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SueThreakall

Listed below are comments made by SueThreakall between Saturday, 25th April 2009 and Saturday, 25th April 2009.

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When will the government respond to blood inquiry? 3:06pm on 25 Apr 2009 As secretary of TaintedBlood, I should like to extend my thanks both to Susan Watts and the Newsnight team, for keeping this subject on their agenda, and also for those members of the House of Lords who supported us in Thursday's debate.

Lord Morris of Manchester must surely have given the speech of his life, followed by a whole series of powerful, emotional statements by the likes of Lord Corbett, Lord Rooker, etc. I did not hear one word said against us; everyone was doing the same thing - urging the government to treat this, not as a party issue, but as an issue of right and wrong.

The government has now been urged by some of the most eminent members of the House of Lords to deal with this issue for once and for all. The numbers involved are finite and, surely, after all these years, parity with Ireland as a minimum would be a way of dealing with it?

Ireland, traditionally a poor country, has already paid out amounts approximately ten times higher than those ex-gratia handouts awarded in this country. As Lord Corbett so eloquently said the efforts so far have been:

'…a huge monument to the shame of successive governments who have found ways of avoiding their responsibilities to the victims and their carers.'

Nearly thirty years of campaigning, financial hardship and begging for state handouts could be over in the blink of an eye, should the government choose to make this issue a priority. The government should also be aware by now that, though people continue to die at the rate of more than one per month, others are taking up the battle. Again to quote Lord Corbett's words:

'This debate isn’t the end. It isn’t the end.'

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