THE GOVERNMENT is in a stew at home and abroad over beef.

For it is risking a new "beef war" with Europe by declaring a unilateral ban on EU meat imports that do not meet the strict hygiene rules applied in this country.

And, back home, it is in trouble for taking such consumer protection too far as its ban on beef on the bone comes into effect.

It is, however, right to insist that Europe follows the anti-BSE standards already in force if its countries want to sell their meat to us.

After all, Europe bans us from exporting our beef - a move that, quite rightly, provoked the stringent slaughtering and hygiene rules imposed here to prevent the spread of mad cow disease and the sale of BSE-infected beef.

Why, therefore, should the EU not comply for the same reasons?

In delaying and voting Britain down over the introduction of the new conditions in the rest of Europe, the other EU countries can only be putting their farmers' and meat industry's interests over those of the consumers.

But while the move may pacify just a little the protesting British beef farmers whose livelihoods are threatened by cheap imported beef it is hardly likely to diminish the backlash in agriculture and around the country's dinner tables over the prohibition of beef on the bone.

It may have been quite correct to promptly reveal this new BSE risk - and the contrast with the previous government's shuffling attitude to the mad cow menace is stark - but it seems to have gone too far by imposing a blanket ban when, by its own admission, the risk is minimal.

It is not just that the ban will damage the already-struggling British meat producers, it has also upset the millions of consumers who are content to take the risk, but now cannot.

If the government had warned, but not banned, it would today be in for less of a roasting from the public.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.