AR-News: Gutless MPs shun Xenodiaries - Diaries of Despair

Sat May 1 00:37:21 EDT 2004

From: Uncaged Campaigns
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 5:45 PM
Subject: MPs shirk investigation into Imutran animal
testing scandal
Uncaged Campaigns News

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has decided
not to investigate the Home Office’s misconduct revealed
by the Diaries of Despair. Despite Uncaged’s intense
lobbying, supported by hundreds of members of the public
and several MPs, the Committee has turned its back on its
duty to hold the Government to account for wrongdoing. The
Home Office has not been cleared, and the scandal remains
unresolved.

Time wasters
The Committee’s reasons for not proceeding with an inquiry
included its existing workload and the complex task of
investigating events that happened a few years ago.
However, the Committee has been considering this issue for
almost a year now, so it has been in a position to manage
its workload, and the nature of the events that require
investigation have been known throughout that long period
of time. To withdraw from the process at the last minute
effectively wastes an enormous amount of time and effort
that has been expended by Uncaged, for reasons that could
have been made clear several months ago.

Rewarding wrongdoing
By pointing to the time elapsed since the wrongdoing took
place, the Committee effectively rewards the abuse of
power indulged in by both Imutran/Novartis and the Home
Office as they have sought to delay and prevent
independent scrutiny. Extraordinarily, one of the
principal culprits – the former Chief Inspector Jon
Richmond – has since been promoted by the Home Office. The
policy of cruelty and disregard for the law is stronger
than ever and it is disturbing that the Committee has
chosen to turn a blind eye to this.

Ineffective scrutiny
The main task of Parliamentary Committees is to hold
Government to account for its conduct. The Committee’s
refusal to investigate ‘quasi-forensic’ issues effectively
removes vivisection policy from democratic scrutiny and
overestimates the complexity of the issue. It would surely
have been a straightforward process to ask the Home Office
how experiments that literally left primates ‘found dead’
or ‘in a collapsed state’ could possibly be consistent
with a ‘moderate’ severity assessment. Contrary to the
Committee’s excuses, this would have added important
evidence regarding the way in which the Home Office
assessed and regulated the Imutran experiments.
The Committee’s retreat from an investigation reinforces
wider concerns about the ability of Parliament to ensure
democratic control over the Government, particularly the
weakness of the Committee system and the control exerted
by the Government over appointments to Committees. The
Chair of the Home Affairs Committee is John Denham MP,
only recently a Home Office Minister himself, can be
vociferously loyal to the Government.

Home Office bias
The Committee also cites the inquiry into animal
experiments conducted in 2002 by a House of Lords
Committee. However, the Lords Committee were denied access
to the unique Imutran documents, and the Home Office has
been roundly condemned for ignoring the findings of the
Committee. Without a specific investigation into the
Imutran case, the Home Office’s undemocratic contempt for
public concern over vivisection remains unchallenged.
The Home Affairs Committee has not exonerated the Home
Office over the Imutran affair. There remains an urgent
need for Parliamentary scrutiny of these matters and the
Home Affairs Committee has let down the public, the rule
of law, and innocent animals vulnerable to the most
intense cruelty imaginable. It is significant that the
only independent body to examine the case thus far – the
Legal Services Commission’ Public Interest Advisory Panel
– agreed that our case against the Home Office is probably
justified and raises particularly serious matters of
public interest. This adjudication led to the award of
legal aid for Dan Lyons, director of Uncaged Campaigns and
a co-defendant in the case.

The struggle continues
The Parliamentary Ombudsman is currently deciding whether
to hold its own inquiry into the Home Office’s behaviour.
At the same time, Early Day Motion 685 - calling for an
independent inquiry – has already attracted the signatures
of 95 MPs. (Click here to find out how to lobby your own
MP to sign the Motion.) Uncaged will continue to press for
justice and to educate the public, the media and political
representatives about the reality of vivisection and the
Government’s current appalling and illegal bias in its
policy on this issue.
Whatever happens in the future, by winning the historic
court battle against Imutran/Novartis, Uncaged has opened
a door that can never be closed and has proved the
unlawful nature of the research and the Home Office’s
conduct. This evidence of Imutran’s xenotransplantation
experiments is a unique testament to the horror and
futility of vivisection – and a resource for every
anti-vivisectionist to help reveal the truth and press for
changes. You can be assured that Uncaged will continue to
be at the very forefront of the struggle.

Dan Lyons, Campaigns Director,  Uncaged Campaigns, 9
Bailey Lane, Sheffield, S1 4EG.
Tel: 0114 272 2220.  Fax: 0114 272 2225. Email:
info at uncaged.co.uk.
Websites: www.uncaged.co.uk & www.xenodiaries.org

Animal experiments have:
a 63% failure rate when detecting human carcinogens
a 75-95% failure rate for detecting drug side effects
a 70% failure rate for detecting drugs which cause birth defects
Success rates lower than those achieved by uneducated guesswork.

This is not science!!

Recommended website: The Absurdity of vivisection
http://vivisection-absurd.org.uk/

Information on animal research available free by EMail from 
vivisectionkills at hotmail.com

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the wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. he is in front of it - axel munthe

"Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. 
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."      Margaret Mead
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