Claire Robinson, editor
------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------
GM WATCH SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
PROTESTS
ENVIRONMENT
GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
CONTAMINATION / FOOD SAFETY
HEALTH
RESEARCH
GM CROP FAILURES
GM HYPE
FOCUS ON INDIA
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF SCIENCE
FEEDING THE WORLD
BIOFUELS
GM MEDICINES
COMPANY NEWS
CHURCHES
GOVERNMENT SLEAZE
------------------------------------------------------------
GM WATCH SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
------------------------------------------------------------
+ RETRACT THIS PAPER - IT'S A DISGRACE TO SCIENCE
The British Food Journal's Award for Excellence for Most Outstanding Paper in 2004 went to research that should never have been published. What the reviewers mistook for an impressive piece of scientific enquiry was a carefully crafted propaganda exercise that could only have one outcome. Both the award and the paper now need to be retracted.
For links to source materials and a photo of one of the signs the researchers used to bias consumer responses, go to:
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=72&page=1
------------------------------------------------------------
PROTESTS
------------------------------------------------------------
+ GM FOODS CONDEMNED IN GLOBAL MARCHES
Thousands of protesters in 70 countries demonstrated against GMOs on 8 April (Joint International GM Opposition Day). Demonstrations were held in Australia, Bolivia, India, South Africa, France, and the US, among other countries. It was reported that 25,000 people protested against GMOs in Andhra Pradesh, India.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6426
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6427
+ FRANCE: MONSANTO SEED FACILITY OCCUPIED
On April 13 French farmer Jose Bove and 75 other activists occupied Monsanto's seed facility in Trebes, France. They have demanded that Monsanto and the French authorities stop the import and distribution of GM maize seed into France. Bove was arrested but released a few hours later.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6452
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6484
+ YES MEN TAKE ON MONSANTO, DOW, ETC.
Corporate satirists/activists the Yes Men report various actions drawing attention to evil deeds by Monsanto and Dow, and to the risks of nanotechnology:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6429
------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIRONMENT
------------------------------------------------------------
+ U.S. INTERIOR DEPT SUED OVER GM PLANTINGS
A coalition concerned about the cultivation of GM crops in wildlife refuge areas has filed suit against the US Interior Dept, saying it illegally approved the planting at the Prime Hook wildlife refuge outside Dover, Delaware.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6451
+ HERBICIDE RESISTANT WEEDS CAUSE PROBLEMS TO U.S. COTTON FARMERS
Pesticide resistant weeds are introducing a new problem to cotton farmers.
Traditionally, herbicide resistance is dealt with by simply changing the herbicide. But according to North Carolina State weed scientist Alan York, farmers are running out of options: there are no more effective pesticides to switch to.
The majority of farmers in the Cotton Belt are now growing Monsanto's GM Roundup Ready cotton, which is resistant to glyphosate pesticides. As a result of the heavy use of glyphosate in the area, varieties of pigweed have developed immunity to it.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6463
------------------------------------------------------------
GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
------------------------------------------------------------
+ COURT FORCES BRAZIL'S MAIN PORT TO HANDLE GM SOYA
A federal court has ruled that Brazil's main grain port of Paranagua must open all of its soya terminals to GM soybeans, thus ending its ban on GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6471
+ AUSTRIA COULD BE TARGET OF EU WRATH OVER GM BAN
Austria, current president of the European Union, might face an order to lift its bans on certain GM products, senior European Commission officials said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6458
+ POLAND SET TO APPROVE GM BAN DESPITE EU
Poland's upper house of parliament may ban trade and plantings of GM seeds and put Warsaw on a collision course with the EU Commission, which claims GM bans are illegal.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6470
+ VERMONT GM BILL TOUGH ON MANUFACTURERS
Manufacturers of GM seeds could be liable for damages if their products drift into the fields of neighboring farmers who don't want them under a bill that won approval 25 April in the Vermont House.
The bill would treat farmers as consumers and would allow them to sue a seed manufacturer. "This is a bill to protect all farmers, especially those who use genetically modified seeds," said Rep. Dexter Randall, P-Troy, the primary sponsor of the bill and a dairy farmer.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6483
------------------------------------------------------------
CONTAMINATION / FOOD SAFETY
------------------------------------------------------------
+ EUROPEAN COMMISSION SLAPS ITS OWN FOOD SAFETY BODY
The European Commission has given its support to an approach proposed by health and consumer protection commissioner Markos Kyprianou and environment commissioner Stavros Dimas on steps to improve the scientific consistency and transparency for decisions on GMOs, with a view to protecting human health and the environment.
The statement by the European Commission called for major improvements to the workings of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on GM foods and crops. Dimas has said the EFSA relies too much on data given by the biotech industry.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6415
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6416
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6418
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6437
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6436
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6441
+ EU APPROVES GM FOODS DESPITE SERIOUS CONCERNS
New documents released to Friends of the Earth reveal that the European Commission has been approving GM foods and crops despite having serious doubts over their health and environmental impacts.
The documents reveal the scientific arguments put forward behind closed doors in the recent GM trade dispute at the World Trade Organisation. In them, the Commission argues that there are "large areas of uncertainty" and that "some issues have not yet been studied at all". They also reveal that:
* On human safety: "there simply is no way of ascertaining whether the introduction of GM products has had any other effect on human health... there is no unique, absolute, scientific cut off threshold available to decide whether a GM product is safe or not."
* On growing GM crops: "It is a reasonable and lawful position" that insect-resistant crops (the only GM crops being grown in the EU) should not be planted until all the effects on the soil are known.
* On the environment: a key scientific study that was used to support the environmental safety of a GM crop is "scientifically flawed".
At the same time as the Commission was writing and submitting these documents to the WTO highlighting safety concerns, it pushed through the approval of seven GM foods over the past 2 years, despite a lack of support from member states. It also commercialised 31 varieties of Monsanto's GM maize for cultivation in the EU.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6457
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6456
+ EU COMMISSION QUESTIONS RELIABILITY OF TEST FOR SYNGENTA'S ROGUE Bt10 MAIZE
A press release sent out by the European Commission would seem to confirm what many have suspected: that the test provided by Syngenta for its rogue Bt10 maize is not reliable and gives false negatives.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6410
+ BT10 CONTAMINATION WENT UNCHECKED BY FSA
GM Freeze has published documents, obtained from the UK's Food Standards Agency under the Environmental Information Regulations, relating to the illegal importation of unapproved Bt10 GM maize from the USA between 2000 and 2004.
The documents reveal significant delays before sampling of imports by the FSA commenced. The EC was first informed of the illegal import on 22 March 2005. Analytical methods for Bt10 were not available at the time that the US authorities revealed the contamination.
Key reference material was finally available to UK laboratories in early May 2005. However, correspondence from the FSA to GM Freeze revealed that monitoring of imported maize did not commence until 20 September 2005.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6440
+ EUROPEAN GM CONFERENCE: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY
During a European Commission conference on "coexistence", which failed to resolve any of the contamination problems of growing GM crops, agriculture commissioner Marianne Fischer Boel said GMOs were here to stay.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6415
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6416
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6418
+ EU "COEXISTENCE": FREEDOM OF CHOICE FOR WHOM?
The EU Commission's policy on the "coexistence" of GM, conventional and organic crops, presented at a conference entitled "Freedom of Choice", refused to accept that organic and conventional farming have the right to remain GM-free.
Friends of the Earth's new publication, "Contaminate or legislate?", shows how the Commission is pushing for "coexistence" rules to allow up to 0.9% GM contamination of conventional and organic crops, because anything containing up to 0.9% accidental GM contamination does not have to be labelled. But this denies consumers and farmers a choice, and if accepted will lead to genetic contamination creeping upwards.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6408
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6414
+ GM CONTAMINATION IN SPAIN: A WARNING FOR EUROPE
The spiralling uptake of GM crops in Spain is causing massive genetic contamination, threatens the livelihood of farmers and urgently needs to be suspended, says Greenpeace. In almost a quarter of investigated cases, unwanted presence of GM maize was found in the maize fields of non-GM farmers up to a level of 12.6 %.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6412
+ HONG KONG: MORE GM RICE FOUND IN HEINZ PRODUCTS
Illegal GM rice has been found for the first time in the Hong Kong food market, Greenpeace China announced. The rice was found in Heinz's Baby Rice Cereal, previously exposed in China to be contaminated by Bt rice. The illegal GM rice was also found in ParknShop's own rice brand sold in Guangzhou.
Independent testing confirmed that 3 of the 5 Heinz cereal products contain Bt rice, with a protein (Cry1Ac) that has reportedly induced allergenic reactions in mice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6409
+ WATCHDOG FAILS ON GM FOOD - AUSTRALIAN AG MINISTER
Australia's agriculture minister Kim Chance has attacked the country's food safety watchdog, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, claiming it does not adequately assess health impacts of GM crops. Mr Chance said, "[Testing by FSANZ] is not rigorous at all. What they do is review information sent to them by the GM companies and the review is fairly superficial and they don't look at the raw data."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6425
+ SOUTH AFRICA TO SAFETY TEST GM FOODS
South Africa is to conduct trials using both animals and human cells to test the safety of GM foods. The project by the GMO testing facility at the University of the Free State will see scientists feeding a diet of GM maize and soya beans to families of rats, mice and lambs over several years.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6459
+ BIOTECHS SPONSOR GENE BANK IN ARCTIC
An article in French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique reports that the Norwegian government plans to build an artificial cave inside a frozen mountain on the island of Svalbard on the edge of the Arctic Circle. The idea is that the genetic diversity currently found in the crops we grow can be preserved by freezing their seeds in the cave.
According to Cary Fowler, head of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which is promoting the idea: "Should the worst happen, this will allow the world to restart agriculture on this planet." The project's donors include Dupont and Syngenta, which produce GM crops.
The article's authors comment, "... in December 2005 an Orleans court ruled that [GM crop trashings] were legal, because of a state of necessity clause in the Environmental Charter adopted by the French government in February 2005, which enshrines the precautionary principle in the constitution. In January 2006 a Versailles court followed suit. When representative democracy no longer works and the fate of biodiversity lies with frozen seeds in a cave near the North Pole, resistance makes the law."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6432
------------------------------------------------------------
HEALTH
------------------------------------------------------------
+ MORE ILLNESSES LINKED TO BT CROPS
Further evidence has emerged on the link between common transgenic proteins and serious allergic reactions - while regulators turn a deaf ear and approve yet more planting. An article by Dr Maewan Ho focuses on research that found allergy symptoms in people in direct contact with Bt cotton, with some becoming "very severely ill".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6472
------------------------------------------------------------
RESEARCH
------------------------------------------------------------
+ SALVAGE PROSPECT FOR "JUNK" DNA
A BBC report confirms what intelligent scientists have been saying for
decades: that so-called "junk DNA" might not be so useless after all. The findings are reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
Dr Andrew McCallion of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, who was not an author on the new paper, commented: "Up until not so long ago, we were under the impression that the vast majority of information in the genome, if not all of it, was encoded in those stretches of DNA that encoded proteins. We now understand there is much more complexity involved."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6482
------------------------------------------------------------
GM CROP FAILURES
------------------------------------------------------------
+ BRAZIL: ANOTHER GM SOY YIELD FAILURE
In Brazil, Monsanto's GM soybeans have shown hidden defects during climatic stress. Farmers who planted Monsanto's GM soy 8787, supposedly adapted to the region's climatic conditions, have suffered major losses after a January drought.
According to Monsanto, the production potential of this variety was fifty bags per hectare, but producers report yields of as low as thirty bags per hectare, while conventional soy produced sixty bags per hectare in bordering land parcels.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6430
------------------------------------------------------------
GM HYPE
------------------------------------------------------------
+ CLINTON'S GM RECIPE TO FEED THE HUNGRY
Former US president, Bill Clinton, has been hyping GM at the BIO 2006 conference in Chicago. Clinton said the solution to feeding the poor lay in GM food. He told the conference that the industry had a crucial role to play in saving the world from the effects of global warming and in helping remedy the inequality that left billions of people destitute and without basic food, health and education!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6447
------------------------------------------------------------
FOCUS ON INDIA
------------------------------------------------------------
+ MAHARASHTRA Bt COTTON FARMERS EARN 68% LOWER INCOMES - STUDY
YUVA (Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action) has released the findings of a scientific study, which compares the performance of Bt cotton along various parameters of cost, pest incidence, yields, other effects etc., with non-Bt cotton grown in similar conditions in the state of Maharashtra.
The study found:
***Non-Bt cotton farmers obtained 68% more net income than Bt cotton farmers.
***While yields of non-Bt cotton are marginally lower than Bt cotton, the cost of cultivation is 23.5% higher in the case of Bt cotton.
***Seed cost of non-Bt cotton was lower than that of Bt cotton, and fertilizer cost was around 21% lower in non-Bt cotton.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6411
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6444
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6445
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6446
+ VIDARBHA FARMERS TO OBSERVE MAY 1 AS "BETRAYAL DAY"
The total number of Bt cotton growing farmers in Vidarbha who have committed suicide this growing season since June 2005 has reached 474. Farmers in the region are to observe a mass fast on May 1, naming it "Betrayal Day" in honour of the GM companies and their friends in government that pushed poor-performing GM Bt cotton onto farmers and caused the disaster.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6491
+ FAMISHED ROAD PAVED WITH MONSANTO'S HYPE
Read the sorry progress of Bt cotton in Maharashtra, India, from hype to tragedy in the short space of a year:
*Monsanto to launch new cottonseed in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra (May 2005) *Bollywood star Monsanto's ambassador in Vidarbha *Death Along the Famished Road - cataclysmic tales of deprivation and despair wreaked by Bt cotton *Most farmers who commit suicide grew Bt cotton *Murdered by Monsanto *Destitute and dying on India's farms *68% lower incomes for Bt cotton farmers in Maharashtra *Bollywood star backs away from Monsanto (April 2006)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6462
+ BOLLYWOOD STAR BACKS AWAY FROM MONSANTO
Bollywood star Nana Patekar has apparently apologized for his role in promoting Monsanto's Bollgard GM cotton in Maharashtra, because of the large-scale losses reported from across the state.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6449
+ GM IMPORTS TO BE LABELLED
India has planned to introduce mandatory labelling of GM foods.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6428
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6466
+ MONSANTO INDICTED FOR MONOPOLY PRACTICES
A statutory body investigating charges of monopoly practices filed against Mahyco-Monsanto has found the company guilty of illegal practices and found that the monopolistic and exorbitant rates charged by the company for their Bt cotton varieties was a significant factor in farmer distress that led to suicides.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6435
------------------------------------------------------------
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF SCIENCE
------------------------------------------------------------
+ UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH FACULTY "IN BED WITH CHEMICAL INDUSTRY"
Environmentalist David Suzuki has said University of Guelph faculty are "in bed with the chemical industry." Suzuki criticized the University of Guelph's agriculture department, saying it strongly supports industrial-type agriculture, with its reliance on chemicals and GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6486
If you want specifics on what's been going on at Guelph, then check out a profile of Doug Powell from the Dept. of Plant Agriculture:
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=257
------------------------------------------------------------
FEEDING THE WORLD
------------------------------------------------------------
+ AFRICA NEEDS SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS
Paul Desmarais, Director of the Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre in Lusaka, Zambia, answers the question "Why is Africa hungry?" by making the point that Africa needs more organic and sustainable farming.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6464
+ THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO GM
French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique has published a brilliant article on sustainable, proven, non-GM methods of feeding the world, written by Marc Dufumier, lecturer at the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon. These methods include:
***rebuilding impoverished soils
***fostering growth of soil bacteria to 'fix' nitrogen from the air ***maintaining mixed livestock and arable farming, a system that produces free fertilizer (manure) and utilizes crop residues as feed ***planting 'green manure' crops to prevent soil erosion and retain nutrients.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6434
------------------------------------------------------------
BIOFUELS
------------------------------------------------------------
+ BIOFUELS TO RESCUE GM INDUSTRY
At the BIO 2006 biotech conference in Chicago, "biofuels" - renewable fuels made from plant materials - were the centre of attention, with biodiesel and ethanol as the industry's two leading hopes for spurring renewed interest and investment.
On the heels of President Bush's speech in which he said the US was "addicted to oil", BIO released a letter to Congress requesting full funding for programmes that would support research and development into ethanol production. This would all be made possible through the introduction of "White" industrial biotechnology.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6468
+ BIOFUELS EXPLOITED BY GM LOBBY
Last year we warned that the current energy crisis was being exploited by the GM lobby to push biofuels. We've republished two intelligent pieces we circulated at the time at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6469
The GM lobby claims that biofuels help climate change by absorbing CO2, a greenhouse gas, during growth. However, this is true only in relation to what was growing before the plantation was established. In many South American countries, forests have been replaced by soy. In this case the CO2 balance is negative. Also, the moment that the biofuel is used (burnt), CO2 is regenerated as product of the combustion! So biofuels actually produce greenhouse gases.
+ THE ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS OF BIOFUEL
The Argentine Senate has approved a bill that will grant tax incentives to the producers of biofuels while guaranteeing them a share of the market for 15 years.
The new law worries those who have criticised the continued expansion of soybean monoculture. Argentina's soybean crop, which is mainly transgenic, threatens biodiversity in agriculture and has hurt family farms and the rural social fabric, according to environmentalists and other critics.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6475
------------------------------------------------------------
GM MEDICINES
------------------------------------------------------------
+ CALAMITOUS GM DRUG TRIAL RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT GM
The GM drug TGN1412 given to six men in a clinical trial triggered multiple organ failure. But it wasn't due to a dosing error, product contamination or manufacturing problems and all the proper trial protocols were followed, according to an investigation by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
This suggests the adverse reactions suffered by the trial volunteers were caused by the nature of the drug itself (it was genetically modified).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6417
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4863734.stm
+ "INFORMED CONSENT" FORM FOR DRUG TRIAL WAS FLAWED
Although British authorities say that a drug trial which made six healthy young men violently ill was conducted properly, critics have savaged their informed consent form.
Michael Goodyear, a Canadian cancer physician and research ethicist, said, "The risks were well known. They're not disclosed in the consent form. I think it was misleading not to tell participants that that this drug was genetically engineered from hamster cells and that it was designed to alter their immune system."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6439
------------------------------------------------------------
COMPANY NEWS
------------------------------------------------------------
+ MONSANTO: MONSTER STOCK, OR JUST PLAIN MONSTER?
Two excellent articles for the Motley Fool, which describes itself as "the world's premier multimedia financial education company", asks if the profits from investing in Monsanto are worth the risks for both investors and consumers. The articles focus on the potentially ruinous lawsuits proliferating against Monsanto and the lack of trust the company inspires in consumers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6479
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6478
+ "MAJOR STEP FORWARD" SEEN IN DUPONT SHAREHOLDER VOTE
Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) said that it has achieved a "major step forward" with the 7.3 percent of DuPont shareholders who voted in favour of a resolution urging the company to disclose any potentially material risk or "off-balance sheet liability" that could be posed by its manufacturing and distribution of food-related GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6485
------------------------------------------------------------
CHURCHES
------------------------------------------------------------
+ POPE CONDEMNS GENETIC MANIPULATION
The Pope delivered a blistering attack on the "satanic" mores of modern society on 14 April (Good Friday), warning against an "inane apologia of evil" that is in danger of destroying humanity.
The Pope said that society is in the grip of a kind of "anti-Genesis".
Particular condemnation was reserved for scientific advances in the field of genetic manipulation. Warning against the move to "modify the very grammar of life as planned and willed by God", the Pope lead prayers against "insane, risky and dangerous" ventures in attempting "to take God's place without being God".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6454
------------------------------------------------------------
GOVERNMENT SLEAZE
------------------------------------------------------------
+ RUMSFELD MAKES USD5 MILLION KILLING ON BIRD FLU DRUG
Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotech firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6477
+ UK: WESTMINSTER IN THE DOCK
A police investigation is under way into the cash-for-peerages affair, in which wealthy donors who gave loans or donations to Tony Blair's Labour Party were given peerages and a seat in the House of Lords.
Of the leading figures in the drama, Lord Levy, Mr Blair's fundraiser, is said to have vowed that he will not be the "fall guy" for Mr Blair.
It was recently revealed that offices used by the peer, a key figure in securing Labour's GBP14 million of loans, had been damaged by a fire in November, after some of the facts in the cash-for-peerages affair had been uncovered, but before the police began their inquiry. No documents relevant to the inquiry were said to have been burnt. [How would we know, if they went up in smoke?]
There was continuing political interest in the role of Lord Sainsbury, the science and technology minister, who faces a possible investigation under the ministerial code into failing to tell the most senior civil servant in his Whitehall department about his GBP2 million loan to Labour.
Lord Sainsbury, who has remained in the same ministerial job since Labour came to power in 1997 (the only one to do so, apart from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown), has always denied there is any conflict of interest between his support for GM food (and his involvement in companies which research and produce it) and government policy on GM.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6477
+ TYCOONS TELL LABOUR: PAY US BACK NOW
Two businessmen have demanded immediate repayment of their secret loans to Labour, threatening financial crisis for the party.
Sir Christopher Evans, the biotech tycoon, said that he would be demanding the repayment of his GBP1m loan "this summer". Labour is also expecting to repay a GBP2m loan to Lord Sainsbury, the science minister, in July.
However, sources said he was preparing to make a sizable donation to compensate for the loan repayment.
GM WATCH comment: It looks as if the current scandal will leave Blair even more financially dependent on his Party's biggest individual donor, GM entrepreneur Lord Sainsbury.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6489
CLEAN UP WESTMINSTER from Blair's sleaze by signing petition:
http://www.cleanupwestminster.com
Feel free to sign even if you are not a UK citizen as Britain's Parliament is called "the mother of all Parliaments" and what goes on there may affect what goes on in other countries.