Subject:

I am writing to inform you about the latest developments here. The relevant information is given in the text of my latest email to my consitutency MP, quoted below, which I am sending at the same time.

Best wishes, Alan Mayne

To: Brian White, MP, INTERNET:whitebar@parliament.uk
Re: Meeting addressed by Secretary of State for Defence

Dear Brian

Thank you very much for your prompt and helpful reply to my email last week. Unfortunately, my action failed to prevent Geoffrey Hoon from making his decision to award the AW contract to LM and BNFL a few days later, as Secretary of State for Defence.

I found this out at a meeting of the European-Atlantic Group which was addressed by Mr Hoon. First, I talked to him briefly at the social gathering preceding the meeting. When I expressed my misgivings about this decision, he said that he had already made it. I replied that I was very sorry to hear this. When you passed my email on to the Department of Defence, did you show it to him personally, or did you send it to a civil servant? I am asking you this question, as I am not sure whether Mr Hoon had read my email by the time that I spoke to him.

At the meeting itself, Mr Hoon gave a short but excellent speech on UK Government policy for strengthening the EU's capacity for defence. In particular, he emphasised the need for the EU to build up as quickly as practicable a force of 50,000 to 60,000 troops to be ready to act in any future emergency that might arise in Europe. This defence policy wouId be formulated in close collaboration with NATO and the USA. I agreed with most of what he said here.

During question time, I again raised the issue of the AWE contract, and asked him how he defended his decision. He said that the basic decision had been made in December, so that the later decision was only confirming the earlier decision. I deduce from this that he felt, as a lawyer, that the earlier decision was a contract from which the Government could not withdraw. He also said that he did not like the way in which the Panorama programme 'dictated policy'. Due to the large number of people wishing to ask questions, I had no time to ask a supplementary question.

I think that he misunderstood the programme's intent. To me, it gave the very strong message that it was an urgent WARNING which should be conveyed to the public. It seemed to me that its authors genuinely believed that there would be a real safety hazard to people in this country if the AWE decision went ahead. It also in effect requested the Government to reconsider the decision before it was too late, and, if necessary, have a public inquiry first. When the programme interviewed Baroness Symons, as one of the Defence Ministers, I was not at all impressed by the quality of the scientific advice that she and her colleagues had received, as I mentioned to you in my email to you last week.

I hold the view that the Government should give priority to genuine concerns about safety, even if that means cancelling what might normally be considered a binding legal contract. I am very dismayed that the December decision was taken so secretly, and consider it a great pity that the Panorama programme was not broadcast well before that decision. Perhaps its authors did not have the necessary evidence at that time.

I think that the Government will ignore the lessons of this incident, as of its failure to ban potentially dangerous field trials of GM crops, at its own peril. Firstly, it is high time that it took on board outside > scientific advisers, especially from Scientists for Global Responsibility, who could complement the usually rather complacent opinions of its own scientific advisers. Secondly, the more that the public perceive that decisions about THEIR safety are being taken without their consent and without due consultation. the less likely they are to vote Labour at the next General Election. The experience of 1950 suggests that Labour might at best obtain only a small overall majority at then. The current undermining of public confidence might well mean that Labour will be defeated.

Yours sincerely, Alan Mayne