Another farmer who had been waiting to bring his own case to court was Tom Maidment of Wiltshire. Thirty-one of his cows were condemned by Defra after blood testing had shown them as positive, and he pleaded in vain with London to have them skin-tested.
When his local Animal Health Office, unaware of London\’s refusal, ordered that skin tests be carried out, not a single animal showed any sign of TB. Defra\’s response was that the cows must all nevertheless be destroyed. Who gives a fig for science when someone else is footing the bill – and the courts are there to support you?
How did this happen?
Why are we ruled by morons?
This is pretty much the same as the earlier story of the woman denied NHS funding for her replacement battery but able instead to use thousands in future treatments.
Once again, it is the blind following of ‘policy’ and the total lack of common sense.
Why does this Government hate farmers?
I blame the lawyers.
If we live in a law-bound society, we have to follow the law. The law so rarely makes exceptions for common sense. If the law says any cow that tests positive must be put down to be on the safe side, then it said any such cow must be put down.
We have such awful, limited stunted little pygmies of officials these days it could hard be any other way. But frankly it makes me pine for the good old days when you could trust civil servants to act in the interests of their consciences.
“If we live in a law-bound society, we have to follow the law. The law so rarely makes exceptions for common sense.”
Well up to a point. Isn’t this why we have judges to judge? To look at the spirit as well as the letter of the law?
Again, jury trial would sort this out. The whole purpose of the jury is that they are NOT lawyers – they can use only their common sense when coming to a verdict.