UK: MoD ignores ruling on Gulf war syndrome

Thousands of war veterans will lose the right to claim additional money for Gulf war syndrome because the Ministry of Defence has decided to ignore a landmark decision which ordered it to recognise the condition, the Guardian has learned.
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The ruling on Gulf war syndrome was made by the pensions appeal tribunal in November last year. It was seen as a landmark as it was the first time in 15 years that the ministry was forced to acknowledge the existence of the condition. The ministry chose not to appeal against the decision to the House of Lords.
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Last night the MoD said it would not accept the existence of Gulf war syndrome. The ministry said money was already being paid to ex-servicemen with disabilities, and that it did not need to pay extra money for those who claimed they were suffering from Gulf war syndrome.

In an unreported exchange in the Lords last week, Lord Drayson, the government's defence spokesman in the Lords, was challenged about the change to the McGreevy decision. At first he said the MoD had not overturned it, but then added: " The government cannot accept that Gulf war veterans should receive an additional payment because of the particular condition of Gulf war syndrome. It is not a question of geography or the cause; it is a question of the level of disability." Lord Drayson said it was not practical for the government to implement last year's ruling because that would involve writing to 53,000 former soldiers to ask them whether they were suffering from Gulf war syndrome.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,1796264,00.html

An independent inquiry last year said Gulf War Syndrome did exist and that soldiers who served in the Gulf were twice as likely to be sick than those who served elsewhere.

The inquiry report said illnesses suffered by veterans were likely to be due to a combination of causes.

These included multiple injections of vaccines, the use of organophosphate pesticides to spray tents, low level exposure to nerve gas, and the inhalation of depleted uranium dust.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/4394436.stm

The irresistible rise of 'Tony's crony'

He was made a lord and then the UK defence procurement minister after giving New Labour more than £1m.
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Although the company attracted millions of pounds worth of investment and floated on the stock market, the Powderject device has never made it to market. It is still being developed.
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During his ownership of the factory there were a number of problems with four different vaccines - polio, flu, hepatitis A and most worryingly the TB (BCG) vaccine, supplied to the National Health service in Britain.
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Just over a year later its flu vaccine production-line was shut down by the FDA.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4446978.stm