The Department of Health, though lamentably slow off the mark, is taking the threat increasingly seriously. But the front line of defence against the virus arriving through imported or migrating birds, the Chief Veterinary Officer's group at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, inspires little confidence. After all, it was largely responsible for the BSE and foot and mouth fiascos. So there is every ground for concern, every reason to continue to press the Government to raise its game, but no cause whatsoever for panic..
Jolly voting weather, blade on the feather, and all that, what? Did someone say Port Out, Starboard Home? Yes, we know that Douglas Hurd tried to overcome the embarrassment of having been to Eton by saying he was the son of a tenant farmer But that was 15 years ago Times have moved on. The Independent on Sunday was launched that same year, 1990 We are in a more knowing, postmodern, age. (We do not claim all the credit.) The idea of a public-school-educated hereditary oligarchy is an ironic half-truth, rather than a class conspiracy to grind the faces of the poor. Mr Hurd's mistake - hindsight can reveal - was not to call himself Dougie.. Of the many paradoxes of Tony Blair's government, its record on the law on the funding of political parties has been among the most obvious. Sweeping to power on a wave of revulsion against Conservative sleaze, New Labour legislated for a new regime of laudable transparency. All donations to parties or political campaigns of more than £5,000 in one year now have to be declared promptly.
As the light was shone into dark places, what did it reveal? That the "purer than pure" Labour administration was guilty of precisely those misdemeanours for which it had long criticised the Conservatives. Honours appear to be for sale, and ministers are casual to the point of negligence about the conflicts of interest thrown up by political donations. Mr Blair's latest nominations for peerages, which we report today, repeat the tawdry pattern of the past eight years, which has seen a long and unimpressive list running from Bernie Ecclestone via the Hinduja brothers and Lakshmi Mittal to Paul Drayson Now we add some more names to the roll-call. Chai Patel, owner of the Priory group of private psychiatric hospitals: Labour donor Sir David Garrard, property developer: Labour donor.
