Running scared

On Saturday’s Week in Westminster, Peter Oborne spoke to Frank Dobson & Stephen Dorrell about what it is like to be a Secretary of State in the eye of a storm, such as those we are currently having over horse meat & NHS failures in Mid Staffs.

One nugget concerned Frank Dobson’s regret over the failure, during his tenure as Secretary of State for Health, to take a more robust line against the claims that MMR vaccination causes autism. He attributed this in part to a distinct lack of confidence about the issue on the part of his professional advisers, still reeling from the fallout from the BSE affair, when robust reassurance had turned out to be disastrously misguided.

Links
BBC Radio 4: Week In Westminster
Stephen Dorrell
Frank Dobson
Mid Staffordshire Report
Related post
MMR & responsibility