BAD DAY FOR BRITAIN

by RAY FLEMING
NOT a good day for the British government yesterday. The head of the Child Support Agency resigned following its prolonged failure to get payments to single mothers on time. The head of the National Assessment Agency resigned because of the “myriad of failures” in this year's assessment of results of 14-year-olds in English. But of even greater concern than these administrative incompetences was the report by an independent inquiry into the so-called Gulf War syndrome of illnesses among servicemen who were in the Gulf in 1991. This has been a long-running story with the Ministry of Defence stubbornly refusing to accept that any syndrome existed and therefore refusing also to pay appropriate pensions or compensation. The inquiry was independently funded by anonymous donors and conduced by the former law lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick; it took evidence from the commander of British forces in the Gulf, General Sir Peter de la Billiere, and several scientific and medical experts. It concluded that a Gulf War syndrome did exist and that the Ministry of Defence should accept this and its consequences. This conclusion is in line with a recent American report into a similar medical syndrome among US servicemen who were in the Gulf in 1991. THE initial response by the Ministry of Defence yesterday was consistent with its long-standing position on this issue, that the illnesses are too various to constitute a syndrome. But the responsible minister, Ivor Caplin, also showed the weakness of his position when he chose to attack the funding of the inquiry. The only reason it had to be held in this way was because the government refused to hold its own investigation. They should now admit they were wrong, and pay out.