MP’s BLUNDERING PUTS LOCAL FARMING BUSINESSES AT RISK
Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski shows no signs of stopping his behavior of making highly personal attacks, which he thinks will bring him electoral gains. Neither does he bother to check his facts.The latest person to be personally attacked by Daniel is Chief Veterinary Officer, Debby Reynolds. In an open letter to Dr Reynolds concerning the Surrey Foot and Mouth outbreak, our Tory MP says that “She has not once publicly challenged the Government over their lack of biosecurity arrangements at the facilities at Pirbright. I must challenge Mrs Reynolds as to why she has not been far more critical of the Government’s lack of preparation and investment in ensuring that such a facility has maximum biosecurity. Why has she not publicly demanded a full public enquiry into the matter?”He goes on to say Dr Reynolds is “Typical of modern day political appointees who do not appear to want to rock the boat and challenge their political masters.
The Chief Vet has not raised any of these points (on biosecurity) and that is why I believe she has failed in her duties.” Firstly Dr Reynolds is a Civil Servant within DEFRA, not a political appointee. She was selected in 2004 after open competition on the basis of her extensive qualifications and experience. She has a degree from Bristol and a PhD from Reading University. There have been 14 Chief Veterinary Officers since 1893, and Dr Reynolds is the first woman to hold that office. Daniel Kawczynski has been an MP for over 2 years, one would have thought by now he would know the duties and position of a civil servant.
Secondly when our Conservative MP wrote his letter, and at the time I write this, the outbreak is still ongoing. Livestock movement restrictions, based on expert veterinary advice, remain in place. The Chief Veterinary Officer’s primary concern should be to contain and then eradicate the outbreak, not to divert resources and attention to issuing statements for Daniel’s political benefit before all the facts are known. Thirdly, if Daniel had bothered to read the Epidemiology Report on the DEFRA website he would know that there are currently two investigations being carried out into biosecurity at the Pirbright site. One is by The Health and Safety Executive, the other is an independent investigation by Professor Brian Spratt of Imperial College. If there has been a breach of biosecurity they will find it.But instead of checking his facts our MP showed his complete lack of judgement, and general courtesy, by attacking the wrong person.
Fourthly, there are two laboratories at the Pirbright site. One is the Government run Institute of Animal Health, the other is a commercial pharmaceutical plant run by a private sector company, Merial Animal Health, who manufacture FMD vaccine. If, as seems likely, the virus came from Pirbright, it is not yet known which laboratory it came from. Merial did produce a batch of vaccine based on the outbreak strain during just before the outbreak. Daniel’s statement “The Government are still entirely guilty in this matter” so far has no proof to support it.
Tackling and eradicating a Foot and Mouth disease outbreak takes vast amounts of public money and public resources. Those of us who were actually here in 2001 remember the terrible effects on the farming and rural community only too well. Those who were here in 1967 remember the previous outbreak which began in Nantmawr near Oswestry. Both began on farms.Success in dealing with an outbreak depends upon a consensus partnership between the British taxpayer, who is mainly urban based, and the farming and rural community. But Foot and Mouth disease is not a human health problem, it is primarily an economic problem for farmers. Therefore it is essential to keep public opinion on our side. I believe it is in the public interest to support farmers over this issue. A healthy thriving local livestock industry is key to the Shropshire rural economy, ensures high quality locally produced food is available and contributes massively to the upkeep of our beautiful Shropshire countryside. But an urban taxpayer, seeing Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski’s blundering personalised outburst, made entirely for political purposes, may well see things differently. Daniel likes to present himself as the farmer’s friend. I wonder if local livestock farmers feel their businesses have actually been helped by his actions?
Finally, the most distasteful part of this sorry episode for me is that our Tory MP chose to personally attack a woman. Not because I am being unnecessarily old-fashioned (although some old fashioned manners cost us nothing), but because Dr Reynolds is the first woman in 111 years to be the Chief Veterinary Officer.We are constantly battling with the problem we need to get more women into positions of high office in business, the civil service and the professions. How are we supposed to support more women in taking positions of high responsibility, when they can then be faced with this sort of ill informed, and frankly ignorant abuse? I thus call upon Daniel Kawczynski to apologise now to Dr Reynolds, before he does our local farming industry, and local reputation, any more damage.
