SUNDAY INDEPENDENT (London) May 23

Exposed: Labour's real aim on GM food

By Geoffrey Lean

THE Government's campaign to convince the public that it is determined to
protect them, and the environment, against risks from GM crops is a
cynical public relations exercise. The real intention is to buy time for
industry to develop the crops - and save ministers' faces.

The Independent on Sunday has been passed a confidential document from the
office of Cabinet Office minister Jack Cunningham which provides the
focus, and most damning description yet, of ministers' objectives in the
controversy. It flies in the face of an assurance to the Commons by Mr
Cunningham, who is in charge of co-ordinating GM policy, that the
Government's "overriding duty is to protect the public and the
environment".

It also reveals that the Government is trying to enlist "eminent
scientists" to "trail" its public relations "key messages" - even though
Mr Cunningham late last week assured the Independent on Sunday that "there
is no spin-doctoring exercise with scientists".

Sent to ministers, officials and top aides to Tony Blair just over a week
ago by Mr Cunningham's private secretary, the document lays out an
astonishingly detailed strategy for spinning, and mobilising support for,
the Government's announcement of new measures last Friday. These include
establishing two new quangos to oversee GM food and crops; "tough new
guidelines" to manage their cultivation; and considering monitoring the
effects on health.

The document says it is "important" that ministers "adopt a corporate
approach to the announcement" and are clear on what they want to achieve
from it. One of the objectives is "to begin to gain acceptance to the view
that industry should be given time to develop and demonstrate possible
benefits from GM products".

The other objectives are "to demonstrate loudly and clearly that the
Government does have a grip on this issue" and "to reassure, and to knock
down some of the myths ... by emphasising that the Government is listening
to the public, taking steps to boost the protective arrangement, and is
committed to a policy of openness and involvement". Mr Cunningham assured
the Commons that the Government's "overriding duty" was the protection of
public health, yet the document contains just one reference to "protective
arrangements" - and that in a spin-doctoring context.

The document adds that last week's attacks on the work of Dr Arpad Puzstai
- - which suggested that GM potatoes harmed the health of rats - by the
Royal Society, a Commons select committee and a advisory body, would give
"his peers a legitimate opportunity to comment on the basis of his work
and provide a platform for them to trail the Government's Key Messages".

It adds: "The Office of Science and Technology is compiling a list of
eminent scientists to be available for broadcast interviews and to author
articles. These individuals should be alerted and be prepared to offer
comment."

The Government has been attacked previously for trying to get sympathetic
scientists exposure in the media, but this is the boldest admission so far
that it is trying to co-opt them as part of its PR strategy.

This move appears to contradict an assurance given by Mr Cunningham to the
Independent on Sunday that there is "no spin-doctoring exercise with
scientists".

Mr Cunningham said: "We have not been advertising for people to come and
join in some government media campaign. It is for individual scientists to
write their own articles and express their own opinions."

...and how they spun it to the world

AT ten minutes past eight on Friday morning, Dr Jack Cunningham went on
BBC Radio's Today programme. There followed one of the most heated
exchanges yet between a Labour minister and a BBC interviewer writes
Geoffrey Lean.

Within minutes the short-fused Cabinet Office minister was angrily
accusing the interviewer John Humphrys of operating on a "Friends of the
Earth agenda" after he had asked why the Government was not introducing a
legally binding code on growing GM crops or imposing a five-year
moratorium. Mr Humphrys insisted he was putting forward the view of a
concerned public.

In fact, the secret document (see above) reveals the Government planned
the interview as an early shot in its most vigorous campaign so far to
reverse the tide of public opinion.

It shows that Friday's barrage of publicity was carefully timed to
capitalise on a week which was thought to give the Government a chance to
"move on to the front foot".

The document shows that a meeting on 10 May, between Dr Cunningham, the
Health minister Tessa Jowell, the Environment minister Michael Meacher,
and the Food Safety minister Jeff Rooker, decided that five separate
planned announcements on genetic modification should be "rolled into one"
to maximise the impact.

The announcements - duly presented together by Dr Cunningham on Friday to
the Commons and at a press conference - heralded the setting up of two new
quangos to oversee GM crops, the publication of two reports on the issue
by the Government's Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser,
and released new voluntary guidelines on growing the crops agreed with the
industry.

The leaked document shows that one of ministers' main concerns was to
rubbish research by Dr Arpad Puzstai, which suggested that GM potatoes
harmed the health of laboratory rats. A world authority, he was forced to
leave Aberdeen's prestigious Rowett Institute after be briefly mentioned
the research in a television documentary.

The document says that the government announcement should be timed to
follow the publication of three reports last week - by the Royal Society,
the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, and the
Government's own Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes - which
ministers rightly anticipated would attack Dr Puzstai's work.

The document says ministers must "speak with one voice," and strongly
recommends they "place heavy emphasis on the broadcast media - speaking to
people directly in their front rooms". It suggests Mr Rooker kick off the
day with an interview on BBC's Farming Today followed by Mr Cunningham on
Today. Dr Cunningham did five other radio interviews that morning and
spoke to BBC TV, ITN, Sky News, and BBC Radio's World at One directly
after the press conference.

Mr Cunningham's office said it would work with Downing Street's Strategic
Communication Unit "on an article - perhaps for the Sun and a broadsheet -
in the name of the Prime Minister".

The document also looks at the longer-term, including making ministers
available for "both popular and more specialised radio and TV programmes
such as Country File, You and Yours, and the Jimmy Young Show". An instant
rebuttal system was to be set up to counter reaction by "activists and
other pressure groups".

The document outlines a strategy to try to get endorsement from
independent bodies like English Nature, the Royal Society, the Consumers'
Association and "moderate green groups". "All of these interests will not
endorse the entire package - but if we are able to ensure that they do so
wherever possible, this will help us to tell a good story," the document
says.

In the end it did not all work out as planned, partly because the
announcement had to be moved at the last minute from Thursday to Friday to
stop it clashing with an initiative by Tony Blair on cancer. Many of the
planned approaches to the media, and attempts to get endorsements did not
take place. "The Government," said one source, "is not as well organised
as we would like."