READERS may be interested in a brief political history of the BSE fiasco and make their own minds up who is to blame.

In 1979, the Labour Party published draft proposals to tighten up the animal feed industry. The following year, Margaret Thatcher deregulated it and introduced weaker legislation. BSE was officially diagnosed in November, 1986.

In April, 1988, Sir Richard Southwood was appointed head of a committee to look into BSE and its implications for human health. In August, 1988, the compulsory slaughter of BSE infected cattle began.

But, against the advice of the Southwood Committee, farmers received only half the value of their infected cattle in compensation. This was a powerful disincentive to farmers to report infected herds.

In June, 1989, the Southwood Committee had been replaced by the Tyrrel Committee which recommended the immediate random sampling of cattle brains. To avoid a health scare, the Government failed to publish the Tyrrel report until January, 1990, and, even then, it refused to accept random sampling. The ban on specified bovine offal did not come into force until November, 1989, a full three years after the disease first came to light.

In February, 1990, realising the seriousness of the problem Thatcher hastily ordered the full compensation for slaughtered cattle that she should have implemented two years previously. In the autumn of 1995, slaughter house inspections found 48 per cent were failing beef offal regulations. By December, 1995, the mechanical recovery of meat was banned.

Even now, I understand that slaughterhouses have still received no official notification about a range of new precautions that have to be implemented.

So when casting your vote at any future elections, just look back at the first paragraph and reflect on the fact that Labour wanted to tighten up the animal feed industry, but the incoming Tories left us with the mess we are in now.

TIM O'KANE, (prospective Labour candidate for Clayton-le-Moors), Charles Street, Clayton le Moors.

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