Dr Alfred Salter: ...people were killed on the railways every year by accidents, this House would very soon intervene and take steps to prevent a recurrence of that sort of thing. If a medical man introduced some new vaccine which led to 7,000 deaths in one year, very prompt measures would be introduced to put a stop to his activities. Here we have the number of deaths increasing, and steps are being taken...
Mr Robin Turton: ...made during the Debate on the Adjournment on 17th November gave a misleading impression."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 7th December, 1944; Vol. 406, c. 726.] Unfortunately, these mistakes do a great deal of damage, and a correction does not get the notoriety which is received by a statement made by the Parliamentary Secretary in a Debate in this House, which is reported in all the agricultural...
Colonel Sir Alan Gomme-Duncan: ...knowledge of colonial problems realises that to the full. However, I want to come back to Hyderabad. My right hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Mr. Eden) made a very severe and damaging criticism of the Government about what is going on. Not one word of what he said was too strong. I think it is essential, particularly in view of what the Foreign Secretary said in his...
Mr Morgan Price: ...has taken place in agriculture, mainly as a result of agricultural research. I remember the time, not so very long ago, when certain cattle diseases were rampant; they came and went and did great damage. Now those diseases are almost unknown. For instance, there were Johnes disease, contagious abortion and the ever-present tuberculosis, which is now perhaps being eradicated as a result...
Mr John Hare: ...specific points raised by my hon. Friend. In his opening remarks, my hon. Friend, quite rightly, said that we did not generate the disease ourselves. He also quite rightly pointed out the great damage which outbreaks of foot-and-mouth create in British agriculture generally. In fact, the cost of compensation payments to the Government have been high. Already this year we have had to ask...
Mr Maurice Edelman: I believe that the immunity of the Salk vaccine is 75 per cent. I think that the immunity, or the claim, at any rate, within the limits of French experiments, of the French vaccine is somewhat higher than that. I want to turn now to the immediate problem. The immediate problem, despite everything the Minister has said, is that even if the summer programme for the vaccination of children up...
Mr George Brown: With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I wish to make a statement on the Italian flood disaster. The appalling damage caused by the Italian floods has evoked widespread sympathy in this country and a strong desire to help. This was deepened by this morning's news of still further floods, this time in the Po Valley. I should like to tell the House what has been, and is...
Mr Derek Walker-Smith: ...case of the polio epidemic and the effort then to persuade the public voluntarily to accept immunisation. Our warnings went largely disregarded, or at any rate to a fair extent, and stocks of the vaccine were piling up unused. Then fate intervened. A famous footballer of the day died of polio. This made an enormous impact on the minds of the young—the thought of this man struck down...
Mr Marcus Kimball: ...of levies. We all welcomed the hon. Gentleman's remarks about the room for expansion of British farmers within the E.E.C. He has gone a little way to putting right the most irresponsible and damaging remarks made by his hon. Friend the Member for Cardigan (Mr. Elystan Morgan). I am a hill farmer, though not in my constituency, and I can find nothing in the E.E.C. regulations which...
Mr Roland Moyle: ...do Britain more harm than to be out of it. If by some queer alchemy of politics I should find myself on the losing side, I shall still engineer every opportunity of ensuring that the minimum of damage is done to Britain by membership of the Common Market. I believe that in this attitude I shall have the support of the majority of the people. I listened with great pleasure to the legal...
Mr Jack Ashley: ...which has shrouded the fate of thousands of children, to suggest urgent action aimed at reducing the number of future tragedies, and to offer proposals to compensate those who are severely damaged. An eminent virologist of international repute has spoken of "a conspiracy of silence" about reactions to a vaccine and warned that authorities "try to ' muzzle' critics". While I recognise the...
Mr Timothy Raison: ...one can argue whether that is the right system, but it is the system that we have, and anything that takes away from the power of Members of Parliament to question any aspect of the service is very damaging. I hope that we may have reassurance on the point or that the Government will be prepared, since they state that they are adamant about it, at least to look at the matter again. I turn...
Mr Ken Lomas: I am sure that the hon. Gentleman is aware of the number of children who have suffered vaccine damage in the United Kingdom, and of the fact that Governments of whatever party have not been able to estimate the exact numbers of these children. Does he not agree that those children and their families are just as deserving of compensation as are the thalidomide children? Is not this a subject...
Vaccine-Damaged Children
Mr John Hannam: ...compensation to be paid without the need for long legal processes to establish liability. Wearing another hat, I can only wish that the same expediency could be applied in other cases such as vaccine-damaged children. However, that is another issue for another day. My hon. Friend the Member for New Forest (Mr. McNair-Wilson) and many others referred to those original pneumoconiotics who...
Mr John Hannam: Is the hon. and learned Gentleman aware that there are 250 cases of severe vaccine brain-damaged children who have been waiting since May 1973 for the Royal Commission to report? Is he also aware that the Secretary of State for Social Services declined to award compensation to them until the report is made? Will he press his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services to...
Vaccine-damaged Children
Mr Jack Ashley: ...did, in my view, was to help the immobilised people much more than they helped the other groups of disabled people. The various other categories of disabled people—the blind, the deaf, spastics, vaccine-damaged children and so on—did not get a great deal from the present Government, or indeed from any Government, in terms of direct assistance. What the Government then did was to...
Mr John Hannam: ...of drafting laws in any other way to deal with pre-natal injuries, I become even more convinced that a no-fault system would be the most effective and fair way of proceeding. That applies to vaccine-damaged children and many other categories of pre-natal injury and negligence. The members of the all-party Disablement Group will know of the deep anguish that is caused to the parents of...
Mr Eddie Loyden: Will my right hon. Friend consider the problem facing vaccine-damaged children in education? Although there are very few of them, they face unique educational difficulties.