UK News 27-10-2000 British Public Betrayed Over BSE who: Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers what: Unveils BSE report where: House of Commons, LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: "The government yesterday accepted that successive administrations` failures had contributed to the BSE catastrophe," reports James Meikle in The Guardian, "and apologised for the first time to families of those who had died from the horrific, incurable disease that transferred from cattle to humans." The 16-volume, £29million Phillips inquiry, which was published yesterday, has found that the British government acted too slowly to prevent offal from high-risk cattle entering the human food chain. As a result, the families of the 80 people who have died - and others who are yet to die - will each receive a six-figure compensation package. The former Conservative government was strongly implicated. "On each occasion that public concerns were raised about BSE," the report says, "they met with the same refrains - `there is no evidence that BSE is transmissible to humans - it is safe to eat beef`. It is now clear that this campaign of reassurance was a mistake." "I am truly sorry for what has happened and I apologise to the families who have suffered bereavement," MP Tim Yeo told the Commons yesterday on behalf of the last Conservative government, "and for those people who are still fighting a terrible illness." But it`s too late to say sorry, say the families of the dead. "It`s long overdue, it`s far too late," says Malcolm Tibbert, who 29 year-old wife died of new variant CJD. "This is insulting after all we have suffered." [... more]

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