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INBOX warmwell April - Mid August 2004

Aug 12 ~ The environmental audit committee is calling for a "more imaginative and radical strategy" on sustainable energy and the reduction of harmful emissions - particularly for transport and domestic energy efficiency. See website " ..It also warns that the Treasury cannot expect industry to provide investment in alternative fuels unless it has a long-term strategy itself. " Guardian
This reminds us of DEFRA's expectation that farming should shoulder the burdens of animal disease protection while the government itself dithers over policies. Its own Contingency Plan on FMD fails to reflect the spirit of the EU Directive (See front page) - as did its recent "Exercise Hornbeam".

Aug 12 ~ " The government has confirmed it has failed to find the source that leaked the Hutton report to the Sun on the eve of its publication in January, despite a six-month hunt by solicitors..." reports the Guardian. One is left wondering what these solicitors did during the six months. The Sun's political editor, Trevor Kavanagh, has said that nobody had approached him or asked him any questions during the inquiry ...

Aug 12 ~ Hurricane Bonnie is on its way to Florida and Alabama. The actual report from the hurricane centre reports winds of 60 mph maximum. The BBC, on the other hand, reports on the "Millions of people .. put on alert" and that "people have rushed to supermarkets to stock up.."

Aug 12 ~Scientists in the United States have found a way "to turn lazy monkeys into workaholics using gene therapy". Everyone happy with this sort of gene therapy "research"? See jokey BBC report with its suggestion that this "could aid depression". Not mine.

Aug 12 ~ People could be arrested for all offences, even minor ones such as dropping litter, under Home Office proposals BBC

Aug 11 ~ "This is the worst nomination in the history of the job," said former CIA Director Stansfield Turner, who served as U.S. spymaster under Democrat Jimmy Carter..." Reuters reports on George Bush's appointment of a new head of the CIA: "...Democrats questioned whether Goss, a Republican congressman from the key election battleground of Florida, was too partisan for the position and promised tough questions in the U.S. Senate, which must confirm his nomination..Porter Goss will need to answer tough questions about his record ...."

Aug 11 ~ No such "tough questioning" for the appointment of the new Chief Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Defence. Bryn's researches about the appointment of Professor Roy Anderson seem to confirm doubts about the way the appointment was advertised and the time scale involved. There has been little discussion of this controversial appointment when one considers the nature of the advice given by Prof Anderson at the start of the FMD crisis.

Aug 11 ~ Najaf. Things are looking increasingly nasty. The Independent says " The battle for control of the holy Shia city intensified after helicopter gunships, artillery and tanks were used to try to clear the city's hallowed cemetery - the graveyard is a hideout of militiamen led by the cleric Muqtada Sadr...."There will be no sanctuary for thugs and criminals in Najaf ..."

Aug 11 ~ Those of us who express public concern about the encroaching powers of the EU (and I am very happy to work and live in Europe and consider myself as European as my French friends) are still being dubbed "xenophobic". BBC: "Europe Minister Denis MacShane says the Eurosceptic press is fuelling xenophobia" Neil O'Brien (campaign director of Vote No) is at least reported as saying: "Denis MacShane is insulting two thirds of voters by trying to link criticism of Europe with xenophobia. The Government have no real arguments for the European Constitution and are now just trying to bully people into voting for it."

Aug 11 ~ "Japan's nuclear energy industry faced fresh criticism yesterday after it emerged that a severely corroded cooling pipe that caused Monday's fatal accident at a nuclear power plant had not been properly inspected for 28 years despite warnings that it posed a safety threat." Guardian

Aug 10 ~ "Josephine Dickinson’s diary-style record of how foot and mouth disease affected rural communities in 2001 is included in her latest collection published this year." News and Star

Aug 10 ~ "...It is to be hoped that the objections of figures such as Jack Straw and Lord Falconer to a renewal of the Terrorism Act - combined with recent trenchant criticisms from the Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights - is an indication that the Home Secretary's authoritarian revolution has reached its high water mark." The Home Secretary's authoritarian revolution has done nothing to make us safer Independent comment (portfolio)

Aug 10 ~ "Organic" debate - even in Norway, "any brilliant idea is met with rules and regulations and permit applications every way you turn..." as this email showed.

Aug 10 ~ A huge chunk of rock, roughly the size of the Isle of Man, is "on the brink" of breaking off the volcanic island of La Palma in the Canaries. This could cause a mega tsunami ...More

Aug 10 ~ "There is a great deal of dissatisfaction with Tony Blair - party workers are refusing to turn out and canvass," Independent article Blair faces vote of no-confidence over war

Aug 10 ~ so many people are taking Prozac nowadays it is building up in rivers and groundwater ...Norman Baker MP... "a case of hidden mass medication upon the unsuspecting public". He says: "It is alarming that there is no monitoring of levels of Prozac and other pharmacy residues in our drinking water." BBC

Aug 10 ~ David Blunkett faces a cabinet backlash over his plans to overhaul anti-terrorism laws aimed at deterring an attack in Britain. See democracy page ".... US Supreme Court ruling that more than 500 foreigners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba had the right to challenge their indefinite detention could leave Britain exposed if a similar policy continues to be applied at Belmarsh."

Aug 10 ~ "the White House had asked them to announce the arrest or killing of any "high-value [al-Qaeda] target" any time between July 26 and 28, the first three days of the Democratic Convention." See Iraq page and for the original source of this information. "..nearly 40 percent of the public believes the White House is manipulating the threat level for political reasons."

Aug 10 ~ "Max and the fledgling organisation Depletion Scotland are on a crusade to warn us now to prepare, to switch to low-energy lifestyles, line up alternative energy sources (even nuclear) and get ready. Experts at a recent Association for the Study of Peak Oil conference suggested quadrupling the price of oil to concentrate our minds. ..worryingly, Max has been to see his MP, Alistair Darling, he’s been to the DTI and various other bodies. He’s shown them his graphs and charts, made his reasoned arguments. And yet new airport extensions are announced, new motorways… economic growth is still seen as our unassailable right. .." Scotland on Sunday and see warmwell's peak oil pages, updated daily since the end of April.

Aug 10 ~ "Tragically, Blair still appears to believe that if he can only explain it one more time, we will get it. But Tony, we get the message - we just don't accept it. ....Iraq is Blair's poll tax, a fundamental breach of trust, demonstration of arrogance and strategic blunder for which the party as a whole is paying the price."Patrick Wintour in Monday's Guardian

Aug 10 ~ "Prescott has to persuade the prime minister that the future of the Labour party is just as important as the greater glory of the leader who cuckoos in its nest." Comment from Guardian, Monday.

Aug 10 ~ We are grateful to Bryn for bringing to our attention the public debate at Exeter University on September 7 "Is agriculture in decline? What does the future hold for Britain's countryside? Will our farms become show pieces for the enjoyment of weekending urbanites? Is there a distinctive countryside quality we should be fighting to preserve? Does it matter?"
We agree with Bryn and others that the answers, sadly, are Yes, Gloom, yes, yes and YES

Aug 9 ~ Construction of BP's controversial $3bn (£1.6bn) oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey resumed only after the intervention of Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defense, and other senior members of the Bush administration, it has emerged. Independent Aug 8 ~ "There is alarm at the highest levels in both the services and the Ministry of Defence over an extraordinary gamble that the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, is taking with Britain's Armed Forces in the name of European integration. " Booker's Notebook

Aug 8 ~ The home secretary rejects demands for more openness about the latest terror threats. BBC

Aug 8 ~ Juan Cole comments: "Blunkett's measured tones barely disguise his fury at the Bush administration for having gone public with details that have endangered an ongoing British investigation and forced the premature arrest of twelve suspects, against whom it is not clear a case can be made at this point."

Aug 8 ~ "I am delighted to learn of the Prince of Wales's views. His Royal Highness's support on this matter would be invaluable. He understands there is nothing incompatible with being green and being opposed to wind turbines...." Campbell Dunford, the chief executive of the Renewable Energy Foundation, formed last month to press for a review of Britain's energy strategy quoted in the Sunday Telegraph. (Prince Charles thinks wind farms are "horrendous")

Aug 7 ~ The State of Kansas has just completed "High Plains Guardian", simulating an "an agroterrorism attack" involving an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. It involved " .. all hoofed animals, even deer, to be killed within a mile and a half of any infected farm or livestock yard....." Kansascity.com
Dr.Cummins of Amarillo Biosciences, Inc.believes immune modulation with oral interferon and vaccination is a better way to respond - "the (US) government's attempt to eradicate FMD will require the slaughter and disposal of millions of animals. Nothing could please terrorists more than to watch the US Government kill millions of animals in response to their agroterrorism. After all, the FMD generally kills less than 1% of affected animals but the government's response kills 100%..." from Press Release Amarillo Biosciences, Inc.

Aug 5/6 ~ A timely article in the Guardian on Wednesday reminds us that in the three years since the September 11 attacks, there have been fewer "terror" incidents per year than at any time in the last 20 years. "... what the media are responding to is not an increase in the problem but an increase of political rhetoric... terrorism ranks high on the public's list of concerns, while climate change scarcely registers.... issues like global warming can be brushed aside. "

Aug 5/6 ~ Email received about the vCJD case. Yet another example of the whipping up of public fear? "...the new unfortunate victim is of a different genetic type than that involved before. But to jump from that to the vision of half the population dying of vCJD? What sort of scaremongering is this? To make it the TOP story in the BBC news today?..."
We checked ProMed mail for the non-scaremonger version. "Whether non-homozygotes can also develop vCJD, albeit with a longer incubation period, is as yet unknown."

Aug 5/6 ~ "Senior British counter-terrorist sources yesterday denied they had found any specific plot to attack Heathrow or any other British airport. The source of the alarming stories about a plan to bomb Britain's biggest airport appears to be four-year-old information held by an al-Qa'ida computer expert arrested in Pakistan last month. .." Independent We find it significant that the UN report ( "...governments should ensure that they were accurately reflecting "real risk....and (should) refrain from generating undue fear of terrorism,"Reuters) has not been widely reported.

Aug 5/6 ~ Farmers who receive compensation for cattle affected by bovine tuberculosis or brucellosis will no longer be able to choose their own valuer. FWi

Aug 5/6 ~ A healthy dog in South Africa has been put down by ignorant officialdom - to the grief of its owners. "The officials felt she could transmit foot-and-mouth disease. ... A Pretoria vet said it is unlikely for a dog to transmit foot-and-mouth disease." News24.com

Aug 5/6 ~ "Bush questioners, not Bush bashers". The tone, right now at least, is more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger..." Bruce Springsteen will go on tour in support of the Democrats. MoveOn.org is closely involved in organising the tours. See Independent "we dived headlong into an unnecessary war in Iraq, we ran record deficits, we granted tax cuts to the richest 1 per cent (corporate bigwigs, well-to-do guitar players), increasing the division of wealth that threatens to destroy our social contract with one another." (Bruce Springsteen)

Aug 5/6 ~ Poor old Dubya: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," he said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." Independent

Aug 5/6 ~ "Mr Bradshaw insisted that he was "not squeamish about culling". And he acknowledged that badgers do play a role in the spread of the disease. But he said that any badger culling strategy had to be based on "sound science", particularly the long-awaited outcome of the so-called Krebs trials...." WMN "Sound Science"? a rare bird in these days of the politicisation of scientific advice, when, in the interests of trade, "not being squeamish about culling" is considered the answer to much curable animal disease.

Aug 5/6 ~ "...withering views on the bureaucratic stranglehold he believes the European Union exerts on farmers today. “It is INTOLERABLE that people who ought to be working among their stock are stuck in offices making sure they’ve dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s, just so they can get three-quarters of their income from Brussels,” he says.." A refreshing article from Whitehaven News about the Cumbria countryman, Patrick Gordon-Duff-Pennington and his memoirs, Those Blue Remembered Hills. (His remarks about Margaret Beckett, though brief, were interesting.)

Aug 5/6 ~ "The three main pillars of 'further political integration' with the EU are Economic and Monetary Union, the Constitution and Regionalisation, but the latter is frequently and conveniently overlooked..." Read Neil Herron's plea for help in preparation for 4th November, 2004 when the North East referendum takes place. "..we do need support to achieve the victory."

Aug 5/6 ~ Cheering news from a United Nations report which criticised "governments" for "whipping up exaggerated fears of terrorism among their populations" The report was completed in April - even before the latest declaration of "a state of alert" in the United States, duly followed by Britain. AFP says "...reaction to Sunday's alert was not the first time the administration faced questions about whether it has been improperly politicizing the war on terrorism."

Aug 5/6 ~Anti-terrorist officers have been granted a 72-hour extension to question 12 men arrested in the "terror" raids . See icLondon.co.uk

Aug 5/6 ~ Russia's withdrawal of a promised financial lifeline for Yukos and scepticism about OPEC's surplus capacity suggests that 50 dollars a barrel may be a real possibility. Oil page

Aug 5/6 ~ "...The widespread cynicism about the alerts, which may have no grounding, is a product of Bush's intense politicisation of national security and his record of misleading statements about almost every aspect of war." What the terror alerts really tell us Sidney Blumenthal in the Guardian

Aug 4 ~ " ... measures that appear to weaken controls on planning in the countryside, while doing little to ease the affordable housing crisis ..Eyebrows were also raised at the Government's decision to retain the controversial planning exception for large mansions in the countryside - provided they are built to "innovative, cutting edge" designs. ..." WMN today on "New Rules threat to Local Beauty"

Aug 4 ~ Dick Cheney has accused the Democrats for high oil prices..".I don't often find Dick Cheney amusing, but I fell off my sofa belly-laughing over this one." - see extract from Juan Cole's informed comment website

Aug 4 ~ Michael Meacher "burst the bubble of etiquette and respectability at Westminster" and there is an article about this decent, eloquent and fearless politician in today's Guardian

Aug 4 ~ "... the effects of energy depletion go way beyond paying more at the pump. It will literally get down to the question of how you will feed yourself and your family..."The End of Suburbia" points out that no combination of alternative fuels can run and maintain our current system as it is now." Peak Oil news

Aug 4 ~ So Howard Dalton was not even given Georgina Downs' evidence. DEFRA's advice was that there is no need further to regulate pesticides Unarguable evidence demonstrating the impact crop-spraying has had on health has been repeatedly dismissed or sat on. Is DEFRA really so anxious to protect the interests of the powerful chemical companies that it will sacrifice public health instead ?

Aug 4 ~ What's more.....a "US scientist who led investigations suggesting that nerve agents injured troops in the first Gulf war yesterday called on British researchers to join the hunt for reliable brain scans and other tests." Guardian Gulf War Syndrome, so steadfastly denied by the government cannot be made to disappear so easily.

Aug 4 ~ Now the Guardian is at it. Making cruel fun of the government's nice leaflets about what to do in a terror attack....

Aug 4 ~ The Independent and the the Guardian reports on the embarrassment for the US administration now that it has emerged that "new" intelligence about al-Qa'ida's plans to attack US financial institutions - "information that led to an official alert and a slew of fresh security measures - was up to four years old and predated the 11 September attacks." See also Iraq page
And now, in the UK, yet another well publicised police swoop; thirteen "suspected terrorists" were arrested just as Tony Blair has been pressured to spell out the real level of the terrorism threat in Britain.

Aug 3 ~ The Journal reports that the National Scrapie Plan has now collected over one million blood samples from over 21,000 flock visits.".... It is now at a position where it can start to review the progress (in terms of development of genotypes) of individual breeds. This analysis will help judge if the goals of the National Scrapie Plan are being met and should help to ensure that an optimal balance is maintained between genotype improvement and other breeding considerations." ... but an article as recent as yesterday on the "World Socialist Website" trots out the old scare: ".... the fatal sheep disease scrapie could be masking BSE. If this proves correct most of the UK flock would have to be slaughtered...."

Aug 3 ~ "We are also hoping to introduce a £60 a hectare premium for organic farming to encourage people to adopt the methods - twice the level of non-organic subsidies." Ben Bradshaw has been visiting an organic farm in South Devon yesterday to launch a Government report calling for more organic food to be served in schools and hospitals. WMN

Aug 3 ~"... we should treat with scepticism the claims made for the numbers of deaths - 30,000 or 50,000 are the figures being bandied about - when we know that similar statistics proved very wrong in Kosovo and Iraq. .." A deeply disturbing article by John Laughland from yesterday's Guardian, reminding us that scepticism about what has been said about the "moral reasons" for war is more essential than ever and that oil will be the driving factor for military intervention in Sudan.

Aug 3 ~ Peter Kilfoyle, the Labour MP who introduced the rebel amendment in the Iraq debate in March 2003, has written in the Guardian today "...rich individuals are dining at the table where trade unionists used to eat. ..... I never imagined today's sense of despair among many Labour people - but then I never imagined a Labour government applying Thatcherite policies through democratic centralist methods." Read in full

Aug 3 ~ Does this government really want to import all food and see farming disappear? How is DEFRA going to interpret the EU "no milk from TB reactors" rule? See warmwell front page

Aug 3 ~ "Long may the phantom raspberry blowers continue!" writes a regular emailer. Meanwhile the Independent (portfolio) story: "... Was it coincidence then that soon after the end of the parliamentary term came news the Government was dispensing with the services of two people who had caused it particular embarrassment?" As the Guardian Leader onJuly 27 says, " Mr Morrison did a public service in saying what he did and it is disgraceful that his contract has been terminated. Maybe he should sue for wrongful dismissal, which would at least provide a chance to dig for more of the facts that have still not come out. Civil servants have human rights too."

Aug 3 ~ Tom Mangold's revelations about John Scarlett - the "golden nuggets" - has not been denied by Number Ten. See Independent and democracy page.

Aug 3 ~ Basic freedoms to protest are being systematically undermined by anti-terror legislation - George Monbiot. See democracy page

Aug 3 ~ You can fool all the people only some of the time.... The Independent lead story is refreshing - as is the whole newspaper in these dark days. Extract:

While the story is "balanced", these are the sentences that carry the punch.

Aug 2 ~ Tony Blair has defied two anti-sleaze watchdogs to make it easier for senior civil servants to take up lucrative private sector jobs. Democracy page

Aug 2 ~ "... Two recent studies by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the David Hume Institute blow some much needed fresh air across wind power's musty arguments. These studies highlight a few ways in which the wind environmentalists are deceiving consumers." See windfarm page

Aug 2 ~ DEFRA's 2004 Rural Strategy "With the launch of its 2004 Rural Strategy, DEFRA has once again missed an opportunity to show that it understands the full contribution of farming to sustainable development." FARM responds, telling DEFRA and Mrs Beckett to "look beyond the conventional balance sheet".

Aug 2 ~ Steve Moxon, the immigration whistleblower whose allegations led to the resignation of the Home Office minister Beverley Hughes, is to take the government to employment tribunal after being sacked for "breach of contract". See Independent

Aug 2 ~ Robert Fisk (Iraq page) " don’t think we’re going to learn much more about Saddam’s future court appearances. Salem Chalabi, the brother of convicted fraudster Ahmad and the man entrusted by the Americans with the tribunal, told the Iraqi press two weeks ago that all media would be excluded from future court hearings. And I can see why. Because if Saddam does a Milosevic, he’ll want to talk about the real intelligence and military connections of his regime - which were primarily with the United States. "

August 2 ~ John Scarlett, now the new head of MI6, tried to persuade weapons inspectors in Iraq to harden up a report on their hunt for weapons of mass destruction, it was claimed yesterday. See democracy page

August 2 ~ Chernobyl. The fallout from the disaster on 26 April 1986 may include considerably more than has ever been admitted. The BBC reported on Saturday the sudden deportation of a British scientist, Dr Alan Flowers, from Belarus while on a lecture tour. " At the time of the tragedy, many believe the then Soviet Union seeded clouds to make them rain on Belarus. The move was aimed at preventing winds from blowing contaminated material towards Moscow, theorists say... "

August 1 2004 ~ Booker's Notebook "Paul Ramsden of the OSS Group says: "After the 'fridge mountain' and the 'scrap tyre pile', must we now expect Defra and the EA to provide us with a 'waste oil lake'? For decades the UK has had an exemplary record in managing its used lubricating oils. By recycling them as fuel, it has been possible to provide an environmentally benign service, at little or no cost to the producers. Now this is under threat from officials who seem preoccupied with an over-literal interpretation of the rules, regardless of the environmental consequences." See also democracy page

July 31 ~ Practical help and hope in Dafur. News of Kids for Kids "Nine paravets (villagers) have recently completed their initial training, been awarded their certificates, and are back in their villages awaiting the goats. They have been issued with veterinary drugs for a revolving scheme for each village. 225 households have been selected (roughly 25 in each village) for the goat loan project. Two volunteers have received donkeys so that they can go and purchase 1350 nanny goats and 225 billies...."

July 31 ~ WMN " Energy experts now are warning that the Government will not meet its target of producing 10 per cent of electricity from renewables by 2010. The prediction pulls apart assumptions that onshore wind power can be the main driver behind the renewables strategy. And it sharpens the debate over whether the UK will need to revert to nuclear power .."

July 31 ~ From the September 2004 edition of Esquire "... It's one thing to get trashed by Michael Moore. But when Nobel laureates, a vast majority of the scientific community, and a host of current and former diplomats, intelligence operatives, and military officials line up against you, it becomes increasingly difficult to characterize the opposition as fringe wackos.
Does anyone really favor an administration that so shamelessly lies? One that so tenaciously clings to secrecy, not to protect the American people, but to protect itself? That so willfully misrepresents its true aims and so knowingly misleads the people from whom it derives its power? I simply cannot think so....Come November 2, we will have a choice: We can embrace a lie, or we can restore a measure of integrity to our government. We can choose, as a bumper sticker I spotted in Seattle put it, SOMEONE ELSE FOR PRESIDENT."

July 31 ~ "... to be able to compete for business in a world where buyers scoured the world for least cost products they (farmers) also needed to be relieved of red tape and over regulation. Producers who delivered the highest standards of animal welfare and food hygiene should be rewarded with clear country of origin of labels and premium prices." Lord Plumb opening the National Sheep Event 2004. FWi

July 31 ~ "the Blair government proved itself incapable of getting to grips with its own food and agriculture-related disaster. Politics – the desire to hold and win an early election – was given precedence." Dr Jeremy Bray's book would be less embarrassing for the government if it had not been written by the late Labour MP for Motherwell and Wishaw. Interesting that no one dared publish it - except his widow at her own expense.

July 30 ~ See Democracy page for the report on how a Westcountry Euro MP was heckled at a Regional Assembly two weeks ago - and told, by the chairman, that his three minute speech was "too political". Regional Assemblies are not at all political it would appear. The referendums that should have taken place have been postponed for reasons that have nothing to do with politics, but are "good for democracy", according to Mr Prescott.

July 30 ~ The WMN on the factory farming of cows: "... Pigs and chickens went that way and milk will have to if we are not careful. It's not what customers or farmers want to see. It's more like factory farming. I'm sure we will see more of it. The bigger operations will just keep expanding and the smaller ones will have to get out..." If we are not careful suggests that farmers themselves can change the government's mind. But only a change of government can do that. If then.

July 30 ~"in places the ice is dropping at a rate of one metre a month.." The BBC reports that the Greenland ice sheet is melting 10 times faster than was predicted. In April this year there was the prediction that if the ice cap melts, global average sea level will rise by about 7m (23ft) - and the Greenland ice sheet might not re-grow even if the global climate were returned to pre-industrial conditions. Not surprising then that the Independent led this morning with the non-breeding puffins...

July 30 ~ "Anglesey used to be rich farmland. Now the only rich farms are wind farms. There are lots round Amlwch. However, there is one outstanding farm shop:..." See continuation of Hilary Peters' ediary

July 30 ~ Warmwell has not quite been able to bring itself to comment on the shower of booklets on terror attacks about to plop their way into UK households. Luckily, we do not have to. Do not miss http://www.preparingforemergencies.co.uk/ ".... We are also launching a national advertising campaign letting you know to look out for the booklet coming through your letterboxes during August. In no way does this resemble the Reader's Digest Prize Draw..." (email comment)

July 30 - Orchid Biosciences USA are pleased with their financial results ($28.1 million for the six months ended June 30, 2004): " we experienced increased testing volumes in our scrapie genotyping service and successfully renewed our contract with the U.K. government as their major provider of this testing." See home page on the scrapie question. One wonders how much UK tax goes on this genotyping.

July 30 ~ Matt Simmons says that Saudi Arabia's pumping capacity is in decline. He is no anti -establishment crank and the message is perhaps beginning to sink in that the world is in trouble. High energy prices have a knock-on effect on everything else. See peak oil page Simmons says the world has always taken Saudi Arabia at its word for its oil assets. He now believes that it cannot be trusted. Like everyone else fed up with the current political climate of secrecy and back-covering, Matt Simmons is calling for a "new era of transparency". He is calling for verifiable data in the world of oil production - particularly in Saudi Arabia.

July 30 2004 ~ Cumbria County Council will now take DEFRA to court over the unpaid £9 million pound bill for work carried out during the foot and mouth outbreak unless Alun Michael can sort out the claim before it is too late. See Cumbria News and Star. (See also FPB Campaign page)

July 30 ~ The Independent leads on what it feels is even more front page news than Kerry's speeches or the non-saga of Erikkson - namely the desperate plight of Scottish seabirds, unable to find food."Scottish seabirds have failed to breed this summer, a wildlife catastrophe linked by scientists directly to global warming."

July 30 ~ As both Iraq and Afghanistan sink further into miserable quagmires, the Labour chairman of the FASC, Donald Anderson, says that the Iraq war might well have increased the terror threat. The FASC report is commented on by the BBC and Independent here.
See also the comments by Juan Cole on the feasibilty of a Muslim force in Iraq. As he says, most Muslim countries would refuse to go under a US military command. However, his comment on the "Kerry plan" appears largely optimistic. Iraq page

July 30 ~ Seattlepi.com reports that Californian scientists say they have created the first synthetic version of a rogue prion. After a year of trying, they have succeeded in making ill with a TSE a group of unfortunate genetically modified mice by injecting the synthetically battered proteins directly into their brains. "A renaissance in prion research," cries Prusiner, assuming that this "proves" his infectious prion theory. However, Dr. Laura Manuelidis, a Yale University neuropathologist says, "If something is really there in science, it is there in a major way, it's not something you have to coax out of hiding."

July 30 ~ Today Programe looks at possible legislation "tough new powers" designed to stop protests against vivisection. The Minister says that this is legislation against "extremism" and denies that existing laws are adequate. John Humphrys reminds her that laws covering protests outside people's houses etc are already in place."No plans" for using soldiers to help guard Life Science Research establishments says the Minister. On the issue of ID cards, also raised by John Humphrys, she was not impressive nor reassuring.

July 30 ~ A fundamental change in the relationship between the State and the individual. See Democracy Page on the Home Affairs Committee's response to the ID card scheme. Those who carelessly proclaim that there is nothing to worry about if we are honest and good ("Napoleon is always right; I will work harder") forget that giving up total responsibility for our lives to central government will be the thin end of a very unpredictable wedge. Listen again (new window) to the Today Programme on the threat of "function creep".

July 29 ~ Kids for Kids is not trying to improve the local breed but make what already works in this area available to war torn and hungry families. No political posturing - just a project with achievable and sustainable goals that genuinely benefits children and involves wonderful goats!

July 28 ~ Vice- President Dick Cheney made a speech at the London Institute of Petroleum Autumn lunch in 1999 when he was Chairman of Halliburton. A key passage from his speech was: “That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day.” It suggested that he at that time was fully aware of the issue of peak oil. ( Read more at http://www.peakoil.net (pdf))

July 28 ~ Forbes.com ~ "Russia's largest oil company raised the possibility today that it may be forced to stop production, sending crude oil prices sharply higher. .. According to news reports, Yukos has received a cease-work order from Russian bailiffs that cover its largest production unit, Yuganskneftegaz. ..Traders doubt that OPEC has the capacity to pump more should Yukos turn off the taps..." Peak Oil News

July 28 ~ "..there is no point in recommending devolution of economic and social policy if devolution means bringing it back into the arms of central government through the guise of regional development agencies," said Andrew George last June when the Haskins Report advocated that large elements of Defra's work should devolve to regions like the Westcountry. But the WMN today reports that there is little enthusiasm for the South West Regional Development Agency's conference - in Cheltenham - in Spetember. "There are a lot of people who are frustrated because there's a lot of talking going on and not much action.."

July 28 ~ The government's refusal to hold an inquiry into the alleged killing of six Iraqis by UK troops is to be challenged. BBC

July 28 ~ Juan Cole writes today, " there is no longer any doubt that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, no active nuclear weapons program, no ability to deliver anything lethal to the US homeland, and no operational cooperation with al-Qaeda. These things are not matters of opinion. They are indisputable. Ipso facto, if an intelligent person continues to allege them, he is prevaricating." See Iraq/"Terror" page.

July 28 ~ Simon Jenkins (The Times) on Dafur: "So what do we do about Sudan? I mean really do, not just pose. Do we scold it? Or do we condemn it, sanction it, threaten it, bomb and invade it? ..... A year ago I wrote wondering why we were invading Iraq when Sudan might reasonably claim our prior attention. Everyone, except Tony Blair, knew that Iraq was no immediate threat...... A decade of sanctions did not topple Saddam. They enriched his cronies and made him the sixth wealthiest man in the world. But they contributed to the death from disease of many more Iraqis than eventually did Western bombers. The idea of impoverishing the Sudanese people in their present misery to avenge the atrocities of their rulers is obscene." Read in full

July 27 ~ warmwell.com hears dark mutterings from time to time about the desirability of the live export of UK Ministers. We note from the Scotsman today however that Margaret Beckett " took 25 trips, notching up 75 days away" last year, taking 70 officials with her on her foreign visits. We couldn't possibly comment.

July 27 ~ We are concerned to read in FWi that a Greenpeace energy campaigner, Jim Footner, has called the Conservative party's policy on in-shore windfarms "irresponsible". Jonathan Porrit has said "the case for windfarms has been damaged by those companies seeking to build turbines in sensitive locations".

July 27 ~ "As a mother of three small children I do not want them to look at me in a few years time and ask me why I didn't do anything about this. Our landscape would be destroyed." WMN and windfarm page Nick Harvey MP said that North Devon is "far more suited" to tidal projects.
Even ".. Jonathan Porritt..who reports to Tony Blair as chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, feels the case for windfarms has been damaged by those companies seeking to build turbines in sensitive locations." WMN

July 27 ~ "... it is not nearly enough that we are good, decent people; that we are polite; that we take care of our kids; that we are kind, thoughtful and reasonable. These are important and good. But if, in addition, we simply do what we are told, if we don't think for ourselves - if we don't have the capacity to say 'no', to cause trouble, to be disobedient - then we may well end up the architects of somebody's hell....To be ignorant, to not give a damn about how the world works - to assume that our task is merely to do what we're told and otherwise lose ourselves in entertainment - is deeply immoral. " A medialens link worth reading in full.

July 27 ~ "If the Commission refuses to close the fishery, Britain will act unilaterally to ban it within UK territorial waters. Announced by the Fisheries Minister, Ben Bradshaw, the move comes in the wake of mounting evidence of the scale of the killing as increasing numbers of dead dolphins and porpoises are washed up along the Channel coastline..." Independent

July 27 2004~ A new joint report by the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering to be published on Thursday.... marks an abrupt change of attitude by the Royal Society, which has been one of the principal cheerleaders for genetically modified crops and foods.... vindicates Prince Charles who ...warned of the risks .... no exact parallel between nanotechnology and GM, but (the report) devotes much space to learning the lessons from the failure of scientists to win public trust during the debate over modified crops and foods. ..." Geoffrey Lean in the IoS

July 27 ~ Two cases of West Nile Virus infection have been confirmed in Ireland. Mosquito-borne, it killed 264 in the USA in 2003. "The Department of Health announced, in May 2004, that it had drawn up plans for dealing with an outbreak of the potentially deadly West Nile virus as a precaution." Pro-Med

July 27 2004 ~ Independent - British scientists to store DNA of endangered species for posterity - " the cloning of extinct animals would be next to meaningless unless their habitat in the wild was also restored. However, one practical use of the frozen ark would be to preserve the genetic diversity of a species that is already in decline and undergoing a potentially serious shrinkage of its gene pool, which leads to a dangerously inbred population" said the science author Colin Tudge

July 27 ~ "As an island nation, why are we not doing more to harness power from wave and tide? "Could we not use our deep-sea expertise to take a lead in offshore wind? Should we not do more to help farmers develop green energy from forestry and agriculture?" Tim Yeo. See FWi

July 27 ~ Warmwell has been asked to list the MPs who opposed the war in Iraq. Here are those who supported the rebel amendment. Here is the full debate of March 18 2003. Here is the speech of the wholly respected John Denham, former Home Office Minister who, one year later, told the Guardian, "The central issue for me was the lack of international support for, what I regarded, as essentially a preventative initiative rather than a response to an immediate threat."

July 26 ~ Reuters reports that Mordechai Vanunu (abducted by Israeli agents and convicted of treason in 1986 after discussing his work as a mid-level Dimona technician with the Sunday Times) has had his appeal to leave Israel rejected. His revelations led independent experts to conclude Israel had amassed between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons (or WMD as they are sometimes called)

July 26 ~ in a devastating report published in March, the news magazine Der Spiegel exposed what it called "The Windmill Madness". What had begun as "the dream of environmentally friendly energy" had turned out to mean the 'highly subsidised destruction of the landscape'. Windfarms

July 26 ~ The decapitation of the BBC (See transcript of interview with Sir John Walker) ....We read in the Telegraph article below "... Greg Dyke, the BBC's director general, Gavyn Davies, its chairman, and Andrew Gilligan, a reporter, all lost their jobs after the BBC was criticised by Lord Hutton for reporting that Downing Street "sexed up" its dossier about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The BBC is also moving Richard Sambrook, its head of news at the time of the Gilligan story, into a less sensitive post."

July 26 ~ Alan Simpson, a Labour MP, said: "The only people who have paid the price for this mistaken war are those who have told what this country believes to be the truth." (Telegraph)

July 26 ~ John Morrison, an adviser to the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) and a former deputy chief of defence intelligence has been sacked by Number 10. It is alleged that this is as a direct result of his decision to give an interview for a BBC1 Panorama programme in which he said that the intelligence community reacted with disbelief to Tony Blair's claim in September 2002 that Iraq posed a "serious and current" threat to the UK. "When I heard him using those words, I could almost hear the collective raspberry going up around Whitehall." Listen again (new window) to the interview on this subject with Sir John Walker on the Today Programme or read warmwell transcript

July 26 ~ A car bomb exploded near a Baghdad bridge and mortar fire struck several locations in the capital this morning. Meanwhile, Ann Clywd was telling the Today programme (Listen again) that Baghdad was quiet.

July 26 ~ Some of the most important news articles from yesterday at a glance. Mo Mowlam on Peter Mandelson, British Army officers stripped of veto powers over Iraq abuse cases, Butler 'wrong' on Iraq uranium link, or read all

July 25 ~ We need a national debate on privacy - see Democracy page

July 25 ~ Wind farms "Mr Howard's statement tomorrow, backed by Professor Bellamy, could be the turning point in Britain's gullible acceptance of what has been described as "the greatest scam since the South Sea Bubble". Booker's Notebook

July 25 ~ Booker's Notebook: According to Morley "....When, after my article, Mr Burt tried to contact the same official for confirmation, he was told Mr Brierley was "on holiday" and had been "misquoted" ..." More dodging and weaving from the government.

July 25 ~" In meticulous detail, the 567-page report, including 116 pages of detailed footnotes in tiny, eye-straining type, rewrote the history of Sept. 11, 2001, correcting the historical record in ways large and small and shattering myths that might otherwise have been accepted as truth for generations.." New York Times article on the 9/11 report " the commission found that an attack described as unimaginable had in fact been imagined, repeatedly. The commission said that several threat reports circulated within the government in the late 1990's raised the explicit possibility of an attack using airliners as missiles....." Read in full

July 25 ~ ".. it is so heartening to read both in the letters and articles that so many people - and some very eminent ones - share our concerns." email

July 25 ~ "The enduring legacy of Magna Carta lies in clauses 39 and 40, which state that "no free man shall be taken or imprisoned or deprived ... except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land", and "to no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice". .." see Democracy page and Tristram Hunt's article from the Guardian

July 24 2004 ~ "On the back of the menu, itself light green in colour, I sketched out a "green paper" containing the things which a strong and confident parliament - if we possessed one - would look at post-Butler and Hutton..." Read Richard Hennessy in the Guardian (in full on democracy page)

July 24 ~ The decision of the 9/11 Commission not to disband will mean that Iraq and security will stay at the forefront of the election campaign. See Guardian

July 24 ~ One of the most interesting and well informed letters in today's crop from the Independent takes heed - as we do - of the importance of the waning of cheap oil......"Mr Blair does not find it in his or our best interests to offer us grown-up, real-world choices: if you want to continue to live like this, we will need to do certain unpleasant things on your behalf; if you don't like those things, start preparing for a materially less comfortable future. "

July 24 ~ The Forum of Private Businesses (www.fpb.co.uk) have been hard at work campaigning on behalf of the contractors involved in the Foot and Mouth clean-up. Farmers or contractors still owed money by DEFRA might consider joining the FPB campaign

July 24 ~ Let's hope we'll always have Parris. Here he is with Blair has won — in his playground cheat way in the Times. "...licking their wounds while the press lick Mr Blair’s shoes, the opposition parties have — with an almost lone exception. It was with a huge cheer from my sofa that, watching the Commons debate on Butler this week, I heard the following from an almost unknown young Conservative MP. ..." Read in full on warmwell's democracy page

July 24 ~ "Mr Tedd said the company had no control over what was loaded onto the lorries transporting the dead animals, many of which had apparently been dug up after previously being buried at Longtown’s old airfield. And it had no say in how those carcasses were treated at the rendering plant. MAFF or MLC officials controlled every stage of the process, and the company’s staff and directors simply had to do what they were told, he said." Cumbria News and Star

July 23 - Depleted Uranium "American troops are coming home poisoned -- not by Saddam -- but by their own government's weapons of mass and indiscriminate destruction." Link sent - and see also warmwell's DU page

July 23 ~ Apologies to the emailer who writes, "noticed in today's 'inbox'. ( quotes paragraph below)
"I'm sure you didn't mean to besmirch the great and venerable ZNet :-) the Reuters report actually appears on the IT site zdnet."
Indeed not. The link was correct but the "d" was carelessly omitted. Now corrected. And long live the great and venerable Znet indeed.

July 23 ~ Mr Bradshaw acknowledged that Government trials of so-called "dolphin-friendly" nets had failed to halt the carnage. The ever excellent and independent Western Morning News reports

July 23 ~ " It is interesting that the US press is willing to accept Butler's conclusion on the uranium from Niger claim so unquestioningly" warmwell's Niger page

July 23 ~ Anthony Gibson has warned that the Government's shake-up of rural agencies could lead to the countryside being turned into a "large garden for urban Britain". WMN

July 23 ~ "A cynic might suggest that the No 10 spin machine (which we were assured was dismantled, or at least curtailed, out of respect for the memory of Dr Kelly) is attempting to ensure that Blair makes good his getaway from the smouldering wreckage of Iraq by hijacking the headlines..." more reassuring glimpses into the feelings of the population via the Independent letters page

July 23 ~ Ash Moor , the pit that cost £10 million of taxpayers' money to take carcasses during the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001 and was never used. See North Devon Journal "the future ownership of the site still needs confirmation" The article also mentions " the Hand It Back campaign by the Journal, backed by key figures to get Ash Moor handed over to the people of Devon"

July 23 ~ a conference of scientists and poultry farmers convened in Hanoi, Tue 20 Jul 2004, to discuss a possible vaccination program against avian influenza. However, no decision has been made yet. See Pro-Med website

July 23 ~"... but we would have left Iraq an unsafe, unsecure country that did pose a threat to the region and the world." Mr Blair at his monthly press conference refusing to apologise for British deaths.
(Some of us might suggest the live export of Bush, Blair, Cheney and co to an area north of Baghdad on a fact finding mission. In Iraq 900 US soldiers are now dead - 60 British and thousands of Iraqi men, women and children. Staff Sgt. A.J. Dean [said] . . . "I don't have any idea of what we're trying to do out here," he said, "... and I don't think our commanders do either. I feel deceived personally. I don't trust anything Rumsfeld says, and I think Wolfowitz is even dirtier" . . .)

July 23 ~ "The truth is that nobody wants an extra layer of professional politicians leeching more tax out of the pockets of hard-working people. The reasons you've given for pulling these referendums is a fig-leaf to disguise the real reason. The fact is a majority of Labour MPs were in covert or open rebellion in the North West and Yorkshire this week." Democracy page on the postponing of Regional Assembly referendums.

July 23 ~ Between his stints as secretary of defence and vice-president, Cheney was in charge of Halliburton when it was circumventing strict UN sanctions, helping to rebuild Iraq and enriching Saddam Hussein. ( Guardian)

July 23 ~ As the American emailer who first put this message in circulation wrote: "Feel free to pass this on. If you don't send it to at least 10 other people, we're likely to be stuck with Bush for 4 more years. "

July 22 ~ Jonathan Freedland, in the Guardian, put into a fine article yesterday the deep concerns felt by so many of us: "It's as if Tony Blair and friends live on a different planet, where the usual rules of reason and logic do not apply....In government, it seems, there is no buck... " The perils of power - read in full

July 22 ~ "European Commission president Romano Prodi has warned about the dangers of having a referendum on the Constitution saying that if the treaty is rejected it would be a "huge setback" for European integration......." http://euobserver.com/?aid=16970&rk=1

July 22 ~ WMN "14 bungalows for the elderly which he said would "become famous throughout the country" for the way they were connected to ground source heat pumps and collect heat from the soil. They are the first social housing in Britain to have earth energy heating..." (Excellent news - but Mr Timms still cannot see that onshore wind power, on the other hand, is a dreadful mistake. See windfarms)

July 22 ~ "By any other name"... 330 DEFRA technology staff will become IBM employees..."after consultation with unions"
IBM gets DEFRA's contract " to help modernize and manage its technology services", believed by some to be worth 1.5 billion dollars - or about £0.81 billion - "Among the initial projects IBM will undertake is an investigation of wireless radio tags for use in identifying, tagging and tracking livestock. " See report on Zdnet.comwhich trots out "3.7 million cattle killed" for FMD, a figure presumably supplied by DEFRA. (See warmwell front page for a discussion of the real number of animals killed)

July 22 ~ "a massive energy conservation drive is needed; and it is becoming increasingly likely that nuclear energy will have to be resurrected.." See peak oil page

July 21 ~ "We simply cannot have business as usual. Even if we wanted it, the daily news from Iraq wouldn't allow it," said Tam Dalyell, asking for the resignation of Tony Blair yesterday. See article:'This isn't about the normal argy-bargy of politics. It is about 13,000 civilian deaths'
- and the daily news about Iraq - on warmwell daily since Feb 2003, which will put Blair's "rejoice that Iraq can have such a future" in terrifying perspective.

July 21 ~ The Butler Debate in the Independent What's the verdict on your Leader?click here
'Rejoice over Iraq': fury at Blair's echo of Thatcher click here
Defiant Blair concedes errors of style but not of substance click here
Howard's failure to hit home plunges Tories into despair click here
Intelligence expert says Scarlett's MI6 appointment raises 'issue of credibility' click here
Kennedy demands apology from PM click here
'This isn't about the normal argy-bargy of politics. It is about 13,000 civilian deaths' click here
(or read all)

July 20 ~ today's debate - Independent
As Jon Snow says this evening. "Blair's got away with it official: Set piece debate under way in the House of Commons as I write. No one's put a glove on Blair so far. The politicking over the Iraq War has run out of steam. The Government seem to have got away with few repercussions give or take the resignation of John Scarlett. ..." (See Scotsman "Scarlett should go, says Cook")

July 20 ~ "the impression that the situation in Iraq itself is much improved is down to Iraq fatigue in the media..." ( see Guardian's Oliver Miles today.) HL Menkhen thought that "the function of a newspaper in a democracy is to act as a sort of chronic opposition to the reigning quacks" But on they reign...

July 20~ What Mr Blair said in 1998 about military action in Iraq and did NOT say in 2002...http://butlerreview.org/meyerballs.html

July 20 ~ DEFRA is still disputing charges from contractors who worked during the 2001 epidemic. £53.3m of invoices remain outstanding. icWales

July 20 ~ Brucellosis in Cornwall. DEFRA admit that they may never identify the origin of the "one-off" infection of bovine brucellosis that caused such misery to one highly respected family in March. The FWi report says, "the available evidence suggests that the infection became established sometime between Spring 2002 and Spring 2003. .." The "available evidence" suggests that DEFRA knows rather more than it is saying publicly.

July 20 ~ Relatives of a Filipino hostage freed in Iraq greeted news of his release on Tuesday with cheers and tears. See Reuters

July 20 ~ "The Government has limited the scope for a Labour rebellion at the end of today's debate by ensuring it takes place on a technical motion that cannot be amended. " Independent

July 20 ~ The Foreign Affairs Select Committee will meet tomorrow to discuss whether to reopen its inquiry into the Iraq war after the Butler report revealed last week that MI6 withdrew crucial evidence that bolstered the case for war because it was discredited....Richard Ottaway, a former Tory member of the committee, who was involved in the Kelly inquiry, called for Mr (Donald) Anderson to reopen the inquiry or resign. "The inquiry we carried out has clearly been denied vital information. The chairman should reopen the inquiry or he should resign."..." Independent

July 20 ~ A fresh wave of violence in Iraq over the weekend left 10 dead and 62 wounded, (Reuters)

July 20 ~ An emailer writes: "...none of it sticks or gets to Blair. Jonathan Freedland was spot on - and his box of knives - but who will use them? the sadness is that the way Blair misled this country - and Hutton - is scandalous but he is being allowed to get away with it. Greg Dyke and Gilligan have done their bits - and now all accept the Dossier was sexed up - but still Blair is never held to account. There is no acceptance of responsibility - no-one is to blame - and despite the litany of fall-out, Iraq a total mess, terrorism an even greater threat and a morally bankrupt and deceiving UK Govt - no person or political party seems capable of intervening and saying - we cannot go on and like this and Blair must go."

July 19 ~ " an urgent shift to a new global economy where more local production, less long distance trade, and more low input agriculture becomes the norm and at the same time where there is a crash programme of saving energy and shifting to a range of renewables" Colin Hines in the Guardian. See peak oil page

July 19 ~ The spoof Butler Report website - or for the real thing go to http://www.butlerreview.org.uk
To download whole report as pdf (we found "save target as" on right click the best way)

July 19 ~"British constitutional arrangements are crumbling. The votes of one in four of the people in the 2001 election produced a majority of 64 per cent in the Commons. This means almost anything can be rammed through the Commons and the only resistance comes from the House of Lords. Power has been sucked into No 10 and policy is driven by headline-grabbing announcements. It means that checks and balances have broken down..." Clare Short in the Guardian

July 19 ~ Butler leaves 10 questions about the legality of the war largely unanswered. Luckily, there are still legal minds that care. See Guardian "A breach of the peace" by Philippe Sands QC, professor of law at University College London and a barrister at Matrix Chambers

July 19 ~ Anthony Sampson asked: "how was Campbell allowed to wield such extraordinary power in Whitehall, as an ex-tabloid journalist with little experience of intelligence? Because the Government had asked for a special Order in Council, to enable him to give orders to civil servants. It was a much disputed precedent eventually approved by the Secretary of the Cabinet - who was then Sir Robin Butler, now Lord Butler... " (Remember the discussion on this website about Campbell's degree of vetting?)
Similarly, we wonder about the appointment of men of the order of Professor Roy Anderson and Sir John Krebs to their positions of enormous influence. How and why has it happened?)

July 19 ~ Tomorrow's debate on Iraq must not be - as some commentators have suggested- the "last chance" to debate the way in which the country was led towards war against Iraq. If it is, then heaven help us.
See the democracy page for some of today's good media comment - or read a selection on one single page here.

July 19 ~ Windfarm protest: "A quiet beautiful village, an historic place with rare Kite under threat from wretched blades" The village of Llanfynydd, south Wales, will be transformed into Llanhyfryddawelllehynafolybarcud- prindanfygythiadtrienusyrhafnauole later today, for one week only. It will eclipse Llanfairpwllgwyngyll- gogerychwyrndrobwchllantysiliogogogoch in north Wales, which currently holds the longest name title. Telegraph

July 18 ~ Michael Howard says he would not have backed a key Commons vote on the Iraq war had he known of intelligence flaws...BBC
How short memories are.. The early sections of the warmwell war archives show that the information needed for a sound understanding of the realities of the situation were there for all to see in March 2003. Robin Cook's resignation exploded the notion that the Prime Minister had "further devastating evidence" about the threat posed by Iraq. If there really had been further evidence of a "clear and present threat" from Iraq it would surely have been shared with Mr Cook. Robin Cook dismissed Mr Blair's claim that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to Britain and insisted the Iraqi dictator had no weapons of mass destruction capable of being deployed against his enemies. He said that the regime of weapons inspections and sanctions imposed on Iraq since the Gulf War had contained Saddam more effectively than military action had in 1991. (Archives)

July 18 ~ Michael writes, "who can we trust when the government is so corrupt? ... for most of my life I really didn't care - until they killed my animals. ..."

July 18 ~ Wind turbines - "It’s like fish farming. This is being driven by the big boys,” ..."... mountain writer and broadcaster Cameron McNeish, who has likened the proposed pylon route to “taking a blade to a Rembrandt”, ".. there are signs that the strands of opposition are coalescing into a nationwide struggle" Sunday Herald. See windfarms page

July 18 ~ "It might be thought the only "Climate Change Co-Ordinator" worthy of the name was the Almighty. But whether He is disabled, black and a woman is obviously a matter still open to learned debate." Booker's Notebook on one of the many "weird and wonderful official posts advertised in The Guardian, for which we taxpayers are expected to foot the bill." See also his opinion of the appointment of Prof Roy Anderson. "... Quite how the ability to simulate Aids epidemics on a computer, or to mastermind the slaughter of millions of healthy animals, will qualify Prof Anderson to advise the Ministry of Defence on weapons of mass destruction is not immediately clear."

July 18 ~ Butler found this omission "surprising". Others might say it demonstrated a wilful refusal to seek the truth..." Democracy page

July 18 ~ "If Downing Street is banking on the electorate not being able to make the distinction between being lied to and being misled by omission, Smith (Geraldine Smith, the Labour MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale) believes they are deluding themselves. Her conclusion? “The Prime Minister is fatally damaged. The time has come for him to go with honour and dignity at a time of his choosing. The alternative is to wait until his enemies drag him down or the electorate makes the decision for him.”
But Blair shows no signs of running, and his party, looking at a guaranteed third term, shows no signs of wanting to dump him. ." Sunday Herald.

July 18 ~ Tony Blair was warned before the Iraq war by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, that a UN court could rule Britain's invasion unlawful, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.

The warning was in Lord Goldsmith's so far undisclosed legal opinion from 7 March last year, less than two weeks before the conflict began. July 18 ~ Downing Street secured vital changes to the Butler Report before its publication, watering down an explicit criticism of Tony Blair and the way he made the case for war in the House of Commons. Sunday Telegraph

July 17 ~ "Despite having five years to prepare for the introduction of the EU landfill directive, the Government yesterday confirmed that Britain still had nowhere to dispose of more than one million tons of the five million tons of toxic waste that will be generated this year." WMN

July 17 ~ "It accuses the Government of pursuing a wind power policy that has led to a "developer-led feeding frenzy that is neither green nor sustainable" see windfarms page

July 17 ~ " ....SSSIs are the country's very best wildlife and geological sites..... there are real fears that CAP reform could lead to many farmers quitting the land - creating under-grazing problems .... In a report on the management of Britain's designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), the Commons Rural Affairs Committee urged ministers to reconsider a planned cut of 33 million in next year's budget for the wildlife watchdog English Nature." WMN

July 17 ~ "Tony Blair's official spokesman said MI6 decided not to tell the Hutton inquiry that crucial intelligence on Saddam's chemical and biological weapons was unsound. The security services, he said, felt it was "too sensitive'' to be made public. The head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, also decided not to tell Mr Blair." - Independent. No comment needed .

July 17 ~ " In an ideal world, we would pump Butler full of whatever new truth serum the CIA developed under poor old George Tenet, whose career could not resist the earthier language of Washington. Then he would tell us plainly what he thinks of the prime minister and his gruesome cabal of unelected sofa-hoggers for turning the heavily qualified and luminescently diffident offerings of MI6 into the kind of apocalypse-speak that slots so neatly into Mr Murdoch's Sun..." Guardian comment

July 17 ~ Friends of the Earth have criticised Government plans for a limited consultation on GM 'coexistence' as it is not clear whether the wider public will have the opportunity to get involved. Only a number of meetings with a selection of stakeholders will be held over the summer.

July 17 ~ The alarming reports on the Iraq/'war on terror' page include news by Robert Fisk that over a dozen Iraq academics have been murdered in recent months - "university staff suspect that there is a campaign to strip Iraq of its academics, to complete the destruction of Iraq's cultural identity which began with the destruction of the Baghdad Koranic library, the national archives and the looting of the archaeological museum when the American army entered Baghdad..." The Scotsman today reports on the suspicion that a young Scots journalist was killed by the CIA.

July 16 ~ Guardian "...fresh chops are 89% pork - the rest is added water, dried glucose syrup, polyphosphates to hold the water in, preservative and "partially deodorised rosemary extract". ..Tesco confirmed it had been injecting its "Finest" pork for about three years...This watered down pork costs £6.99 a kilo, almost double the price of unadulterated meat from an independent butcher.....The Food Standards Agency - the government's independent safety watchdog - has known about the practice since February..."

July 16 ~ "MPs demand Blair ends his presidential style and gives cabinet ministers more say" Independent

July 16 ~ Hutton's investigation was "not told that information which helped Tony Blair claim that Saddam Hussein posed a "serious and current" threat had already been discredited and withdrawn by MI6." Independent

July 16 ~ Samuel Coker, PhD, Technical Director and Principal Scientist,R&D, Pall Corp. gave an oral presentation on the research results"Removal of Infectious Prion from Naturally Infected Red Blood Cell Concentrates" on July 13, 2004 at the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh. "The soon to be released Leukotrap(R) Affinity Prion Reduction Filter will provide the dual benefit of reducing harmful white blood cells while also reducing infectious prions, the rogue proteins that cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). ....These experts contend that the possibility of further increases in the number of cases, even a human epidemic of vCJD, cannot be dismissed. Since the risk of vCJD is not restricted to the UK, the examination of the history of blood donation may be required in other European countries and elsewhere..." Pall Corp. press release

July 16 ~ Windustry "...centralised decision-making and localised devastation...the German grid is now plagued by the unpredictability of wind power generation...The only beneficiaries have been the super-rich Germans who have invested in wind farms because of the huge tax breaks - not to mention the politicians in the industry's pocket. " Telegraph comment. The public is waking up to the "Green Stalinism" perpetrated in the name of the environment - which is why we are soon to be subjected to two billion pounds worth of "education" from our own taxes. See below

July 15 ~ Some of the day's best comment on the Butler Report

July 15 ~ The House of Lords science and technology committee has said the "intermittent" nature of wind power meant it would always require back-up from other sources and that ministers should look much harder at other forms of renewable energy - particularly tidal and wave power and biomass. It has also called on ministers to commission independent research into claims that low frequency noise emitted by wind turbines could damage human health. Windfarms

July 15 ~ Everything a politician ought to be..... Mike Woodin has died of cancer. An articulate and good-humoured spokesman for Green politics on radio and television, he was one of the party's main strategic thinkers. Caroline Lucas says, " Mike was everything a Green politician ought to be. His real talent was in combining a radical and inspiring vision of how the world ought to be with the practical steps to get there. He lived his politics every day of his life with an intensity and commitment that were an inspiration to all of us." (See also Independent)

July 15 ~ Sir John Krebs will leave the FSA next April to become the Principal of Jesus College in Oxford.

July 15 ~ Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian

15 July 2004 " War dossier left out warnings on flawed intelligence, says Butler " Telegraph

July 15 ~ "Sir: It would seem that the Butler saw everything but said nothing." One of the several laconic letters in today's Independent.
How used we are getting to those in power without responsibility behaving irresponsibly and indefensibly - and then being defended by those in whom we thought we were justified in having confidence.

July 15 ~ "Lord Butler cleared Tony Blair of any deliberate attempt to "mislead" the country in the run-up to the war in Iraq. But the body of his report tells a different story..."
Guardian

July 15 ~ The Independent: The Butler report
The intelligence: flawed The dossier: dodgy The 45-minute claim: wrong Dr Brian Jones: vindicated Iraq's link to al-Qa'ida: unproven The public: misled The case for war: exaggerated And who was to blame? No one

July 15 ~ Simon Jenkins in the Times

July 15 ~ FARM's protest against Tesco at the Royal Welsh Show will start at 10.45am on Monday 19th July, NOT 4.00pm. Also, if you are planning to attend, then please get in contact with Peter Lundgren - 01526 398 309 / 07751 112303

July 15 ~ "Butler mysteriously found "no evidence" that the intelligence had been "embellished". It must be said that he does not appear to have looked very hard for such evidence. He might have interviewed Alastair Campbell, for instance. .."
Boris Johnson (Telegraph) on Butler

July 14 ~ "The case for war was sexed up...it's official..." Jon Snow's verdict.

July 14 ~ "Trading Standards and the State Veterinary Service will have greater powers of entry" FWi
While any legislation that really gave animals greater protection is to be welcomed, the past actions of the SVS and Trading Standards hardly inspire confidence in the "greater powers" given them by the draft Animal Welfare Bill.

July 14 2004 ~ The 'outer limits' of possible criticism are limited indeed....
Simon Jenkins today:"Last February I wrote that the run-up to the Iraq invasion needed no further inquiry. Lord Hutton had reported. He found copious evidence that Tony Blair and his entourage were guilty of deceiving the public, and duly declared them innocent. ..... Everyone who fabricated the case for invading Iraq will be blamed. Then each will be individually let off the hook. ..." Read in full
Meanwhile, the BBC reports, "when it came to pronouncing on who was responsible for the way the intelligence was "sold" to the public and Parliament, he named no names."

July 14 ~ France will hold a referendum on the European Union constitution next year. Reuters

July 14 ~ Simon Jenkins today "Nothing better testifies to Mr Blair’s lawyer instincts than his reluctance to admit that he might have been wrong. ..... Last Easter I saw him asked about WMD on American television by George Stephanopoulos. “They are there. We shall find them,” Mr Blair replied. “You’re kidding me,” said his interviewer. “I’m not,” retorted Mr Blair with a glare. Mr Stephanopoulos shuddered. Here was surely a prince of darkness."

July 14 ~ Guardian report on the Butler findings. 1.05 pm

July 14 ~ Intelligence reports on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in the run up to the Iraq war were open to doubt and seriously flawed. Butler Inquiry Scotsman report "The report also criticised the Government's controversial dossier on Iraqi weapons, published in the run up to war, saying that it went to the "outer limits"of the available intelligence.It said that Tony Blair's statement in the Commons may have "reinforced the impression" that there was "fuller and firmer" intelligence behind the assessments in the dossier than was actually the case...."

July 14 ~ "Something has obviously gone wrong when confident assertions that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction have to be abandoned. " Independent

July 14 ~ No 'lethal silver bullet' Times "Well-informed sources suggested yesterday that the Government was relaxed about all this potentially incendiary material. They do not expect Mr Powell’s memo (warmwell page) to feature significantly and point out that the Niger claims (warmwell page) have already been declared valid by the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. Whitehall officials say that the Government did not rely on Foreign Office advice but that of Lord Goldsmith (warmwell page), the Attorney-General..."
The Iraq war and all the controversy surrounding it was chronicled on warmwell, day by day, from February 2003. See archives.

July 13 ~ Eve of the Butler report. An emailer writes, "The trailing of info from Butler drives me mad - it just seems accepted practice. I wish he would take vengeance and surprise them all with some shock announcement when he addresses everyone tomorrow! Pigs might fly."
See also David Clark's Comment in the Guardian. See Iraq page. "Had Blair been genuine in his belief that Iraq posed a serious threat, all he needed to do was publish a declassified version of the intelligence reports on which his conclusions were based."
This is so evident. Did we really need Butler to tell us more? On August 28 2003, Mr Blair told the Hutton inquiry that allegations reported by the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan were so serious that, if true, he would have had to resign. " if the allegation had been true, it would have merited my resignation" (Independent Aug 2003)....Is there anyone left in the country who does not believe that the dossier was indeed "sexed-up"?

July 13 ~ prosecution of traders who continue to use imperial measures - see http://www.conservatives.com/news/article.cfm?obj_id=110297
Mr Chalke (Conservative Group Leader on the Local Government Association): "We have all read in the newspapers recently the cases brought against traders. These cases, although technically enforcing the law, hardly have public support and often harm the credibility of local government."

July 13 ~ Gamma Interferon for bovine TB. The EFRA committee has ".. called on DEFRA to offer farmers an incentive to take part in trials of the test.....the committee said the government should move quickly to testing vaccination in badgers. It added that research into cattle vaccines should continue, and that greater effort and resources should be devoted to such research. .." FWi

July 13 ~ £20 million owed to farmers in Northern Ireland has not been paid by the government. See David Lidington's question to Ian Pearson.

July 13 ~ George Monbiot today on why, after Butler, we could do with another inquiry.... "whose purpose is to discover why journalists help governments to lie to the people..."

July 13 ~ EFRA Committee "Our focus has been the vaccination of cattle and badgers, the gamma interferon test, husbandry, trace elements and the lessons to be learnt from Ireland...." and on "consultation" "... Defra must surely know by now what its key stakeholders think about this matter ... Now is the time for decisions and actions
.....culling badgers could only ever be a limited part of a policy to deal with the problem of bovine TB … ...." Scotsman. (We're concerned to note the phrase "bovine TB has been, at least until recently, a growing problem in the UK" Surely the all party EFRA committee has not swallowed the "14% drop" fiction?)

July 13 ~ "... all the while the scattered campaign groups are becoming more knowledgeable and interactive. Save the Vale drew on a range of community expertise, from engineering to agricultural, to argue its case, create its own website, and produce independent reports and campaign material...." WMN and see Save the Vale website

July 10/13 ~ WMN begins "a series of articles exploring how the countryside has become a battlefield over climate change and a looming energy crisis." See windfarms page

July 10/13 ~ Keypoints of the Spending Review Guardian include "Budget for Defra to rise from £3.2bn to £3.5bn to aid rural economy."

July 10/13 ~ "Mr (Gavyn) Davies said the experience had turned him off politics and public life and revealed that he no longer even intended to vote Labour. "I don't have the skills of a senior politician and I don't want them. I don't like them. Nothing of the past 12 months has made me like them more," he said..." Guardian

July 10/13 ~ " Mr Blair's case for war was supposedly based on evidence that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons stockpiles and was trying to produce more. But MI6 has since withdrawn the assessment underpinning that case..." Butler acts to prevent PM 'spinning' his report in the Independent. Read in full.

July 10/13 ~ "Conspicuous by its absence in today's spending review was any reference to the problems of hazardous waste where the Government's failure is impeding the private sector in its quest to provide suitable sites for its disposal." Tim Yeo, on the subject of DEFRA and the Spending Review.

July 10/13 ~ "This weekend Tony Blair is holed up in Chequers plotting how to deal with the Butler fallout. .." Two articles from the Sunday Herald

July 10/13 ~ "If Sir Simon were, for instance, to look up the Animal By-Products Regulations 2003, implementing EC Regulation 1774/2002, he would find that this one piece of legislation puts more than 500 new criminal offences on the statute book, each punishable by a fine up to £20,000 or up to two years in prison. It is far from untypical..." Booker's Notebook

July 10/13 ~ Apart from its extremely silly headline (which is, surely, unlikely to have been Geoffrey Lean's) we are glad to see this article in the Independent on Sunday about the Prince of Wales and his timely and well researched interventions. (Read in full) Warmwell has warmly admired HRH since the beginning of the foot and mouth crisis when we became aware of his genuine personal anguish at what was happening and his quiet attempts to improve things. How very different from the unfeeling pragmatism of the 'public servants' with their paradoxical inability to grasp the concept of "Ich Dien".

July 10/13 2004 ~ The government, via the DTI, is so aware of the growing opposition to wind farms that it is launching a PR campaign costing 2 million pounds. The Sunday Times informs us.
See also windfarm page on warmwell: ".... two of the biggest wind "farms" in Europe have 159 turbines and cover thousands of acres between them but together they take a year to produce less than four days' output from a single 2,000 megawatts conventional power station - which takes up 1 percent of the acreage."

July 10/13 ~ The editor of the Russian edition of the business magazine Forbes has been gunned down in the street in Moscow. He'd dared to question the business methods of many the of the country's richest and most ruthless oligarchs. Channel 4

July 10/13 ~ Choose your words carefully if you want to be misunderstood Matthew Parris on words again - and what the government actually means by "choice"

July 10 ~ email on farming forum and the writer links to "FARMERS are left disappointed by an error which affected the prime lamb competition at the Royal Show" on FWi
She comments: "Traceability ? Don't make me laugh. In our experience, it's typical. We send off lambs, individually tagged but no note is taken, only a slaughter number. The farmers are doing their bit, the abattoirs aren't!"

July 8/9 ~ When the JIC reported that intelligence was "limited" and based mainly on "assessment", Mr Blair said the matter was "beyond doubt." Panorama next Sunday

July 8/9 ~ An emailer writes, " ..... Perhaps the difference was that the US Inquiry was open, up in front of the cameras, and transparent - and there was no fudging of the outcome. Here we have the Butler Inquiry behind closed doors - and we don't get to hear the evidence.
Just like Anderson - Scarlett has to be kept inside the tent - and on side with the Govt. If ditched they would no doubt have much to say which would embarrass Blair and the Govt. As it is Blair can't get rid of Anderson or Scarlett - they know too much."

July 8 ~ An emailer writes, "The extract from Today neatly encapsulates both Anderson's present situation and the Hornbeam scenario; that is, denial that anything could have been done differently in 2001, whilst leaving the door open to change in future.
We should have foreseen that that would have been the outcome of Hornbeam. Obviously they were not going to say in effect: 'this is what we should have done last time'. However, phrases such as "science changes over time and therefore policy advice changes" will slowly construct the new reality - we hope. "

July 8 ~ No Defra report on Exercise Hornbeam until the Autumn. According to DEFRA, a " lessons learned" report will be issued in the Autumn and an updated plan will be circulated for consultation before being laid before Parliament next March.

July 8 ~ Cruelty on farms found "offensive". Not the cruelty itself - only the temerity of the Hillside Animal Sanctuary for having shown pictures of what is going on to school children. Six complaints were received by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after 35,000 leaflets were distributed. Although it upheld the complaints "... it rejected claims that the leaflet "misleadingly implied that animal cruelty on farms was common" EDP24.co uk

July 7 ~ Thanks to those who informed us that Roy Anderson, Chair of the new Science Advisory Council that will give DEFRA its advice in future, told the nation this morning that the advice he gave to DEFRA last time on the contiguous cull would remain the same today. In spite of this, he said, "as time evolves and new scientific advances are made, it enables us to look again at options of vaccination and field diagnosis for some of these very important infectious diseases" Today Programme interview transcript.
One is left wondering exactly which "scientific advances" he feels are still needed to avoid a repeat of the mass killing of 2001- particularly since he cannot be unaware of the conclusions of the OIE International Conference on the Control of Infectious Animal Diseases by Vaccination this year. .

July 7 ~ "The biggest problem farmers have with bureaucrats is that despite the fact there are an awful lot of them they don't seem to be getting the job right. It is very frustrating for the farmer who spends more time filling in forms than he does farming to be told that forms have got lost. Whether it is big government or small government it should at least be competent." Ian Johnson quoted in the WMN today

July 7 ~ Andrew George says the major supermarkets who wield so much power should face investigations by the Office of Fair Trading ..."20 dairy farms have been reduced to two during my lifetime......what I do object to is the almost criminal manner of its present decline. We have the best climate and conditions for grass growing. We have one of the most efficient dairy systems with the largest average herd size in Europe. So it is astonishing that UK farmers have been receiving significantly lower farmgate prices than any comparable EU countries and it doesn't take an Einstein to work out something is going seriously wrong. " WMN

July 7 ~ Joyce de Silva this morning showed that Compassion in World Farming is not content with the decision of the Judge last year that it was legal for broiler hens to be starved during their miserable life. She points out that UK broiler "farmers" are not only treating the birds cruelly but are also in breach of EU law - a law added to by the UK in 2000 "DEFRA has misunderstood the law". Listen again to Farming Today

July 7 ~ Not only petrol problems in the US. Now blood as well. UK donors who were not welcome because of fears of "Mad Cow" are now going to be allowed to donate blood after all. See Blood Supplies Dwindle as Summer Heats Up, USA. As an emailer writes, "Why? I wonder what the change is?"

July 7 ~ An emailer alerts us to: "According to official statistics, there were merely 923 cattle infected with BSE in France during the last 13 years. That leaves an estimated 290,000 BSE animals unaccounted for in the official records." See Deutsche Welle Poor old France. Described now as "sitting on a potential health time bomb ". Well, we shall see.

July 6 ~ "There are more Defra bureaucrats than there are dairy farmers in England." Oliver Letwin in today's Telegraph

July 6 ~ Blair's warning to the House of Commons Liaison Committee today, (echoing David King in March) was that "Climate change is the biggest problem facing the world". But for climate change, read "the end of cheap oil".
"Oil and gas will run out too fast for doomsday global warming scenarios to materialise" said Sweden's University of Uppsala in 2003. Michael Meacher knew this to be true when he wrote in the FT in January this year: "Iraq is only the first example of the cost - both in cash and in soldiers' lives - of facing down resistance or fighting resource wars in key oil-producing regions, a cost that even the US may find unsustainable." warmwell's peak oil page

July 6 ~ The DTI White Paper "Making Globalisation a Force for Good" was unveiled today. Christian Aid's senior trade policy officer, said: "The white paper makes it clear that the government is still addicted to liberalisation as a cure for all ills. There is nice new language, such as recognition of supply-side constraints, strong condemnation of northern protectionism and double standards, but no new thinking. This is not a radical new agenda to make trade work for development, but a free trade agenda with add-ons.
The other big gap is the lack of concrete proposals. .... there are precious few concrete suggestions as to what the UK government will do." Guardian

July 6 ~"... in the studios of Channel 5 Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell cook up a plot to "anoint" Brown as the next leader. This is either breathtaking arrogance, or the pair of them know something we don't and are giving new meaning to the phrase "Brown-nosing". ..." Jackie Ashley in the Guardian today.

July 6 ~ Mr Blair grilled by Select Committee heads - Guardian: " he was pressed by several MPs - both Labour and Tory - to list the achievement of his "special relationship" with the US..... Showing some real anger, he said: "And if you really want to know, I think most countries round the world would give their eye teeth to have that relationship. And it is a shame that here it is seen somehow as a sign of mockery that we have the closeness of that relationship."

July 6 ~ On the findings of the Public Accounts Committee re DEFRA's Cattle Tracing System
Daily Mirror".... Problems with the system have already resulted in £14million penalties from the European Commission, which could soar to £50million."
BBC "It costs £30m every year to run but the committee found more than one million uncorrected anomalies in the system."

July 6 ~ "Margaret Beckett also succeeded in displaying the schizophrenia that is spreading throughout the industry...Asked how much further Britain can go in developing local and regional food sourcing mechanisms, Beckett said she could not provide an absolute answer but that there was room for expansion. The Prime Minister and food minister Lord Whitty were firmly behind this kind of iniative, she said.
But what about the global miles issues that arose from out-of-season produce imports of food that could be grown here? Again, no clear-cut answer except to say these were issues that "needed to be examined by buyers and consumers. " Scotsman

July 6 ~ Edward Leigh, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee criticised DEFRA's "hugely burdonsome system" of cattle tracking with all its bureaucracy, the form filling that falls on the farmer and the reliance on the postal system - because it doesn't work. He remarked that it was just as well that committees such as the all party Public Accounts Committee could give departments a "kick up the pants" when necessary. Today programme (listen again)

July 6 ~ "After approx 2 weeks we were told that the government wasn't going to vaccinate after all and that thousands of people who spent 3 hours in a barn stabbing oranges would soon be receiving fat paychecks. ..." The memories of a 2001 vaccination trainee - who wrote yesterday "Please feel free to quote anything you need from the e-mail. The more people speaking out and telling the truth through the barrage of media lies the better. Living out of England has given me a fresh perspective of the country, government and media saturation in the UK... the public is under constant pressure to 'not question' 'shut-up' and 'obey' ..."

July 6 ~ FARM's protest - and its t-shirt publicising the low value Tesco puts on farmers was given good coverage on Farming Today.

July 6 ~ Fahrenheit 9/11 "Newsday reported on a self-described “ardent Bush/Cheney supporter” who went to see the film on Long Island, and his quiet reaction afterwards. He said, "It's really given me pause to think about what's really going on. There was just too much - too much to discount." The man then bought three more tickets for another showing of the film."

July 6 ~ Dr Rowan Williams has urged the UK Government to take the lead in pressing the contraction and convergence agenda. In a lecture in London, entitled Changing The Myths We Live By, he said we had to avert a global ecological crisis that could ultimately jeopardise "our viability as a species" (see also peak oil news)

July 5 ~ "To this day, not one politician has paid the price for the war, Britain's worst overseas debacle in 50 years. And the official responsible for bogus claims about Saddam's WMD, John Scarlett? Why, Mr Blair made him the new head of MI6..." Daily Mail comment on the rumours surrounding the Butler report. "Lord Butler, we are told, is anxious that his conclusions shouldn't provoke the incredulity which greeted the Hutton report and intends to be hard-hitting. Well, we shall see. There is no doubt he should be fiercely critical..."

July 5 ~ Landfill regulations - complete chaos all round "... the two different figures in the RIA and the main text of the Statutory Instrument are causing complete chaos all round...” Shadow Environment Minister, Anne McIntosh MP before the debate on the Statutory Instrument, The Landfill (Scheme Year and Maximum Landfill Amount) Regulations 2004
As we read in Booker's Notebook, our waste system is on the verge of breakdown. On July 15, to comply with the EC's landfill directive, 99/31, the vast majority of Britain's 218 landfill sites were closed to "hazardous waste", leaving only five still open.

July 5 ~ "We expect some dairy farmers will leave the sector, accelerating the existing long-term trend..." Margaret Beckett WMN
Andrew George says: "The truth is that the Government is happy to stand idly by and watch our desperate dairy farmers pushed beyond the edge of viability,"

July 5 2004 ~ WMD report shatters Blair's credibility - says the Scotsman this morning. See Iraq/"terror"page.

July 3/4 ~ "... the committee wanted to get back to the ideals that founded the Labour Party." We read on the BBC website that Tony Benn, Michael Meacher, and MPs John McDonnell, Lynne Jones and Alice Mahon are among those creating the Labour Representation Committee (LRC).

July 3/4 ~ "sources say the Butler report will show that Blair’s claim was false." See democracy page

July 3/4 ~"The legal juggernaut has started moving again for 2 of the British Guantanamo detainees, with a new case filed in the US courts to get them freed after more than 2 years in custody without charge or trial. As new investigations are launched into alleged prisoner abuses in Afghanistan, could the issue be resolved sooner rather than later, as the US government tries to settle the mess before the Presidential elections?" Channel 4 update

July 3/4 ~ Things are getting increasingly ugly in Iraq. On the whole, the UK media have stopped bothering to report on them, it seems.

July 3/4 ~ Pdf files are always rather tricky for those with poor connection speeds or old computers. Some of defra's recent files have been converted on warmwell to html. DEFRA pdf files on FMD control - as html pages for those without Acrobat etc. Includes: Control policy communications strategy, Contingency plan, Contingency plan annexes (Decision Tree etc), other Vaccination documents. See also warmwell's technical pages

July 3/4 ~ Thanks to Mona for this information on EU pet passport scheme, operational from July 3 2004.

July 2 ~ DEFRA's Question and Answer pdf sheet on vaccination - in html form on warmwell. (Readers aware of the realities of the 2001 outbreak may find both its use of language and its blurring of the truth offensive): However, one paragraph is clear:

A year ago, the European Union Council of Ministers reached agreement that emergency vaccination must move to the forefront of control measures instead of being a last resort

July 2 ~ Horse passports "Alun Michael admitted last month that there was a huge backlog in processing the applications - and that many owners had not yet applied. The department has so far just 179,000 passports, out of a horse population believed to be between 600,000 and 900,000, and there are 37,000 applications waiting to be dealt with." WMN

July 2 ~ Ordering "The Killing Pens" Janet Hughes will be unable to complete the printing unless those wanting to pre-order a copy remember to send the cost (£10) and p&p (£2) with their order. See note and please do not delay if you are supporting Janet and want one of the first copies.
More than ever this week we need to remember the wrongs so successfully hushed up. There has never been a critical retrospective post-mortem of the modelling that inspired the killing.

July 2 ~ Muckspreader "....It was all very well for Mr Blair not to allow a proper enquiry. But at least the EU wanted to avoid any repetition of such a disaster, which was why last year it produced the 226-page directive 2003/85, laying down in exhaustive detail how any future FMD outbreaks must be handled.
No more mass-slaughter of animals. No more funeral pyres. No more closure of the countryside to tourists.
Above all, as the measure of first resort, the use of emergency vaccination. .."

July 2 ~ Was vaccination "used" during Hornbeam? We don't know and are hoping for enlightenment. This comment received last night : "I heard on BBC Radio 4, on Tuesday evening (day 1 of Exercise Hornbeam), that there would be vaccination of cattle in North Wales and Cheshire. There was nothing about this exercise on Farming Today this morning (Thursday)."

July 2 ~ peaceful demonstration outside the Tesco stand at the Royal show on Monday 5th July to protest the low prices paid to dairy farmers and Tesco's failure to ensure that their producers get a fair share of the profits in the milk chain. See message from FARM

July 2 ~ "... India has been haunted in recent weeks by newspaper pictures of farmers who had hanged themselves. (Nearly 3,000 farmers have taken their lives in Andhra Pradesh over the past six years) "The previous government of Atal Behari Vajpayee campaigned on the economic boom. In Andhra Pradesh, it was Mr Vajpayee's local ally, Chandrababu Naidu, who bore the brunt of the electorate's discontent. Mr Naidu was the darling of the World Bank and international IT corporations. As chief minister of the state, he enticed Microsoft and Dell to its capital, Hyderabad, and won £1.2bn of cheap loans from the World Bank, and £67m from Britain's Department for International Development..." Independent

July 2 ~ "... the new "independent" government in Baghdad yesterday gave Saddam Hussein an initial trial hearing that was worthy of the brutal old dictator." Robert Fisk in the Independent

July 1 ~ Why is DEFRA's FMD helpline not an FMD helpline? Bryn writes to "share my experience using the Defra FMD Helpline in relation to Operation Hornbeam. I wanted to see what the state of play was, as a concerned citizen, engaging in the spirit of the simulation exercise..."

July 1 ~ Vaccination - No lessons learnt? The Scientific inquiry by the Royal Society, chaired by Sir Brian Follett recommended that Emergency vaccination to be used as "a major tool of first resort" to prevent a foot and mouth outbreak becoming an epidemic. The aim is to "vaccinate to live" and for animals to enter the food chain in the normal way.

July 1 ~ ".... the government undertook huge scale firewall culling when it came to believe that the contingency plan had completely failed. The extent to which the firewall was what might properly be called a deliberate decision remains a matter of extreme contention which the official inquiries have done little to quiet. All its key components—the three kilometre circle, the 24/48 hour disposal scheme, the refusal to vaccinate, etc.—were improvisations produced by panicked decision-making which will never be fully understood." The power to panic: the Animal Health Act 2002

June 30 ~ "Having examined all the issues, we recommended that for the future emergency vaccination should be a tool of first rather than last resort, with the vaccinated animals allowed to live and subsequently go into the food chain..."Gavin McCrone, Vice-Chairman, Royal Society of Edinburgh Inquiry into Foot and Mouth Disease Scotland on Sunday, 18 August 2002

July 19 ~The "farmer" in this report sent an injured bull 65 miles to the abattoir. He was fined £200.
See brief note from Mary to regular readers

June 30 ~ "a humiliating climb-down by a biotech bully. Bayer tried to use their massive financial muscle to prevent members of the public having access to important health and environmental data about substances that are sprayed on our food crops every day..." FoE press release. See also pesticides page

June 30 ~ BBC "....the NFU is not convinced the (Exercise Hornbeam) simulation by Defra will have any benefit for the farming community. NFU South West regional director, Anthony Gibson, said ....

Warmwell comment : It is not only the "better way" ethically. It is also the only way if the EU Directive is followed and only animals shown by testing to be infected or contaminated are killed. We have always been most grateful to Mr Gibson for his humane and outspoken criticism of the government contiguous cull policies. We understand, however, that the central NFU office has now "basically gagged Gibson from further comment on FMD and the contiguous cull."

June 30 ~ "Vaccinating apparently devalues the price of an animal." Ananova's report on Exercise Hornbeam. And the price of devaluing the reputation of a nation in 2001?

June 30 ~ WMN "Adrian Flook, Conservative MP for Taunton, accused ministers of hitting an industry that was already down. Mr Flook said: "Farming, especially dairy farming, is an integral part of what makes the South West countryside. It provides food for us, but also attracts tourists into our area. The undermining of dairy farming is therefore a double whammy for the South West. The Government is not just letting our farmers down - it is totally undermining us."

June 30 ~ undiagnosed encephalitic illness in sheep and cattle deemed not to pose a risk to humans
...the Health Protection Agency (who were asked by DEFRA to assess the risk ) agreed that they "didn’t pose a significant risk to human health. ....no apparent link has been identified between these cases and the cases represented a variety of clinical and pathological findings." See News Medical net

June 30 ~ "The NFU Council is meeting today to consider a proposal for a `Buyers Charter' as an alternative to the failing Supermarket Code of Practice. Friends of the Earth warns that this voluntary approach will not stop the big retailers bullying their suppliers...Supermarkets have had four years to put their own houses in order since the Competition Commission first highlighted their unfair treatment of suppliers. They have clearly failed. The only way forward is for a strong statutory code .... It is also essential that an independent body is set up ..... ."

June 30 ~ "The decision by the US Supreme Court that the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have the right to challenge their captivity in American courts is wise and brave. It is wise because the notion that these captives would have no legal status at all, and for however long they were held, is wrong. It is brave because the majority on the court have acted against the wishes of the Bush Administration ..." Times

June 30 ~ "...ranks among the most inept in the history of the West’s global interventions. Mr Bremer leaves with some 10,000 Iraqis and 900 Westerners dead inside a year, a smashed administration and an economy wrecked ...... “elected councils”..... have no authority because they have no protection. Without troops to enforce their decisions, they are mere conduits for American money to the mafias that now perforce run Iraq......Mr Blair claims preposterously that Iraqi women under the present mullahs are “more free” than under secular Saddam. Women do not walk safe in Iraq’s streets..." Simon Jenkins in the Times. See also Iraq pages

June 30 ~ " speculation is that the Butler committee will look into the way in which decisions were taken by Mr Blair's tight but informal inner circle in the run-up to the Iraq war." Blow for Blair as Butler prepares to release report on eve of by-elections - Independent

June 29 ~ "The disease is judged to have entered the country via infected sheep imported from another European country, unlike in 2001 when the exact source was never confirmed."
A paragraph from the middle of the Scotsman's report on Exercise Hornbeam. In the realtime exercise, the Ministry "knows" the exact source. The exact source of the disease was certainly never confirmed in 2001 - but how many times have we heard that pigswill was the source? (What is the extent of DEFRA's knowledge about the recent brucellosis outbreak? Aujeszky's? )

June 29 ~ The 60th British soldier died in Iraq yesterday as the handover of power took place in a small inside room in the office of Iyad Allawi, Iraq's new interim prime minister. The event was announced after it took place.

June 29 ~ "The power struggle between David Blunkett and the Humberside chief constable moved to the courts yesterday when the Home Secretary applied for an injunction to force the suspension of the police officer." Independent

June 29 ~ ".. If the animal tests positive, it would be the second case of mad cow discovered in the United States. In December 2003, a single Holstein on a Washington state farm was found to have the disease, prompting more than 50 countries to ban imports of U.S. beef. Japan and South Korea, 2 of the biggest export markets for U.S. beef, still have their bans in effect despite the efforts of American officials to get them lifted..." Daily News yesterday.
The madness of BSE is set to continue. Alternative research that questions the current dogma about the disease itself and its assumed link with vCJD continues to be ignored and unfunded. At