The organisation has given Europe until May 13 to start importing hormone-treated beef and milk. Mr Blair will wriggle, Dr Cunningham will roar, but, short of provoking a trade war, they can do nothing whatever to protect British consumers. The European elections will be fought, four weeks later, in the midst of this crisis. The Greens could win even more votes than they did in 1989, and this time they will carry seats. Labour's backbench guerrillas will launch a frontal attack.
Genes can leap in the most extraordinary and alarming way.
There's no reason to say the same thing cannot happen in genetically modified plants. It only has to happen once. The dangers are really quite real. EuropaBio and other industry groups particularly object to the demands of some countries that the biosafety protocol should be given a scope wide enough to cover agricultural commodities, such as soya and oilseed rape. For several of these genetically modified varieties are beginning to appear on the market.