Long wait for Whitty reply
Long wait for Whitty reply
THREE months after delivering 146,000 signatures to Downing Street in support of a public inquiry into foot-and-mouth, and five months after requesting an interview with Prime Minister Tony Blair, farmers weekly Editor Stephen Howe has finally received a reply from junior DEFRA minister Lord Whitty.
The response from Lord Whitty arrived by fax in the form of an apparent press release. "I am sorry for the delay in replying," he wrote. "The government is committed to having a rigorous independent investigation of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak quickly and efficiently. That is why we have set up the Lessons Learned Inquiry and the Royal Society Study."
• An appeal against the High Court ruling that the government was right not to order an F&Minquiry was lodged last Thursday (Apr 18). *
Mr Howe said he was disappointed but not surprised by the governments delay in replying to the thousands of signatures collected by FW, Horse&Hound and three regional newspapers. "If DEFRA and Downing Street can ignore for so long overwhelming support for a public inquiry, what confidence can we have that it intends an honest investigation of the facts surrounding the worlds worst outbreak of F&M?"