Part 17: UK House of Commons Early Day Motion condemns Shane Morris
Early Day Motion EDM 425 : SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INTO GM CROPS 28.11.2007
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=34547&SESSION=891:
Meacher, Michael
That this House regrets the continuing attempts to silence or misrepresent scientists whose research indicates possible human health problems from GM crops, as in the case of Dr Irina Ermakova who was misled by the editor of Nature Biotechnology into submitting an article to the journal to be published under her name, with the article in fact published under the editor's name with criticisms by four well-known GM supporters not seen by Dr Ermakova prior to publication; deplores the continuing efforts by an employee of the Canadian Government, Shane Morris, to close down websites in the UK and Republic of Ireland which have, along with Dr Richard Jennings of Cambridge University, said that research which claimed that consumers prefer GM sweetcorn published by this employee and others and given an Award for Excellence, is a flagrant fraud; and calls on the Government Chief Scientist to protect the integrity and objectivity of science by reasserting the right of scientists to have their views published by journals without underhand interference by journal editors, and for the Chief Scientist to encourage journal editors to withdraw papers they have published which subsequently turn out to be grossly misleading or even fraudulent.
Signatures (as of 31 January 2008)
Meacher, Michael (Labour), Simpson, Alan (Labour), George, Andrew (Liberal Democrats), Robertson, Angus (Scottish National Party), Baker, Norman (Liberal Democrats), Drew, David (Labour), Walley, Joan (Labour), Prentice, Gordon (Labour), Hopkins, Kelvin (Labour), Caton, Martin (Labour), Dean, Janet (Labour), Dismore, Andrew (Labour), McCafferty, Chris (Labour), Breed, Colin (Liberal Democrats),
Stunell, Andrew (Liberal Democrats), Jackson, Glenda (Labour), Cryer, Ann (Labour), Rudi, Vis (Labour)
Alexander, Danny (Liberal Democrats), McDonnell, John (Labour), Connarty, Michael (Labour), Leech, John (Liberal Democrats), Heyes, David (Labour), Younger-Ross, Richard (Liberal Democrats) , Williams, Mark (Liberal Democrats), and Alex Samond, the leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and Scotland's First Minister.
Note:
Early Day Motions (EDMs) are formal motions submitted for debate in the UK House of Commons. However, very few EDMs are actually debated. Instead, they are used to publicise the views of individual MPs, draw attention to specific events or campaigns, and demonstrate the extent of parliamentary support for a particular cause or point of view.
For details of the Irina Ermakova affair mentioned in the EDM, see:
What is Nature Biotechnology good for? The case of Irina Ermakova, The Bioscience Resource Project, Dec 4 2007: http://www.bioscienceresource.org/commentaries/brc6.php.
See also http://www.nature.com/nbt/index.html
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