Who said what on Bird Flu

Putting two slick professional politicians such as Miliband and Bradshaw in charge of any department where managerial decision-making and guts to go against the stream might be required was always courting disaster and now we have evidence. Hansard for 5th February, linked here, states: Just after5 pm on Thursday 1 February, the state veterinary service was contacted by a private vet who suspected an avian notifiable disease at a poultry farm in Suffolk. Therefore no procedures for which government departments were responsible triggered alarms. It was the suspicions of a 'private vet' that first alerted officials. Hansard later quotes: "By Saturday afternoon,....... my Department imposed a wider restricted zone covering east Suffolk and south-east Norfolk, an area of about 2,090 sq km. Within that zone, we are requiring poultry and other captive birds to be housed or, if that is not possible, to be isolated from contact with wild birds." The Minister of State later continued: The state veterinary service is carrying out rapid and urgent investigations both on the infected premises themselves and by testing poultry farms and collecting dead wild birds in the protection and surveillance zones. Outside the restricted zones, our programme of wild bird surveillance continues, with 4,000 birds having been tested in the last five months alone. I urge keepers of birds to be vigilant and to exercise good biosecurity. Brilliant inaction considering the virus arrived in a lorry from Hungary. I asked myself at the time "How many birds migrate during the coldest weeks of winter?" These same ministers Bradshaw and Miliband have been on TV just today trying to indicate none could have suspected the real source. Oh yeah! How come this section of the response from their Conservative Shadow Minister: It has been suggested that the outbreak may be related to wild birds, but has there been any increase in the number of dead birds being reported in the last five months? What plans does the Secretary of State have to step up the surveillance efforts? Does he think it purely a coincidence that a Bernard Matthews-owned farm in Hungary should recently have been hit by H5NI? What steps is he taking to eliminate the Hungarian connection from the inquiries?" And reply to this latter question....... came there only this: It remains most likely that at the root of the problem there is a link with the wild bird population, but that does not mean that we should not pursue other avenues in a serious way, with the greatest of speed, and we are doing so. Extreme incompetence if not criminal negligence seems to be at work here. These ministers are supposed to be policing the nation's food. They seem so remote from the countryside and agriculture that they lack even knowledge of when birds migrate. Incredible!