Trampling on the public´s trust
When thousands of confused and anxious parents have already been put
through the emotional wringer in the controversy over MMR, didn´t it occur to
anyone in Whitehall that the whole issue of child vaccination needed to be
addressed with sensitivity and skill?
Evidently not. In the quite separate row over the five-in-one jab for babies, the
Government´s clumsy, half-leaked, half-announced plans might almost have
been designed to provoke unease.
Yes, it is welcome that the use of mercury in vaccines is being scrapped.
Concerns that it might cause autism surfaced five years ago, and it has been
phased out in America, Japan and much of Europe. But Britain has so far
dragged its feet, perhaps because mercury-free vaccines are more expensive.
Even now, astonishingly, the new jab won´t be generally available for at least
six weeks.
So what are parents supposed to do? Allow their babies to be injected with
the present vaccine which might - just might - carry some risk, however
remote? Or refuse until the new version is available?
That isn´t the end of it. Under the new system, five vaccines will be
administered at the same time, instead of four. But there are already
suggestions that such multiple ´cocktails´ can create problems.
Most scientists, it has to be said, don´t share those doubts. They insist the
new vaccine is safe. In ordinary circumstances, such assurances would be
enough.
Sadly, the public is no longer inclined to take anything on trust. Consider what
happened over MMR. Dr Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who raised
doubts about the triple jab, was ruthlessly hounded out of his job. Meanwhile,
a bullying Government flatly refuses to allow worried parents the choice of
single injections. And while Ministers move heaven and earth to impose MMR,
the Blairs won´t say if it has been given to their son Leo.
But then, the vaccination issue always seems to reveal this administration at
its worst. After all, didn´t this Prime Minister allow Labour donor Paul Drayson
to make £20 million out of a Government contract for smallpox vaccine (while
competitors hardly got a look-in) and hand him a peerage into the bargain?
Now we are seeing the results of the years of cronyism, sleaze and
mendacious spin. This latest imbroglio isn´t simply about the ways babies are
inoculated.
Wouldn´t it be more accurate to describe it as another symptom of the way
New Labour has undermined faith in the integrity of public life?
Core values
One thing can be almost guaranteed about Michael Howard´s speech this
week stressing discipline, responsibility, respect and the importance of a
father´s influence in bringing up boys. Our right-on, politically correct, liberal
establishment will greet it with disdain.
But it will strike a chord with the millions whose lives are blighted by yobbery,
drunkenness and the steady coarsening of a society mired in the culture of
compensation and ´rights´.
Their misery won´t be assuaged by the seemingly endless crackdowns on
anti-social behaviour, especially when our feeble courts are so reluctant to
enforce the law properly.
No, there has to be a fundamental change in attitudes. Mr Howard is
undoubtedly right to argue that such change must begin within the family and
at school. For years, it has been fashionably - and patronisingly - assumed
that the ´causes of crime´ are poverty and inequality. But since Britain today is
wealthier and more egalitarian than ever, isn´t it more likely that the roots of
the problem lie in the collapse of values once taken for granted?
Mr Howard´s speech should ignite a debate that has been stifled for too long.
This story first appeared in the Daily Mail. For more great stories like this, buy the Daily
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