Mad Cow II: The Farce

The close cooperation between Britain and the US on military matters clearly does not extend to agriculture policy -- because, if it did, the US would surely not be methodically working its way through every mistake that Britain made in dealing with Mad Cow Disease.

As with all historical events, it will happen the first time as tragedy and the second as farce. We will make it a recurring feature to track the repitition of each blunder. But let's open with the spectacle of the respective Agriculture Minister volunteering themselves, and their families, to be the nation's food testers, as with the person who would eat potentially poisoned food for the king.

US Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman told us all that despite the scare, she was keeping with the plan to serve beef for the Christmas dinner; it's a wonder she didn't invite the cameras around just to verify that no-one dropped dead as they ate the stuff.

The parallel here: UK Agriculture Minister John Gummer's disastrous 1990 photo-op featuring the consumption of a burger by him and his reluctant daughter, with, as it turned out, the worse of the Mad Cow epidemic and its human equivalent, variant CJD, yet to come.

Look at the picture of Gummer and his daughter -- all you need to imagine the scene at the Veneman family table.