Misleading

Could someone at Liberal Democrat office please have a word with Dick Taverne? He was on the radio this morning (Today, where else?) talking about the supposed virtues of GM. Poor people will benefit, he claimed, notwithstanding the excellent claim made by the NGO chap that it was big agribusinesses who are making use of GM in most countries – not the poor.

But it’s not the supposed pros and cons of GM which gets up my nose. No, it’s the fact that we were listening to a Lib Dem peer who comments seemed to suggest he spoke for the party on this matter. Well, I’m afraid he doesn’t. I seem to recall spending two years working on this and other agricultural issues within the party. And if memory serves me correct at least two conference motions were passed which sought to restrict their use during that time.

Then again, maybe there’s a reason why they’re letting him present the image that the Lib Dems are pro-GM. After all, while Labour and the Tories were slugging it out at the top of the hour on school dinners and throwing travellers in prison, what were the Lib Dems doing? That’s right: outlining plans to make life easier for business.

Nice to see the party’s got its priorities right – not.