18 July 2022: Counsel Presentation on Northern Ireland and Wales - B

The second part of the presentation by Counsel had skimmed across the sea from Northern Ireland to Wales. The names of some of the key players from Wales, such as Ministers and officials, including Chief Medical Officers (CMOs), were reviewed. It was noted how there had not really been much direct evidence to the Inquiry from those named, certainly not as attendees to give oral evidence. The situation with respect to documentation was better than for Northern Ireland (… it could hardly have been worse). The frequency with which Prof Bloom pops up as the blood policy voice for Wales was highlighted, despite him not having an officially recognised governmental role other than as a prolific and serial advisory group member. He seems to have been the Welsh Office’s “go-to” volunteer attender on all matters related to blood.

There were echoes of the situations occurring in other places when the presentation looked at the need for major improvements to the Cardiff-based blood production facilities, but due to money constraints (… of course), the view was to keep things ticking over with shorter-term, lower-cost adjustments, presumably while waiting for the magic money tree to be discovered in, probably, the Rhondda Valley after choir practice. Interestingly, once that fabled tree had produced the goods, the recommendation was to build a new resource near a teaching hospital. Over the course of the Inquiry a subtle pattern is emerging of the convenient links between academics and researchers from universities being able to have mutual access alongside clinicians to action patients with interesting conditions. (These patients were aka – also known as – subjects, useful material, cheaper than chimps, pups, etc.) Indeed, it was not uncommon for the treating physician to be the same person as the teaching scholar. This writer wonders which role held primacy in the heart and mind of the double agent, because that might explain a lot about how patients were “treated”.

Displayed evidence appeared to show how the Department of Health (DH) in London were endorsing the king-pin role of Prof Bloom. We know from previous evidence sessions that the Bloom managed to sprout up in locations well beyond its natural habitat of Wales. His influence and actual participation bled over the border from the land of their fathers into the wider UK and even internationally.

Relationships connected to blood issues between Wales and the rest of the UK/England, seem to mirror the wider geo-political sphere. While Scotland would occasionally seek to assert and exert its independence of thought and action, Wales appeared to have a less dynamic sense of its capacity to vary from the UK/English pathways. The Westminster perspective was to highlight the economies of scale, the efficiencies, and the greater robustness against dissent when the four acted as one; even though the three little brothers would usually just tag along in the shadow of their big brother.

The bigger issues related to blood which are of interest to the Inquiry were referenced in various documents which illustrated the Welsh involvement or perspective where this was relevant and where there was written evidence to consider. One of these vignettes involved a response to Sir Kenneth Stowe on a particular blood issue. Sir Brian thought it would be useful to look not only at the response to Sir Kenneth, but what the response actually related to.

The final consideration was the discussions between Norman Fowler as the UK Minister and Nick Edwards as Welsh office Minister on the introduction of screening for HIV. There had reportedly been robust exchanges between these two “friends” according to the oral testimony of Mr Fowler. Wales had wanted to be represented at a senior level on the Steering Groups monitoring and responding to AIDS. It had been a matter raised with Mr Fowler in his evidence to which he had agreed he would write back to the Inquiry afterwards. 

In summary, Counsel contrasted the positions of Northern Ireland and Wales. Wales had more direct access to Westminster since the NHS largely worked across England and Wales, whereas Northern Ireland was more distanced (… not just geographically). There were also the significant complications related to the stop-start nature of NI politics.

A final document was decided as important enough to see but it had not been loaded up for the purposes of the presentation, so a short break was called to allow for that to be made ready. 

The specific issues requiring visual consideration were comments on “promiscuity” being the fundamental problem with AIDS and the possibility that it might provoke a “moral crusade”. Clearly, both with promiscuity and with any moral push-back that might ensue, this exchange was a reflection of certain prevailing cultural and moral attitudes at the time. Of course, regardless of a person’s judgements concerning the rights and wrongs of whatever form of promiscuity was at play, the stigma arising from such prevailing attitudes did nothing to help the case of infected people and their families since their (our) infection circumstances were significantly different and did not involve informed free-will to choose a risk-loaded, pleasure-seeking behaviour – and one that in some circumstances was against the law. That is not a judgement on those involved per se. It is simply to illustrate the additional and compounded harms felt by bleeding disorder and transfusion victim-survivors, beyond the common virally-acquired difficulties otherwise shared by all infected and affected people.

The presentation finished much earlier than expected, which allowed the mad dogs along with the Englishmen (and women) in attendance to go out in the mid-day sun (courtesy of Noel Coward and possibly Rudyard Kipling too). This writer was so concerned not to not follow the guidance on avoiding the overhead roasting, that he was half-way to the hotel before remembering that the accommodation booking for the week was at the “other” hotel, resulting in a doubling of the solar exposure at the most critical time of day. So much for guidance following. Needless to say, (and after a frustrating return to Reception because the room key card had stopped working) the shirt was more wet than dry when removed; but the reader probably didn’t need to know that.