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Self-Sufficiency in Style

stop the world?

part fifteen

This is a very special chapter of Stop the World

In parts one to fourteen we introduced you to Britain's Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth epidemics and made some startling claims about their worldwide significance. 

We are breaking off the narrative, to give you some startling information.

Just like the writer, you had all the evidence, well most of the evidence, in front of you to begin unravelling one of the world's greatest scandals.

Nobody, but nobody, picked up the significance of what they were reading.

FOOT and MOUTH COVER–UP

The British Government did cover up a FMD epidemic, in Norfolk, in late August 2000.

They attempted to relocate the first foot and mouth case to a swill farm hundreds of miles further north, in February of the following year.

They claimed that imported infected meat was to blame.

Many farmers and scientists have always doubted the official story, but have lacked the evidence to disprove it.

The doubters were right.

The site Warmwell compiled by the remarkable Mary Critchley has been a beacon for free speech during one of Britain's darkest and most shameful periods.

She has given a voice to the unheard.

The story of the attempted Intimidation

Later the Ministry deliberately intimidated witnesses to the national legislature and withheld eye witness evidence from their own staff  to the eventual Inquiry.

Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, gave some evidence in secret to the Inquiry. Why?

Britain did accidentally export Foot and Mouth disease to Europe because they covered-up the real source and failed to stop exports of live animals.

All my regular readers were reading the actual evidence, but like the writer, nobody recognised the significance of what they were reading or seeing.

Foot and Mouth arrived in the UK, in East Anglia, sometime in the summer of 2000, probably in a live pig import from China.

Unrecognised, it spread into a pig population already suffering from the multiple epidemics of PMWS/PDNS and Swine Fever.

A massive cull was already under way of sick, dying and suspect pigs.

There were already problems in identifying which pigs were suffering from which illness. PDNS and Classical Swine Fever are very difficult to distinguish.

Another pig disease, SVD, is easily mistaken for Foot and Mouth.

This is all adequately covered in the scientific and trade press.

The British Government either knew or guessed that Swine Fever had arrived in a live pig, even though they tried hard, as usual, to blame infected meat imports.

They must have been looking out for Foot and Mouth too. They found it, in very late August, 2000, just a few weeks into the Swine Fever epidemic.

A sample was sent to the laboratory from a pig in Norfolk. It was positive. FMD was in Britain and would result in the country losing its coveted “disease free status.”

They thought they were lucky because only pigs that were being culled anyway seemed to be infected. 

Some covert examinations on cattle in the immediate vicinity were undertaken. There was no sign of spread beyond pigs.

They thought they could stamp out the epidemic without anyone noticing.

They failed to stamp out the infection. That re-emerged later in sheep and later pigs, then cattle, first in the north of England, later elsewhere.

Now, reread Page 3 of Stop the World. The salient part is based on a draft affidavit made at the time.

With the benefit of hindsight that is not the tale of a mad vet throwing her weight about, it is the story of a covert examination.

We did wonder what one of Britain’s top veterinarians, the wife of a cattle farmer, once we found out that she was not an impostor, was doing unsafely dancing about behind a cow.

She was taking a look at the feet. They got a good look at the mouth, when fixing the ear tag.

We did notice other Ministry vets also taking an interest in the cow.

They could not openly examine a cow during a swine fever epidemic. They were telling the world that they were short of staff – and questions would have been asked.

Cattle do not get swine fever.

The most telling evidence that this is what happened, is that nobody else has been able to explain why a highly experienced government veterinarian should behave in such a bizarre way.

She was allowed to continue in her job, despite the complaints and was eventually the subject of more complaints from elsewhere later.

The investigation promised, in writing, by the then Minister for Agriculture, Nick Brown, never reported.

Punishment Cull - the tests could not have been back.

It was later admitted that the pig was healthy.

Most pig farmers in this part of the world do not keep cattle or sheep.

We were one of the few holdings that had pigs and either of the others: in our case, a very rare three species.

They had already taken a blood test from the sow about four days earlier. The results were not even back from the laboratory; CSF tests take longer than this.

They did not need a blood test from the pigs, and were not interested in the results, hence the faking.

Scarce resources were being wasted on a subterfuge.  The temptation to cut a corner on the deception was overwhelming.

It seemed easier to intimidate the people trying to live an interesting retirement. They were nobodies, nobodies who could be swept aside.

Attempting to intimidate somebody who did not depend on their livestock or farm for their livelihood

... was the first mistake.

Our pigs were killed as a punishment. Perhaps they hoped to drive us out of livestock and our home. We were threatened and bullied.

… was the second mistake.

They never gave a thought to the possibility that the writer might know about international trade, customs procedures, and shipping: indeed, press manipulation too.

…was the third mistake.

It is unfashionable today for “Middle England” to stand up for democracy, civil rights and high standards of public conduct, but some of us still believe passionately in the rule of law and the concept of "Fair Play" and are prepared to fight for them.

...this was the fourth mistake.

Britain promised the world, with others, that she would report incidences of certain listed diseases to an international body, the OIE. She has dishonoured her international obligations.  Patriotism does not extend to covering up for crooks.

… was the fifth mistake.

It would never have occurred to them that some of us valued and protected Britain’s reputation as a reliable and honest world trader.

…that is the mistake that now has to be put right.

Not by lying and cheating, but by acknowledgement, apology, restitution, and reform.

This was not the first or last animal epidemic covered-up by Britain. It seems to have been a feature of national veterinary policy for quite some time.

Unacceptable!

Denton, Norfolk, 13 April 2004

exposing the scandal

from

 the appropriately  named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner.