By yet another controversy - farmers weekly

28 JANUARY 2000 ------------------------- GWYTHER HIT LEAKED BY YET ANOTHER CONTROVERSY A LEAKED E-MAIL SUGGESTING THE BEEF-ON-THE-BONE BAN COULD BE RE-INTRODUCED WAS JUST THE START OF

ANOTHER BAD WEEK FOR UNDER-FIRE WELSH FARM MINISTER CHRISTINE GWYTHER. ROBERT DAVIES AND DONALD MACPHAIL REPORT WELSH farm minister Christine Gwyther has suffered another week of controversy

which started when a leaked document suggested the beef-on-the-bone ban could be re-imposed just months after it was lifted. Ms Gwyther was forced to make an unequivocal apology to farmers

after a confidential e-mail was sent to a journalist. The contents, which suggested that Brussels could ban beef and lamb-on-the-bone later in the year, was a "worst case scenario"

prepared by a fairly junior colleague and never intended for release, she said. "This was an e-mail sent between two officers which went to a journalist by mistake when someone pressed

the wrong button," said Ms Gwyther. "I am not playing down or trying to excuse the alarm and damage that publication could have caused. I did not know anything about it, but the

buck stops here and I am very, very sorry." This is not the first time Ms Gwyther has courted controversy. Within days of becoming Welsh farm secretary last May, livestock farmers

called for her resignation when it emerged that she was a vegetarian. She was further criticised last autumn for failing to secure a calf disposal scheme for beleaguered dairy producers. The

latest incident ensured a frosty reception this week for the embattled minister during a visit to a dairy farm in Denbighshire (see left). About 70 farmers used the visit to attack what

they claim is a lack of action about the farming crisis by the Welsh Assembly and Westminster. Targets included the cost of red tape, the lack of calf and cull ewe disposal schemes, high

rural fuel prices, late subsidy payments and dip chemical disposal charges. Bob Parry, president of the Farmers Union of Wales, which organised the visit, said the leaked e-mail dealt a

further blow to the publics perception of red meat. Calling for heads to roll, he said: "There must be a full inquiry into what went wrong and action to ensure that incorrect civil

service opinions cannot be leaked in the future." The e-mail related to new EU regulations due to come into force on July 1. The memo said the new rules "will have two very serious

effects." In addition to the beef-on-the-bone ban, it suggested that vertebrae and intestines from sheep over 12-months-old would have to be removed after slaughter. But final rules

relating to specified risk material will not be agreed in Brussels until the spring and observers are confident that work undertaken by Britain to prevent BSE provides a strong argument

which will mean the bone-in ban wont be re-introduced. Nevertheless, the controversy surrounding Ms Gwythers role in the future of Welsh agriculture is unlikely to diminish. Farmers are

already worried that her promise to pay dairy hygiene charges, restated only this week, looks increasingly likely to be rejected by Brussels.