereas the french government and french farmers are guilty of spreading the disease, the brutish government and english farmers are highly virtuous and trustworthy and thus blameless for the disease in this country.

March 31st 2000: Bse-cjd in Vaccinations?

Dealler highlights an article about children facing a risk of bse-cjd from infected vaccinations. [27] The journalists are 'told that some pharmaceutical companies' continued to use bovine material for the manufacture of vaccines and that this was from UK sources. The Health Minister Yvette Cooper has told the Commons that in spite of the risk that the bse infected material could be given to young children some drug manufacturers continued to make and supply vaccines made from uk-based bovine sources after 1988. For instance Wellcome continued to use Diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis vaccine made from uk sourced bovine material until 1991. The DofH thought that the risk from the bse was lower than that from the lack of vaccine that might have been seen. Dealler comments that "This is a bit odd in a way, because the pharmacuetical industry issued a directive not to use bovine material in around 1988 and that this was well adhered to." [28] For bse in vaccinations see the section dated May 30th 1999.

March 31st 2000: Blair gives 64th Subsidy to Pharmers whilst giving pensioners 75p a Week.

Blair continues to lavish welfare subsidies on pharmers whilst protesting he's reducing the country's welfare budget. This must be about the 64th subsidy he's given pharmers since getting into power. His treatment of pharmers contrasts markedly with the 75p a week increase the chancellor awarded old age pensioners in the recent budget, "Tony blair threw a £200 million lifeline (phew, is that all?) last night to britain's farmers. Farm leaders claim income has slumped by £4 billion because sales have been hit by the high pound and the bse crisis. The pm, who recently met angry farmers in the southwest (what's new?), said, "This will answer some of their most urgent concerns." (until next week when the nfu will be lobbying for next month's tranche of subsidies). National farmers union boss ken gill said, "We can now now build a long term sustainable strategy." [29] What gen kill seems to mean is that pharmers can now create a sustainable campaign for milking more subsidies from a government which has caved in to rural terrorism.

Ever since brutland joined the e.c. pharmers have been treated to lavish subsidies which other industries could only envy at. In 1996 when the e.c. justifiably banned the export of bse-infected beef, many pharmers joined the euroseptic movement and wanted brutland to leave the european community. They hoped that if brutland pulled out of europe the tory government would be able to pile massive amounts of subsidies back into the industry. For many years pharmers were the biggest recipients of e.c. subsidies whilst also being its biggest opponents. Despite the fact that brutish pharmers are losing out as the value of the euro declines this has not made them change their mind and support the idea of joining the euro, lang=EN-US style='font-family:""'>"The nfu has always been pro-euro but they haven't rolled out their tanks to demand early entry. lang=EN-US>."[30]

March 31st 2000: Pharmers make their First Attempt to Roll Back Bse Controls.

Four years after the announcement of bse-cjd fatalities, pharmers are starting to demand that the government rolls back some of the bse restrictions placed on the pharming community, "Notably, the Government has promised a high-profile review of the main bse controls, including the slaughter of all cattle over 30 months to see if the measures are proportionate to the assessed risk. It will take place after the report of bse inquiry in the autumn and will be made by the chief scientific officer, Sir Robert May, Liam Donaldson (Chief Medical Officer) and Sir John Krebs (chairman of the Food Standards Agency)." [31]

April 1st 2000: Food Standards Agency starts work.

The food standards agency commences work today - not surprisingly on april fools' day since it won't be looking at any issue which bear on the financial interests of brutland's pharmers.

April 1st 2000: Government Initiates First Cattle Research.

The pressure from the e.c. on brutland to carry out random sampling of Cattle finally pays off. Is it not amazing that 15 years after the discovery of this incredibly lethal new disease, one which is so deadly it has transmutated into dozens of other species, including oomans, the government decides it is necessary to ascertain the level of infectivity in the brutish herds, "A new programme of testing for bse in 10,000 cattle was announced yesterday by nick brown in a commons written reply. The tests will be conducted on Animals over 5 years of age slaughtered under the government's over-30 month scheme and will start in january." [32]

April 2nd 2000: Cannibalism still being Practiced by Brutish Pharmers.

Quite amazingly, cannibalism is still being practised by the brutish pharm industry and Cattle are still being fed with bse infected Animal material, "The agricultural cannibalism that caused the bse epidemic, nearly wiping out british beef pharming, is still being permitted, despite scientific warnings. Officials from the agriculture ministry admitted this weekend that tons of feed containing blood products, tallow and gelatin from cows is being fed back to cows - and other livestock - every year. A substantial proportion is fed to newborn calves, which are given the cheap feed to replace their mother's milk, which is sold. John collinge, said he was shocked, "Any form of cannibalistic recycling is potentially dangerous and is a bad idea. I have said that repeatedly to the ministry." The revelations coincide with confirmation of the first case of bse in a cow born in 1996. A number of other cases in animals born the same year are suspected. Four years ago, agriculture officials predicted the disease would not appear in any animals born after august that year, after the introduction of toughter regulations. Baroness hayman, a junior agriculture minister, confirmed in a letter that gelatin and blood products were exempted from the feed ban in european and british legislation. She said, "Tallow, being fat rather than protein, is also a permitted ingredient in cattle feed. .. this weekend a ministry spokesman confirmed that 23,000 tonnes of feed containing the products were sold each year in britain, predominantly for Cattle. Research by independent scientists has shown that bse and other prion diseases can be transmitted by blood products, and the latest tests for prion disease rely on the presence of infective particles in blood. 52 people have died and over a dozen are ill with the disease." [33] According to dealler the use of tallow and gelatin in feed were not banned despite the fact that, "MAFF had said it would ban it in 1992 and in 1996. [34]

The reason that the maffia continues to allow the sale of blood products is because of its fantasy that the bse prion moves around a Cattle's body from organ to organ without ever being present in Cattle blood. This is one of the most preposterous arguments that the loons in the maffia have ever come up with and, as a consequence, they continue to insist that Animals' blood is perfectly safe to use - even though they are now recognize that bse-cjd is carried in ooman blood. As dealler points out, the maffia have to insist that blood products are safe becuase if they don't they will have to ban the sale of all beef to oomans and this is the last thing the maffia wants, "It would be difficult to ban these products for bovine feed as they were stated as 'safe' for human consumption. As such any ban would have been picked up by the media as indicating that all beef products were a potential risk to humans." [35]

April 9th 2000: Secret Scientific Meetings spark Fears about Bse Tonsil Test Results.

The sunday times reports on rumours about the government's tests on ooman tonsils to determine the scale of the bse-cjd epidemic. The project was started in 1998 - see the section august 28th 1998. It has been estimated that every positive result in the 2,0000 samples of tissue being analyzed could mean the death of 30,000 people, "Scientists have moved one step closer to confirming that thousands of britons could be infected with bse-cjd. A government-funded study of appendix and tonsil tissues taken from 2,000 people since the 1980s is understood to have found a small number of samples which tested positive for the infective prion particles that carry the disease. If confirmed the results suggest the number of people who might get the disease could reach thousands. The researchers are, however, thought to be worried about the accuracy of the tests and are to carry out checks before announcing them to a government committee next month. Details of the work were discussed last week when researchers into cjd, bse and other prion diseases held a private meeting at keele university. The event, organized by the agriculture and health ministries .. was conducted amid unprecedented security. It was not announced to the press and every scientist attending had to pledge not to reveal anything. The study was ordered to try to find out how many people were at risk of contracting bse-cjd. Half of it is being carried out by james ironside at the cjdsu and the other half is being done in derriford hospital, plymouth by david hilton. If the tests do find any positive cases of bse-cjd then the implications would be serious. Extrapolating the result to the population as a whole suggests that for each positive result picked up by the study, 30,000 people in the population would get the disease." [36]

This analysis should give a far more accurate idea of the scale of bse epidemic than results from the southwood-anderson team which relies solely on statistical analysis. It is quite amazing that the tests have taken 18 months and still hasn't produced any results.

April 10th 2000 Channel4 suggests Scientific Estimates of the Bse Fatalities are Pending.

Channel4 news picks up on the sunday times article. John snow interviews his science expert who states that a batch of 2000 organs has been tested but that work on another 2000 is being done. The results of these tests are due out in ten days time. Snow asks why it was felt necessary to analyze a second batch but the science expert states he doesn't know - hinting that it is a bit suspicious. [37] After all, if there were no positive results then the maffia would want to trumpet the news as soon as it could.

April 11th 2000: Government Boosting Sales of Drugs Again.

"The government announced .. "plans to allow pubs and shops to sell alcohol 24 hours a day, seven days a week in appropriate areas." [38]

April 16th 2000: Bse in Sheep Still Causing Waves.

There was a surprise mention of the bse in Sheep controversy which the labour government has done so well to bury. This appears in a sunday tabloid of all places, "Britain's entire flock of 40 million sheep may have to be slaughtered if they are proved to be carrying bse. Government scientists are so concerned about the risk of a 'mad cow' type epidemic they have set up a national programme to test thousands of animals. Agriculture minister nick brown has also ordered civil servants to draw up a scheme to tag all the nation's sheep. And he is making top secret contigency plans for a mass cull. No evidence yet links bse to sheep, but boffins warn the risk is rising and would be "very bad news". [39]

It has to be wondered exactly who was behind this press release - was it a scientist trying to prepare politicians for some bad news or a labour spin doctor preparing the ground for some unknown purpose. The fact that it is being mentioned at this time is in itself significant since if the results of the bse-cjd organ investigation are leading scientists to conclude there isn't likely to be a bse-cjd epidemic then they would be far less interested in raising the Sheep controversy again given the public humiliation that the labour government's propaganda machine heaped upon jeffrey almond the last time he raised the issue. The fact that such news has suddenly emerged yet again seems to suggest there may be a link with the forthcoming announcement about the spread of bse-cjd.

What is surprising is that whilst the tories were in power there were almost constant leaks about bse in Cattle and yet these days the bse in Sheep issue, the tonsil test for the spread of bse, hardly raises any alarm at all. Why is this? Are lefties refusing to explore the issue because they don't want to hurt the political prospects of their right wing, rural-loving, labour government?

April 20th 2000: Bse is the Third Way.

Bbc's morning news carries a report that the number of bse cases in france is rising. A french scientist is interviewed to explain the reasons for this increase and he alleges that some of the new cases can't be accounted for by either bse-infected feed or vertical transmission. He believes there could be a third way. The bbc isn't bothered about such scientific niceties - it just likes to get confirmation of increases in bse in france as a way of boosting the consumption of brutish beef.

April 21st 2000: Bse will Die out Soon .. Again? Now 55 Dead from Bse-cjd.

Rather strangely, a swiss research team concludes that bse will die out soon, again, "The bse epidemic in britain is expected to die out by the year 2007, according to an independent assessment of the spread of the disease by swiss scientists. Their predictions support the government's asserion of a steadily decreasing trend, assuming that a ban on feeding the most risky parts of Cattle or Sheep back to Cows is beig rigorously observed. Researchers at the institute of animal neurology at bern university and the swiss federal veterinary office suggest there may be only isoalted cases of bse after 2007 .. The estimates do not take into account the unproven theory that cows may have given the disease to their calves .. In britain 55 people have died from the human form of bse and another 12 are thought to be fatally ill. Meanwhile in france .. the recently established food safety agency style="mso-spacerun: yes"> believes the disease will not be eradicated in france before 2010." [40]

April 29th 2000: Tonsil Tests find no evidence of Bse-Cjd: Now 53 Dead from Bse-cjd.

The tonsil test results are announced today - the friday before the bank holiday weekend. No case of bse-cjd infection has been found. However, scientists still warn this does not prove there will not be a bse-cjd epidemic, "Britain still faces the threat of a cjd epidemic even though government-backed research has produced promising results (sic). Scientists found no sign of the devastating human form of mad cow disease in the 3,000 tonsil and appendix samples removed after surgery in the 1980s. But the government's chief medical officer liam donaldson warned yesterday that it was still impossible to give the 'all-clear'. He said, "This is the best we can do at the present time. This is a complex and mysterious disease. We've got a little piece in a very large jigsaw puzzle. It will be very many years before we can tie it down with any certainty. The fact that no positives have been found is welcome news, but these early results should not be taken as an indication of an 'all clear'." 53 people have died from the deadly brain disease. The government is to pump £26 million into research and another 15,000 specimens will be examined." [41]

The main question which has to be asked about these experiments is just how sensitive the test was. In the past scientists weren't able to detect bse in blood and a number of other organs even though it was later discovered that they did contain the disease. It is not known what test was used on these tissue specimens - it might have been john collinge's Western Blot test mentioned in the section dated september 11th 1998.

There are still a large number of issues about bse which need to be explored. Liam donaldson points out that, "The critical gap in our knowledge remains not having a reliable diagnostic test to detect the presence of the abnormal prion protein at the pre-clinical stage of the disease."[42] One of the main issues is whether bse prions are responsible for corrupting normal ooman prions and turning them into bse-cjd prions or whether they create another (pre-clinical) infective agent which converts ooman prions into bse-cjd. Donaldson also states, "In addition, we do not know at what point in the incubation period tissues such as tonsils or appendices would turn positive, how long the incubation period would be, or even whether any individuals who were found positive would necessarily go on to develop the disease." [43]

April 30th 2000: Relative of Bse-Cjd Victim is Worried about Scaremongering.

A local newspaper whose readership consists primarily of an urban area but which has a strong affinity for its minority of rural readers carries a story about yesterday's results of the government's bse tonsil research. It is almost entirely about how pleased a relative of a bse-cjd victim is that there is not going to be any scaremongering as a consequence of the result. Quite who has done any scaremongering in the media over the last three years is not known considering that the overwhelming majority of the media coverage of bse has been pharming propaganda. It might have been thought that a good bit of scaremongering might have woken up the livestock to the threat they face. One wonders what is on the minds of those people who's loved one's have suffered a terrible death from a random act of violence like bse? In this particular example we find this person's prime concern is not the perpetrators of this disease but those who would expose the perpetrators, "The widower of an oxfordshire cjd victim has welcomed a study aimed at predicting how many people could die from the human form of mad cow disease. Terry bishop, whose wife jayne died of the disease two years ago, believes the report may prevent scaremongering. The father of two said, "People will always jump on the bandwagon and produce theories that cause scaremongering. Hopefully they will always be proved wrong. It's easy in hindsight to say they should have done this and that, but they had a report done in the 1980s and decided they had covered every avenue of safety." [44]

This brings to an end the latest mini drama in the bse disaster. It could be another couple of years before the new results are published. The next major development will probably be the report of the bse inquiry. But, over the next couple of years the annual bse-cjd fatalities will begin to give a clearer indication of the scale of the epidemic. It is perhaps fitting that the last word in this diary has come from a relative of a bse-cjd victim. This person's attitude towards this disaster says so much about why this disaster occurred and the way in which it has developed where the perpetrators are given billions of pounds in compensation whilst the victims are shoved into holes of oblivion. It is sad and yet not surprising that there are few prospects of justice being done about this mass murder. The consolation is always that if justice can't prevail then at least the truth will be revealed. It has to be suggested that prospects of getting to hear the truth about this disaster are just as remote.

The history of this country is littered with barbarities produced by bloody minded intransigence. There were the one million sailors who are believed to have perished in the brutish navy during the 16th, 17th and 18thc, because the medical profession refused to accept that fresh fruit was needed to ward off scurvy. There were the opium wars in china in which brutish companies provided drugs to chinese people with the help of the brutish navy to keep open the ports. There were the tens of thousands of brutish troops who died in trenches during the first world war. But the bse disaster could well be up there with these examples of barbaric mercilessness. It's not just the countless denials that bse posed a threat to ooman health but the way that the tory government banned the use of bse-infected Animals in the feed given to brutish Animals but saw nothing wrong in exporting this feed and the disease it contained to the rest of the world. Most of the people in this country are living in a propaganda bubble in which saddam hussein is seen as an evil person but in truth there are people little different from him still working in parliament.

Conclusions: Labour takes over where the Tories left off.

The Tories Lost the Last General Election because of Bse.

The main reason the tories lost the 1997 general election was because of the bse crisis. This was partly because of public outrage when it was discovered that the government's endless denials, that bse posed a health threat to oomans, were wrong. It also had to do with the fact that the public were repelled by a party at war with itself. This internal warfare was over membership of the european community - and the ammunition that ignited this warfare was europe's ban on bse-infected beef. The massed ranks of tory pharmers in the commons and the house of lords were incensed that the european community had the power to stop them from spreading one of the most deadly diseases around the world in the form of a luxury commodity. The third factor in the downfall of the last tory government, was its sacrifice of scottish pharmers to protect the interests of english pharmers. This led to a catastrophic slump in support for the tories in scotland. The closure of the ravenscraig steel mills had angered many scottish people against english rule, but when the maffia sacrificed scottish pharmers for english pharmers the scottish landowning classes were left in little doubt as to their insignificance.

The Similarities between the Tory and Labour Government's over Bse.

The labour party won a huge majority at the last general election and seemed willing to sweep away tory's lies, frauds, and corruption, whether they occurred in public life or in the bse crisis. Now, a mere three years later, the labour government's attitude to bse is almost exactly the same as that held by the tories. The similarities between the labour government's response to bse and that of the tory government, is remarkable:

* both deny the spread of bse;

* both use bogus science to deny the health threat posed by bse - "brutish beef is the safest in the world";

* the labour government, like its tory predecessor, continues to argue that bse is not present in Cattle blood only in specific organs - hence beef is safe to eat because (many) of these organs are prevented from entering the food chain;

* the labour government, like its predecessor, denied there was any need to take action against the spread of bse-cjd through ooman blood products. Ever since the start of the bse crisis, governments, the maffia, and nfu, have insisted that bse is found only in specific Cattle organs and not in blood - if it was found in Cattle blood this would mean all beef products would have to be banned for posing a health risk. Because the labour government adheres to this tory government ideology, it could not admit that bse-cjd was in ooman blood because this would have implied that bse is also present in Cattle blood. Therefore, for nearly a year, the labour government refused, for the sake of pharmers, to ban bse-cjd infected blood transfusions - whilst the rest of the world was taking measures to prevent the importation of this disease riddled blood. It was only the scientific community that forced the labour government into taking precautions against this transmission of bse-cjd. As a consequence, the labour government currently finds itself in a rather strange ideological position: it argues that whilst bse-cjd is present in ooman blood, bse is not present in Cattle blood/meat;

* despite the deaths of so many people from bse, the labour government took nearly three years to set up a food standards agency. This agency was supposed to ensure a separation between the interests of producers and consumers but it has been neutered by the maffia which continues to protect pharmers interests from the plough to the plate. How is it that the labour government has allowed the maffia ('more aid for farmers fast') to survive when it was responsible for allowing the spread of a deadly biological weapon which has, so far, taken the lives of 53 people?

* whereas the tory government covered up the spread of bse in Cattle, the labour government is currently covering up the spread of bse in Sheep. The labour government's cover up was implemented with a ferocity that was previously believed to be a tory trademark;

* despite its anti-welfarist propaganda, the labour government continues to provide pharmers with endless subsidies - just like the tories. Whilst the labour government is getting tough on the poor, the sick, and the disabled, it continues to inundate farmers with subsidies;

* the tory government sacrificed the interests of scottish pharmers in order to protect the interests of english pharmers and this led to a haemorrhage of its political support in scotland. The labour government is continuing with this same tactic which, not surprisingly, is leading to similar electoral losses;

* perhaps worst of all, just like the tories, the labour government refuses to carry out tests to determine whether the Cattle entering the food chain are infected with bse. The government nevertheless maintains that all of its policies are based on the most thorough and comprehensive scientific evidence. It has to be wondered how a government which refuses to carry out the most important experiment for the spread of bse has the gall to insist that its policies are based on the best possible scientific evidence. Tory liars - labour liars. Even worse, despite scientific evidence from switzerland that huge numbers of Cattle are infected with bse, the brutish government pretends the disease is almost over. Why should it carry out tests to show the spread of the disease when it is obvious to any pharmer that the disease is dying out? This sort of nonsense is almost stalinist - how can there be any unemployment when i've shot all the unemployed?

* just like the tories, the labour government is making an all out effort to force europe and the rest of the world to eat bse-infected beef. If the government spent the same amount of time, effort, and political capital, in combating poverty in this country it could have transformed society;

It is well known that hegel once suggested that when history repeats itself it often does so as farce. In the case of the labour government's handling of the bse crisis this is all too apt. The tory government's reaction to bse was appalling enough but to find the labour government repeating the same mistakes is in some ways even more appalling. Although the labour government started off by seeming to be willing to take on subsidy-loving pharmers it gradually capitulated so it now treats pharmers with the same devotion as the tories. The maffia is once again running the show.

The Madness that has come Back to Haunt Labour.

In opposition, the labour party's record over bse was fairly dismal although for a few years david clarke made many telling criticisms of the government's handling of the bse disaster. However, once he was replaced by gavin strang it more or less fell into line with the government's approach. Strang was hopeless and merely enagaged in shadow boxing with the tory pharmer mps formulating the government's policies. Not surprisingly, the trade union plods were also involved in downplaying the dangers of bse .. "from the very beginning the labour party and the trade unions did nothing to alert people to the dangers posed by bse. The trade unions were virtually silent during the whole affair. Despite the fact that many of the transport and general workers' members work on the land, and in the food industry, abattoir and rendering plant, the t&g said and did nothing when the crisis broke. The t&g's only call was for a public enquiry in order to restore confidence in the beef industry." [45]

Thankfully blair's servile policies over bse are coming back to haunt him. Firstly, although the blair government tried, when it first came into power, to push the pharming industry into the global market, it now seeks to placate these spongers with endless subsidies. During the beef war of the last three months of 1999, the government strenuously tried to force europe to import bse-infected beef. And yet the beef export campaign is a self-induced political burden. If the government didn't give pharmers subsidies for exporting beef, then the pharmers wouldn't be able to export brutish beef and the government wouldn't constantly be in conflict with the rest of europe. Is it not amazing that this country was on the verge of a trade war with france just for the sake of a miniscule quantity, of highly subsidized, beef exports. If the government didn't give pharmers so many subsidies they would never be able to sell their disease-ridden muck abroad and the government's agenda wouldn't be at the mercy of the pharming industry.

Secondly, there will be a day of reckoning when the government eventually has to admit there is bse in the country's massive Sheep population.

Thirdly, blair's hopes of moving closer to europe were sabotaged by the beef war during the final quarter of 1999. The bogus beef war shows that the labour party's policies towards europe are being determined primarily by a tiny group of rural terrorists with instant access to all levels of the media who have been able to whip up public opinion against europe for refusing to eat bse-infected beef - whilst strangely never mentioning that america has banned brutish beef for the last decade. It is amazing that a piddling little industry, whose annual exports are a mere £16million a year - most of which is subsidized, is capable of driving the rest of society into a trade war to protect its interests. When the labour government came into power it was faced with the choice of either taking on the pharmers and opening up the way for closer european ties or capitulating to the pharmers and allowing them to set the agenda and ruin relationships with europe. By choosing to back the pharmers blair has not merely sanctioned continued subsidies for an ailing industry and boosted the spread bse-cjd, he has allowed these subsidy laden, rural, tory thugs to exacerbate nationalistic animosities towards european people who quite sensibly didn't want to eat brutish diseased ridden beef.

Fourthly, the blair government's central political tactic for defeating the tories at the next election has been to depict them as an extremist party which, among other right wing policies, wanted to pull brutland out of europe. This tactic was undermined by the popular support the tory party won over the beef issue during the final quarter of 1999. Blair's capitulation to the pharmers enabled the tories to recover some of its political popularity by playing the patriotic card against the french ban on bse-infected beef. Just as the last tory government used the bse crisis to whip up patriotic support against europe and counter the labour party's popularity in the polls, so blair's policies have enabled the tory party to replay the strategy during the last quarter of 1999.

Finally, the government's sacrifice of scottish pharmers over bse for the sake of protecting the interests of english pharmers is leading to electoral losses in scotland. At the last general election, the tory government sacrificed scottish pharmers and lost heavily in the polls. During the bse-in-beef pantomime during the last quarter of 1999, the french prime minister pointed out that scottish pharmers had been offered the chance to resume their export of beef, just as had happened in northern ireland, but stated that this offer had been refused by the maffia (which was intent on protecting english pharmers). Once again, this generated resentment amongst scottish people about being sacrificed on the altar of english pharming. For a number of years, scottish pharmers have been looking forward to a resumption in beef exports but have been prevented from doing so until english pharmers are given the same rights, "That very week, the eu had lifted the beef ban on cattle from northern ireland in herds which had been bse-free for eight years. Anticipating that the ban on beef from scotland would in due course also be lifted, with the same stipulation, some scottish farmers, said my informant, were prepared to give up the compensation payments for destroyed bse-infected cattle rather than report they had died from bse." [46]

Tony blair brought the beef crisis and the trade war debacle during the last quarter of 1999 on himself by sacking cunningham and appointing nick brown to placate the pharmers. Once he'd sacked cunningham, pharmers resumed their chorus of demands for more and more subsidies and opened up the way for the tories to recover some of their political support by playing the patriotic card over the beef ban. These days pharming is far more about extracting subsidies from the government than it is extracting crops from the ground.

The labour government has been far more successful than the tory government in pretending the bse epidemic is declining even though the disease is just as endemic now as it was a decade ago. But, just as the bse crisis came back to haunt the tory government, and eventually cost it the 1997 general election, so the bse crisis could come back to haunt the labour government at the next election.

Pharmers Never Had it so Good.

In the space of a mere four years, the pharmers have totally turned around the propaganda war over bse. In march 1996 the public was outraged to discover there were 10 suspected cases of bse-cjd which, for over a decade, the tory government, the maffia, the pharming industry, and the nfu, had vehemently denied could occur. In the last quarter of 1999, when pharmers launched their trade war against the french over the resumption in the export of bse-infected beef, a substantial part of the public rallied to their cause. Who would have thought that less than four years after huge numbers of people were frightened to go anywhere near brutish beef, that they would be eating bse-infected muck out of a sense of patriotic duty. The stupidity of brutish planks is breathtaking.

Throughout the entire bse crisis, the public has never perceived Pharmers as villains. Far from reviling them for having murdered 53 people, the public continues to regard pharmers as victims who deserve sympathy and support. Even more surprising, is that the public has never resented having to eat diseased beef when it is giving pharmers' mammoth subsidies. On the contrary, the public continues to admire the rural, subsidy-loving, green welly scroungers and seems willing to reward them with yet more subsidies. The 1999 beef war even turned them into heroes. Europe is no longer the hero for preventing tory-pharmers from selling a highly infectious disease around the world which could have resulted in the murder of huge numbers of people. It is now the villain for not allowing plucky, subsidy laden, brutish pharmers to make a living out of selling bse. And yet, if the european community hadn't stopped brutish beef exports, millions of people around the world could now be waiting to die - but of course this wouldn't bother brutish pharmers who care less about foreigners than they do about urban consumers and even their own livestock.

Most pharmers are either members of the country's land-owning aristocracy or rent farms from them. Throughout the 20thc the aristocracy in the house of lords has managed to retain a political veto over the country's democratic processes. Not surprisingly these bastions of the establishment have a cosy relationship with the police and mi5 who support their pharming chums by harassing Animal rights activists. In 1999 the police/mi5 started up a dirty tricks campaign against the Animal rights movement in the hope of boosting public support for the Animal exploitation industry and thus doing their bit to help boost sales of brutish beef. These are the same institutions which did nothing to stop pharmers from putting bse infected beef into the food chain, illegally exporting diseased beef, and infecting millions of people.

The pharming industry in this country has allowed scrapie in Sheep to survive for the last two centuries. It dealt with this problem not by trying to eradicate the disease (unlike many other countries which have managed to do so) but by minimizing ooman fatalities. It does this by slaughtering Sheep at an early age and preventing the consumption of Sheep brains - this is why people eat brutish lamb not brutish mutton. In 1996 after the bse-cjd revelations, the beef industry adopted the same tactic to combat bse-cjd. By killing Cattle when they are young and banning the public consumption of specific organs, the beef industry hopes to minimize ooman fatalities. No attempt has been made to eradicate bse from brutish herds. The beef industry expects the public to live with what it hopes will be a low level of bse-cjd fatalities. But bse is as rife amongst the country's Cattle herds as it ever was - and even worse, it is likely to be as prevalent in Sheep as scrapie. There is no scientific evidence that Animals are free of bse and the government is making sure that no evidence is obtained as to the actual numbers of bse infected Cattle in this country.

Conclusions

From march 1996, when the tory government announced 10 suspected cases of bse-cjd, pharmers have used patriotism as a way of distracting public opinion from the horrors of bse-cjd and encouraging people to overcome their revulsion about eating diseased meat. In the run up to the last general election, the tory government tried to reverse its unpopularity by exploiting patriotism against europe's ban on the export of bse-infected beef and loony, euroseptic tory mps employed the same tactic to whip up support for ditching europe. [47] Bse-cjd turned into a political disease which drove the tories into complete madness which ended up with them committing electoral suicide. The tories were mad to believe their continual abuse of europe could win support in scotland and wales, both of which were enthusiastic about their prospects of winning european financial aid to revitalize their national economies. The tories were mad to believe that abusing europe would be popular in england where the livelihoods of huge numbers of people are dependent on trade with the continent. The tories' fabricated an image of the european community as a frightening bunch of foreigners intent on oppressing brutish people but in the 1997 election the brutish public decided the tories were much more frightening and dangerous.

The bse crisis made a substantial contribution to the tories' electoral humiliation. If the bse-cjd crisis had not happened the tories' divisions over europe would never have become anything like as prominent as they did; the tory government would almost certainly have been able to reduce income tax in time for the general election; and it would not have lost so much support in scotland. The tories treated the bse and bse-cjd epidemics with utter contempt but these diseases took their revenge by helping to bring down one of the most corrupt governments since the second world war. Is it possible that bse-cjd will have a similar effect on the labour government?[48] There would be justice in this.