THE LABOUR government may be blowing away much of the secrecy that cloaked its predecessor's approach to claims that hundreds of soldiers were made ill by vaccines given to protect them from chemical and biological weapons during the Gulf War, but for the sick veterans there can only be small satisfaction.

For, six years on, not one has received a penny in compensation.

But the shameful treatment of their claims by the Ministry of Defence demands that they are owed more than an explanation or apology.

For there is no doubt that they are the victims of disgraceful cover-ups and blunders.

It has already been disclosed that Parliament was repeatedly misled over the extent to which troops in the Gulf were exposed to harmful organophosphate pesticides.

Yet, so far, the upshot of this alarming admission is merely that of a "formal reprimand" for just one civil servant involved in the failure to tell Ministers the true story.

Now, the government reveals that servicemen were injected with unlicensed drugs and that a warning from the Department of Health to the MoD about the possible dangers of giving men whooping cough and anthrax vaccines together was ignored.

The official position now is that all these things happened but that there is no evidence that this risk-laden dosing of men with unapproved vaccines did anyone any harm.

So no compensation.

What a shabby attitude to take.

For if it was only one ex-soldier claiming illness as a result - and not, as is the case, more than 1,000 of the 53,000 who served in the Gulf - a caring and honest government would allow him all the medical and financial help he needed after he had been found to have been dealt with so negligently and disgracefully on its behalf.

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