Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry who will deliver an Autumn Report (Image via the Chronicle) Long standing haemophilia campaigners Carol Grayson and Colette Wintle refuse to be side tracked by new books about to be...
Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry who will deliver an Autumn Report
(Image via the Chronicle)
Long standing haemophilia campaigners Carol Grayson and Colette Wintle refuse to be side tracked by new books about to be published on the Contaminated Blood scandal. They believe attempts are being made to distract and undermine Sir Brian Langstaff’s forthcoming report to be released in 2024 from the Infected Blood Inquiry which began in 2018. Grayson, founder of Haemophilia Action UK, author of this blog stated, “we call it the Spring Report as opposed to the ‘final’ report as the Chair’s work is not fully complete until Sir Brian can report that his recommendations are actually carried out in full, that is the time to use the word “final”. This is reflected in our lawyers Milners and Sam Stein KC, SUBMISSIONS ON BEHALF OF THE CORE PARTICIPANTS REPRESENTED BY MILNERS SOLICITORS – AUGUST 2023
The campaigning duo are aware of two books about to be released on Contaminated Blood but highlight that their focus is on supporting Sir Brian as he has had full access to a huge array of documents and evidence, much of which was made available to Core Participants of the Inquiry on a website storage facility named Relativity. However, although substantial evidence has being released into the public domain from the Inquiry, lawyers have confirmed Relativity is not available to corporate media journalists which makes it nigh on impossible for them to call their books “definitive” accounts of the scandal and undermines the work of the Inquiry. Grayson and Wintle also note that these journalists are so disengaged from the victims that they write about within their publications that they haven’t even sent a courtesy copy of their books to the national Haemophilia Society to review or to long standing campaign groups.
Therefore, rather than be distracted by books from corporate media journalists that rehash old stories and have already displayed innaccuracies, ignorance and bias, Grayson and Wintle will also continue to focus on and support their lawyers August 2023 submission. Milners solicitors have provided an important and useful reference to the Bichard Inquiry child protection procedures following the murder of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells which will hopefully be applied to the Infected Blood Inquiry.
The earlier Bichard report recognized the need for ONGOING monitoring PAST the release date on an Inquiry report. This can be applied to the Infected Blood Inquiry to ensure government is fully committed to acting SWIFTLY and EFFECTIVELY on the implementation of ALL the recommendations so carefully considered by Sir Brian Langstaff. The Chair has spent much time preparing what he believes is best for those at the heart of the Inquiry, haemophiliacs infected with HIV and hepatitis viruses after receiving factor concentrate blood products to treat their clotting disorder, their infected and affected partners and other family members. Much of the treatment used on haemophiliacs was imported from the US from “high risk” sources such as prisoners, sex workers, gay men, drug addicts and “skid-row donors”. Many haemophiliacs have since died and are still dying, one every 4 days. Milners are intent on working for the best possible outcome for their clients and recognize how aspects of the Bichard Inquiry would be valuable for the Infected Blood Inquiry. They state the following in their submission,
On 14 June 2004, the Bichard Inquiry reported to the Home Secretary. The publishedreport contained, in its opening pages, a letter from Sir Michael Bichard to the Home
Secretary submitting his report. In that letter he said: which, for ease of reference, is
cited in full below:
“…I am pleased to submit my report to you.
I am grateful for the assurance you have given me that the report will be quickly
published.
I look forward to the Government’s response to my findings and to the
recommendations which I make. As you know, I aim to reconvene my inquiry in six
months’ time to assess progress on those recommendations which the Government
chooses to accept. I am confident, as I acknowledge in my report, of the spirit in which
my recommendations will be received and taken forward.” Sir Michael was sent a progress report by the Government on 22 December 2004 and
then provided an update report on 15 March 2005, in which he noted “…the progress
made to date owes a great deal to the effectiveness of the programme management
arrangements that were put in place, and I believe that it is essential that these are
maintained for at least the next 12 months. I am also clear that the fact that this public
review was known to be taking place has concentrated minds…”
Grayson and Wintle back their lawyers in calling for a similar progress report from government once Sir Brian has released his Spring Report. They feels its important and vital that he then follows up with an update related to the implementation of his Recommendations and that similar arrangements to Bichard can continue for at least 12 months following his report as an ongoing monitoring provision.
Grayson and Wintle reflect on their dismay at how the recommendations of a previous inquiry were blocked by government where there was no official ongoing monitoring past the release date. They spoke jointly stating the following,
We both gave evidence at the earlier Archer Inquiry in 2007 and witnessed 2 years later how the minds of government officials were certainly not concentrated on supporting victims. Government ignored the key recommendations of Lord Archer in his report. Ministers blatently told lies to ensure “compensation on a parity with Eire” was not paid to haemophilia victims by claiming the Eire case was different as the government there had accepted legal liability. This was completely untrue. Haemophiliacs in Eire were paid out on the grounds of “extraordinary suffering” WITHOUT government accepting legal liability and without going to court. Despite us both submitting key evidence to support a Judicial Review into how government came to this wrongful decision (which was WON), the Archer Inquiry by then was over, the Chair had officially stepped down and there was no further official monitoring. Haemophiliacs and their families were once again failed by the state. We recognize the importance of the Bichard Report in continuing to monitor after the Spring Report is presented to ensure the state does not try to wriggle out of its responsibilities yet again and abides by Sir Brian’s full recommendations.
Grayson and Wintle say they have little time to focus on the new books on the Contaminated Blood scandal but may carry out textual analysis at a later date in case of inaccuracies or defamation. They claim the authors have shown no genuine interest in working with the longest standing campaigners and appear somewhat intimidated by strong women that can’t be manipulated or dominated to suit the agenda of the authors rather than an accurate history and narrative of a scandal.
They pair said,
We have seen “taster articles” in Sunday newspapers in advance of the publication of these two new books and spotted inaccuracies immediately which gives us cause for concern. We have previously complained over recent years that these two authors have rehashed the work of long standing campaigners without referencing claiming old evidence is new, left out decades of campaigner history in a podcast and promoted a plagiarist.
We are not impressed by the quality or accuracy of reporting and have seen far better from regional journalists who take time to listen and understand important themes and really study the evidence so this does not bode well for the books. Some journalists appear intent on putting themselves at the heart of the investigation into the scandal and in doing so insult and betray those harmed by contaminated blood. These books are not our focus because if we so wished we are more than capable of writing our own, they forget, we ARE the experts with the decades of lived experience and despite everything we have suffered, we still managed to research, make documentaries with trusted media and receive awards for our work… we led the way, others sinply follow.
We feel its important to highlight the terrible decline in mainstream media ethics and standards. As campaigners, we are appalled at how some journalists now use their power to cancel people out or attack them. We have experienced this ourselves. We have also watched as innocent activists and members of political parties have been set up and defamed by the media, for example by the press promoting the weaponization of antisemitism to silence voices in support of Palestinian rights. How could we possibly trust or work with any journalist engaging in such dirty and unethical behaviour which is the opposite of everything we stand for.
We don’t even feel the need to name the new books as our loyalty is to Sir Brian’s work which is so much more relevant and important to us. It was very hard to trust at first but we have grown to respect Sir Brian. He has a well measured and empathetic approach and great insight into what he is studying in terms of evidence and a very astute mind. We feel he actually cares about those infected and affected and this is not something we have had from some of the corporate media that came into our lives. The Report from Sir Brian which was originally intended to be published in Autumn 2023 has been delayed by several months but this is in the interest of thoroughness and fairness to the many people criticised as they must have time to respond and we understand this.
However we give credit and thanks to some very committed national mainstream media journalists that regularly reported on our campaign efforts in the past such as James Meikle. We also thank the excellent regional journalists that engaged with us where we jointly run campaigns including the Northern Echo in the 1980s and the awarded Bad Blood campaign with the Newcastle Journal and Chronicle and other north-east based media. We also appreciate the ongoing collaboration with Sam Volpe. We value the work we did with Mags Gavan and BBC Newsnight team at the time of the Archer Inquiry nominated for a Royal Television Society award. Thanks also go to Meridian that made the Blood Brothers documentary instigated by Colette featuring her and husband and boys from Lord Mayor Treloar College which again was given an award. In addition regional media in Kent and Worcester that worked with Colette.
Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad. She was a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.