Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected
Dictatorship
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Spin, not
face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the Government's
chosen method of communication. Ordinary
people are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question
which throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member
might reveal himself or herself to be a human being like
us, and not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she
might tell the truth.
Ann Leslie - Daily Mail, September
16, 2004
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Britain
has traditionally been one of the biggest net contributors
to the EU because we do not get as much money back from
Brussels in farm and regional subsidies as our rivals.
According
to Treasury figures, between 1995-2002, Britain's average
contribution taking the rebate into account, was £2.6billion,
or £43.55 per head of population.
The
French - the biggest recipient of farm subsidies - contributed
£1billion a year or £16.08 per head of their
population.
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Coming
to our plates, the GM corn that harmed rats
By
Sean Poulter, Consumer Affairs Correspondent, Daily Mail - May
23, 2005
GM
corn is being forced into our food despite warnings that it harmed
rats during feeding trials. The American biotech firm Monsanto
has the backing of the US Administration, the EU and the British
Government to put the maize on to dinner tables and into farm
feed.
The
secrecy that's hard to swallow
Commentary
- By Geoffrey Lean - Daily Mail, May 23, 2005
Fears
that eating GM food may damage your health received an
unprecedented boost from the unlikeliest of sources, the
biotech giant, Monsanto. For the findings of its secret
research - that rats fed a diet rich in a GM corn had
smaller kidneys and higher blood cell counts than those
eating a similar conventional one - will dramatically
reignite the debate over safety.
Experts
have been swift to point out that the increase in while
blood cells and lymphocytes in the GM-fed rats, for example,
suggest that their immune systems could have been damaged
or were trying to fight off a series of diseases like
cancer. Professor Malcolm Hooper, Emeritus Professor of
Medicinal Chemistry at Sunderland University says it is
an indication of 'serious problems for the immune system'.
Dr
Michael Antoniou, reader in Molecular Genetics at Guy's
Hospital Medical School, said he was 'amazed at the number
of significant differences' found in the rats, adding
that they were 'very worrying from a medical point of
view.'
Monsanto,
of course, admits no such thing; it does not even accept
that the GM-fed rats in its study were harmed. It insists
that the differences are meaningless, due to chance, and
merely reflect normal variations.
Unsurprisingly,
the company is backed by both Britain's Food Standards
Agency, and by the European Food Safety Authority, which
has also been criticised for being pro-GM, But ministers
were sufficiently bothered by the findings that they asked
for more information and Dr Beatrix Tappeser, head of
GM regulation in an agency of the German environment ministry
concedes they provide 'reason for some concern'.
Campaigners
will cite the results as vindicating the work of Dr Arpad
Pusztai, whose research at the prestigious Rowett research
Institute in Aberdeen seven years ago found that GM potatoes
damaged the immune systems, kidneys, livers and brains
of rats.
After
Dr Pusztai talked about his findings on World in Action
his research was stopped, his data confiscated and he
was forced into retirement. Ministers and the scientific
establishment queued up to denounce him - and the Government,
almost incredibly, refused to repeat his experiments.
When I asked why, top officials that it would be 'immoral'
and a 'waste of money' to check his findings.
The
same culture of denial is taking hold over Monsanto research.
Scandalously, Britain, represented by the Food Standards
Agency, voted in EU committee last Thursday for the corn
to be allowed in food across Europe. Fortunately other
countries blocked it, but if the deadlock continues the
European Commission - outrageously and undemocratically
- is likely to exploit a legal loophole to permit it anyway.
For
although public opposition has ensured that no GM crops
will be grown in Britain for the foreseeable future, Brussels
bureaucrats are quietly opening up another front by trying
to slip GM foods on our plates. This must now stop. First,
Monsanto must publish it report in full so other scientists
and the public can evaluate it. Then new, open research
must be carried out to see whether or not it can be validated.
But
this must be only the start of a major programme of study
into the safety of GM food, incorporating the kind of
studies that the government refused to undertake following
the Pusztai affair. There
should be no question of allowing GM foods to go on sale
while this is ongoing.
This
is of vital importance for public health. Indeed, such
a common sense programme should be welcomed by the GM
industry. For unless and until comprehensive, transparent
research gives GM foods a clean bill of health, the public
will - quite literally - refuse to swallow them.
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Feeding
trials with 'Mon 863' are said to have changed the balance of
white and red blood cells in rats, increased blood sugar and triggered
kidney abnormalities. The results of the 90-day trial have alarmed
the French commission for genetic engineering and German government
advisers.
The
worries have apparently been confirmed by a review of feeding
trials carried out by the British GM expert, Professor Arpad Pusztai.
Professor Pusztai, formerly of the Rowett Research Institute in
Aberdeen, was effectively drummed out of his job after claiming
to have discovered harm caused to rats fed GM potatoes in a similar
study in 1998.
The
results of his review into GM corn have been kept secret by EU
watchdogs, while he has been effectively gagged from discussing
his findings. Monsanto is pushing the EU to approve Mon 863 for
use in processed foods, which could be anything from an additive
in baked beans to corn flakes and nachos, as well as animal feed.
The
company commissioned the rat-feeding trial and always insisted
the apparent abnormalities were within the normal parameters of
any experiment with rats, where there is 'natural variability'
between the animals. Monsanto has been supported by the EU's European
Food Safety Authority, which takes the view that Mon 863 is virtually
identical to conventional maize.
EFSA
has described the kidney abnormalities as being of 'minimal importance'.
However, that line didn't satisfy the French commission for genetic
engineering. It concluded that in 'the absence of satisfactory
interpretation of some of the significant differences observed',
it was not 'able to show the absence of health risks to animals'.
Concerns
about Mon 863 come on the back of criticism by GM opponents across
Europe of the lack of experiments confirming the safety of such
crops. Campaigner Ian Panton, of GM-Free Wales, said: "The
lack of openness, transparency and inclusiveness in this process
is against the public interest, and is completely unacceptable."
Last
week, Britain and nine other countries voted in favour of the
GM corn going on sale. However, other EU states opposed it. Where
an impasse is reached, a decision is left to the European Commission,
which always accepts the line of its food safety experts, and
so is expected to approve the controversial corn later this year.
Monsanto
said anyone with concerns could raise them with regulatory bodies.
"Mon 863 isn't new, having been approved to be as safe as
conventional maize by nine other global authorities since 2003,"
said a spokesman.
Dr
Pusztai was commissioned by the German government to review the
Monsanto study. Neither the German authorities nor the European
Food Safety Authority have agreed to publish the full study or
Dr Pusztai's review. However, details of his review have been
leaked.
Dr
Pusztai concludes: "The design of the feeding study is not
well focused, with many flaws and crucial omissions." He
goes on to describe the claims of Monsanto's scientists that the
research proves Mon 863 is safe as 'groundless'. Dr Pusztai indicates
that the study gives real cause for believing that the GM corn
harmed the rats.
Mon
863 is already grown in the US and Canada. Once approved by the
EU it could be sold in food products in Europe later this year
and grown here next year. European super-markets and food manufacturers
have made clear they do not want GM as long as consumers are opposed.
But it may well be imported in processed foods from North America.
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