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[gurlywurly] 25/5/2001 14:41

Did anyone see that TV programme a few months back about this farmer-turned-researcher who had been confronting the government scientists and their BSE theories? He started out on the organophosphate route but had then found from his studies in BSE-affected areas around the world (and including in Queneborough, Leics, where we have had a cluster of cases) what looked like pretty conclusive evidence of BSE proliferation in areas of high manganese mineralisation in the soil accompanied by (I think it was from memory) low levels of copper. It has taken him years to get anyone to listen and he has had his research sabotaged and his farm damaged along the way (by whom, I wonder?), but he now seems to have found a growing following amongst more open-minded scientists who are taking his research seriously.

[peterreidsmith] 25/5/2001 14:41

spongy2: it's an interesting philosphical question, you are right: is it better to be content in your delusion or face the horror of reality.

Lucky I don't have to worry about unemployment.

[On the farmer thingy yes: what he finally uncovered was that copper defiency -and in particular in high areas of manganese - causes significantly greater risk/suseptibility. Maganese...hmmm...like in mineral water and vegetables etc.]

Forget pension contributions and school fees - you might as well start spending.

IMHO.

[spongy2] 25/5/2001 14:35

prs,
Just as well you did'nt you'd still be unemployed..heh!

[mr.elbee] 25/5/2001 14:29

There is an incredible theory which the mad economists have called property rights [Coase 1960]....this geezer said we can sue polluters.A few test cases
here or there might concentrate the govs mind.Beer producers?Fizzy pop producers?The possibilities are endless.

[peterreidsmith] 25/5/2001 13:42

Mr. Elbee - sad int it.
I almost stood at the last election you know...then I thought: naw.

[mr.elbee] 25/5/2001 13:36

prs.....you're right but flogging a dead horse.The public are irredeemably stupid.We're doomed.

[peterreidsmith] 25/5/2001 13:32

OK, then forget it: eat, drink and be mad.
Lose every following generation of your family.
Ignore the fact that this will hardly be reported in the press (new labour control them too much) or discredited, and simply do nothing.

It must all seem so easy to them: a little TV; a little SUN headline; a few sound-bites repeated ad-nausium.

Oh well.

[peterreidsmith] 25/5/2001 13:26

small cow - I know about a lot of the science and views on the final report; I was just explaining how the conservatives came to make their mistakes. Easy to see in hindsight, less obvious at the time when you appear to have a whole economy to consider.

However, my point was that there is no such excuse for what has happened now.

[i rely on balls] 25/5/2001 13:25

I suspect that had the Tories been in power when F/M arrived they would just have denied the whole thing, after all it does'nt affect humans, and is no worse than a common cold as far as the animals are concerned.
Then one day the BBC would announce that there are a lot of unexplained new cases of BSE in humans, which the Tories would claim was imported from whichever country is currently out of favour, (probably chinese immigrants, bringing their dead relatives into the country, thru the channel tunnel.) or some such far fetched delusion.

[peterreidsmith] 25/5/2001 13:22

Indieman - the link is at the top...
[The worry is about contamination by BSE agent (prion..indestructable protein) not he F/M virus.]

This is catatrophically bad....unbelievable stupid...incredibly dumn...fantastically irresponsible.

[ahkeen] 25/5/2001 13:17

Peter,

I agree, this is really serious.

The trouble is that this government, and the last, relied on "best advice" from experts. After that they looked at the financial implications, and that probably has resulted in some very bad decisions being made.

Labour appear to have handled F & M very badly, Tories handled BSE very badly IMHO. If monetary implications were not a part of the decision making process, maybe the correct actions would have been taken at the time.

Andy.

[indieman] 25/5/2001 13:14

Can anyone explain to me the link, if any, between contamination of groundwater
by Foot and Mouth virus and a scare about BSE? Or are we as ignorant as we thought the Yanks were when they wouldn't visit?

Indieman