A bombshell TV programme has exposed the story of British families living in fear of a creeping menace, a genetic curse whose origins lurk in the deadly radiation experiments their fathers and grandfathers experienced more than 70 years ago...
EVENTS that occurred more than haf a century ago haunt the lives of hundreds of British families, and some were featured in a new Channel 4 documentary 'Britain's Atomic Bomb Scandal in September
The powerful production brought into sharp focus the callous treatment of the atomic bomb test servicemen by successive UK governments who refuse to accept they were harmed by fallout
But it also introduced, for the first time for many viewers, the even greater scandal of the offspring of those veterans who have suffered a catalogue of illnesses that can only be described as a genetic curse
All scientists agree that radiation causes genetic mutations in the offspring of exposed animals. Experiments on mice and fruit flies going back to the 1920s show it damages the DNA resulting in cancers, deformities and a host of other illnesses in the offspring of those irradiated
But here is an amazing thing: humans seem to be immune to this seemingly immutable law!
US and Japanese doctors after prolonged studies of the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings have found NO evidence of genomic instablity How can this be? What is so special about humans? The answer, of course is that we are no different and
therefore the doctors carrying out these studies must be either incompetrent or lying
Eminent physicians and scientists like the late Rosalie Bertell, Alice Stewart and Joseph Rotblat believed there was a massive coverup by the US-funded Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) who carried out the original studies into the Hiroshima A-bomb victims.
Nevertheless the studies have been weaponised by the UK establishment and other governments to brush aside compelling evidence that the children of atomic veterans and nuclear power workers are suffering from genetic disorders.
It has become the scandal that dare not speak its name and one they are too terrified to discuss.
But they must not be allowed to duck the issue any more. Fissionline has a trove of powerful evidence that points to a very real problem in the DNA of families whose fathers witnessed nuclear bomb tests This has been examined by statisticians who say it amounts to overwhelming evidence of genetic disorders among the offspring of nuclear veterans
But that alone will not persuade our masters to act We need more descendents to come forward with their stories. And most of all we need the public on our side to build up the momentum
This is arguably the most important campaign of all Governments must be forced to recognise the suffering of nuclear veterans and their offspring and end the cover-up that has existed ever since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan 80 years ago next year It is no exaggeration to say the very future of mankind may depend upon it
ALAN RIMMER EDITOR
Elin Doyle and Stuart Ross are two unique human beings who grew up in the shadow the Bomb Elin's father, Mike Doyle, who worked for the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, was one of about 100 scientists and technicians sent to Christmas Island to facilitate the British H-bomb tests
Stuart's father, Archie, was an RAF squaddie who serviced the aircraft that dropped the bombs and who, like thousands of others, was forced to witness the huge explosions wearing nothing but shirts and shorts..
Both men were deeply patriotic and proud to serve their country. But their perspective changed later when both they and their familes were beset by health problems And when the British Government not only ignored their plight, but slammed the door in their faces, they became angry. They joined with Ken McGinley and a
handful of others to form the British Nuclear Tests Veterans' Association, a powerful pressure group that soon grew to a formidable force of more than 3,000 members that shook the foundations of the British Establishment.
Elin and Stuart, just youngsters at the time, watched as their fathers faced an increasingly hostile and intractable UK government which refuses to this day to acknowledge that neither servicemen nor their offspring were harmed by the bomb. Both their fathers helped enormously to raise the profile of Britain's nuclear teast veterans resulting in the award of war pensions for many struggling nuclear veterans and widows. They would both be proud that their children have now decided to follow in their footsteps We at fissionline are delghted that Stuart and Elin have joined the campaign for truth and justice that their fathers pioneered. Welcome to both!
By Alan Rimmer
When I first stumbled across the scandal of the "Atom Bomb Kids" back in 1984 I believed it was so compelling that no government could ignore it
How wrong was I! For not only was it brushed aside, but those in power tried to strangle it at birth. First the government-funded watchdog, the National Radiological Protection Board, weighed in with a welter of false and contradictory statistics
minister called Adam Butler who accused me personally of
'mischievous reporting' for spreading 'unnecessary alarm' among the families of the nuclear veterans. Then the prestigious New Scientist magazine pointed out the numbers of affected children involved had to be put in the context that two per cent of births had "anomolie Thankfully my then boss, leg y Fleet Street editor Richard Stott was unimpressed. He called me into his office and said his powerful political contacts had told him the Government was rattled and that I had them "bang to rights,", adding: "Go where you need to go, do what you need to do, but just don't let them off the hook "
deformed Over the years I have encountered children suffering from leukaemias, bone diseases, spina bifida, hydrocephalis, Down's syndrome, skin diseases, deafness, blindness and a grim panoply of s that seem to have no dreadful catalogue of suffering that cried out for government action
But to this day the Establishment persists in its perverse state of denial that only gets more
Well that was forty years ago and I'm still at it. I have interviewed reds of veterans and families Like the parents of little John McLeod, who was featured in the programme, who was born dreadfully
egregious as time goes on. When I was approached by he TV company or help in producing the documentary I was only too happy to help in urthering the cause of the veterans and their children And given the success of the ITV drama 'Mr Bates v The Post Office,' I thought that
g duly went ahead and the resulting Channel 4 programme BRITAIN'S
ATOMIC BOMB SCANDAL was an outstanding success Only time will tell if it leads to positive action by the government. But the stories of the people involved, some of whom are pictured here, have certainly had an impact
In fact my phone has scarcely stopped ringing since!
It was especially gratifying to hear from so many vete hildren who praised hard-hitting and mov The overwhelmingly has given me new im the crusade on behalf nuclear veterans and something I admit wa following the sad dea
Mc
without whom the nuclear veterans would have been consigned to the dustbin of history decades ago.
And for those who have expressed an
interest in joining the campaign, I say A BIG WELCOME! There is much work still to be done in exposing this scandal Fissionline with its unprecedented archive of material appertaining to the nuclear bomb tests can steer you in the right direction. Contact us on fissionline@gmail com with your thoughts and comments
*Meanwhile tune into Channel 4 on the catchup channel to view Britain's Atomic Bomb Scandal.
KEN MCGINLEY the “wee man” from Johnstone who took on a mighty cause and shook the foundations of the Government and the Establishment, has died aged 85 From a humble Sapper in the Royal Engineers, he became a five-star general to an army of servicemen who had been blasted into a whisker of extinction by their participation in nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s
Against a backdrop of government hostility and indifference he marched his men into the portals of British power and demanded justice for those who had suffered so much from the ravages of radioactive fallout
For more than 40 years he fought
this battle, on the way taking on the mantle of champion for the countless children who had also been grievously harmed by their father’s involvement in the tests He talked and cajoled and shouted at anyone who would listen including not only politicians and power-brokers in this country, but also senators in America, generals in Russia and a host of other foreign dignitaries. Eminent scientists like Nobel prize winners Joseph Rotblat, and Carl Sagan met with him for discussions, and renowned geneticists like Sir Richard Doll, Dr Alice Stewart from Birmingham University, and internationally famous environmentalist Dr Rosalie Bertell, sought his counsel Ken was quick-witted and was possessed of a phenomenal memory. He could speak to crowds of thousands with such verve and excitement that he invariably got a standing ovation
brought the entire auditorium to its feet
Everywhere he went it was the same whether it was in Japan, America, Russia or ious venues home owds adored m and hung to his every rd n McGinley s born into a ge family in nstone and nt to St Margaret’s Roman Catholic school He admits to being a 'bit of a scallywag' in his younger days, but he soon sorted himself out and aged 18 decided to join the Army n was patched to on in rth rkshire nabrook in rmany ere one eful day he s told he was being sent on special duties to a place called Christmas Island
I remember standing beside him in Hiroshima back in 1985 when he
In a few short weeks Ken along with a thousand others from his regiment, found himself on a palm-fringed atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 10,000 miles from home. There he was given a ringside seat to Armageddon, a glimpse behind the curtains of hell, forced to
er Ken McGinley sang as a child rang out at his
baptised, it wasn't hard to imagine his ghostly in silent tribute as their general was laid to rest.
witness five huge nuclear explosions
It was a sight he would never forget and when he returned home to Johnstone he was a sick man.
Ulcers and skin lesions plagued him and to cap it all he was told he could never have a family.
That didn’t deter Ken of course and he and his childhood sweetheart Alice decided to adopt their beloved daughter, Louise. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last year
and the story was soon picked up by all the London newspapers Radio and TV soon followed and the story went international
It was in early 1983 when Ken first learned of the sad fate of many of his old comrades in arms after bumping into the mother of one of them She told him her son ha died of cancer in his thirties and that he wasn’t the only one.
Intrigued
Ken’s long struggle inst the vernment for se men and their dren has become endary He was a less campaigner justice, a ggle he was still olved with right o the end. achievements were many He was instrumental in overturning a the Crown Proceedings Act, a pernicious law that forbad servicemen suing for injuries.
Ken wrote to the Daily Record to see if he could find out the fate of the rest of the lads: the response was overwhelming. Letters poured in
He won war pensions for hundreds of veterans and their widows impoverished by rly disease and ath broad he forced e UK vernment to pay illions to the digninous original people r damage done their ancestral nds by nuclear testing.
And he also forced them to pay for the disgraceful mess they had left behind before abandoning the once pristine Christmas Island
I first met Ken in 1984 when he met
me off the ferry at Dunoon, on the banks of the Clyde where he and Alice ran a little guest house.
I was immediately struck by his honesty and open nature
It was the start of long and enduring friendship and we talked nearly every day
And it wasn’t all about bombs. We discussed politics, Ken’s great love of football and his fanatical dedication to Celtic FC. The only time I ever saw him angry was when Celtic lost, which thank God wasn’t that often.
Ken was a modest man with simple tastes He never sought payment or honours for the work he carried out on behalf of the veterans.
He would brook no compromise in his demand that the Government said sorry to the veterans and compensated them for the appalling way they had been treated 'Say sorry and pay up' was his simple mantra
Ken McGinley, my friend, was laid to rest after a requiem mass at St Margaret's Church, Johnstone The congregation sang the hymns he had sang in the same church as a schoolboy
As the pall-bearers carried him away to his final resting place, it wasn't hard to imagine the ghosts of all his old comrades who had stood shoulder to shoulder with him throughout a lifetime of struggle standing with their heads bowed in silent tribute to a hero.
ALAN RIMMER
I’m the youngest daughter of Mike Doyle who was a member of the BNTVA in the early to mid 80s along with Ken McGinley and other names that feature strongly from my childhood Dad and I were close and talked about things and, as I was just about old enough, I would experience first-hand a lot of the things about the original campaign
I can recite verbatim dad’s experience of witnessing Grapple X. I try to go away from the subject for few months and then the sense of injustice rises up again It seems to me the older I get the more the injustice burns and the anger stings within like many descendants, I just can’t let it lie partially out of love and respect for the people no longer here, like dad and Ken McGinley, and for our families it’s too late -but quite simply because it’s a wrong that needs righting and if my dad taught me nothing else, it’s that
I’m a new old voice; I’ve been a
teenage mum, a currency dealer and I’ve scrubbed Turkish style loos in the South of France Anything to keep my head above water, Much to my son’s horror, I began my BA Hons Acting at a top London drama school the same year he started Uni. I’m an actor first and foremost.
GUINEA PIGS is my first full-length play, though I have written all my life short stories, diaries, blogs, stand-up comedy, monologues, poetry. I am intensely interested in current affairs, politics and our shared humanity I like to think all around a subject from every aspect I write because I have something to say about being human, and also when castings for Bingo sites don’t quite scratch the creative itch (Don’t tell my agent I said that), I love commercial castings really So why not come and join me? Let me know how you feel. Sound off if you want. Anything goes here We've been silent long enough Time for the world to hear us loud and clear
A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander has warned that Iran could review its "nuclear doctrine" amid Israeli threats While it was unclear exactly what he meant, and that term tends to refer to countries that, unlike Iran, have nuclear weapons, below is an outline of where Iran stands
The 2015 deal introduced strict limits on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran It slashed Iran's stock of enriched uranium, leaving it only with a small amount enriched to up to 3.67% purity, far from the roughly 90% purity that is weapons grade
The United States said at the time that a main aim was to increase
produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb - the biggest single hurdle in a weapons programme - to at least a year.
In 2018 then-President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal, reimposing sanctions on Tehran that slashed its oil sales and battered its economy In 2019, Iran started breaching the restrictions on its nuclear activities and then pushed far beyond them.
It has now breached all the deal's key restrictions, including on where, with what machines and to what level it can enrich uranium, as well as how much material it can stockpile.
Its stock of enriched uranium, which was capped at 202 8 kg under the deal, stood at 5 5 tonnes in February, according to
the latest quarterly report he U N nuclear hdog that inspects s enrichment plants. is now enriching ium to up to 60% y and has enough erial enriched to that l, if enriched further, wo nuclear weapons, rding to the national Atomic gy Agency's retical definition. means Iran's sokout time" - the time it would need to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb - is close to zero, likely a matter of weeks or days.
The IAEA inspects Iran's declared enrichment sites: an above-ground plant and a larger, underground one at its Natanz complex and another buried inside a mountain at Fordow
As a result of Iran ceasing to implement elements of the deal, the IAEA can no longer fully monitor Iran's production and inventory of centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, and it can no longer conduct snap inspections That has prompted speculation about whether Iran could have set up a secret enrichment site, but there are no concrete indications of one
Left to rust and crumble under the pitiless tropical sun these concrete and steel bunkers are the last relics of Britain's nuclear bomb tests on Christmas Island in the Pacific in the mid-1950s. They were strategically placed several miles from huge H-Bomb explosions so that scientists could observe close up the terrifying forces unleashed. Protected by just a few inches of reinforced steel and concrete, scientists observed the awesome mushroom clouds through a simple pinhole camera as the structures creaked and groaned under the enormous pressures from blast and heat. Later they were required to leave their smoking refuge to retrieve instruments which would later be flown to England for examiniation.
Surprisingly there was no shortage of volunteers from Aldermaston, Britain's nuclear bombmaking factory, to carry out the hair-raising tasks. In fact some were so eager, lots had to be drawn to see who would go into the "Hot Boxes". These pictrures were taken during clean-up operations in 2010.
We spent many years making frequent trips to Great Ormond Street Hospital where Julie underwent a series of operations in attempt to make her life more comfortable. It is worth noting here that the Doctors & Surgeons at the GOSH had no idea what they were dealing with nor how to treat it as conditions such as Julie’s were entirely unknown at that time
veteran dad Archie Ross, along with the late 1950’s
These trips involved us staying in hotels or hostels near the hospital, one being the Salvation Army hostel accommodation in Central London. For the rest of the family, these hospital visits also involved sightseeing trips to various London locations while Julie remained in hospital. We remember visiting HMS he London Dolphinarium two These “family” trips uite right, for while we d about, we knew Julie hospital Dad carried the weight and guilt of Julie’s condition
ter of Archie Ross, one of the founders of the British died, aged 64. Brave Julie overcame severe physical campaign for justice for nuclear veterans and their STUART ROSS tells her remarkable story
for the remainder of his life, firmly believing his radiation exposure was responsible and he fought passionately from the early 1980’s until shortly before his passing, with the Government to press for acknowledgment, recognition and compensation for those veterans and descendants who were severely affected, Julie quite clearly being one of them Dad also appeared on television and conducted radio interviews, with Julie occasionally appearing at his side. This fight continues to this day
Meanwhile Julie got on with life
Volunteer
abest she could She developed a love of animals that began with Vicky our rough collie and continued with a passion for horses. Aged around 14, while still at school, she volunteered to clear the stables at what was then Sprowston Hall Hotel near our home in Norfolk where she cycled to every Saturday morning They kept horses and had a riding school where Julie learned to ride Various people stayed at the hotel including one William Lucas who played Dr James Gordon in the TV series “The Adventures of Black Beauty” that was being aired at that time, and she came home with a signed photograph of him
She also met Martin Peters, the ex World Cup winning England footballer who ended his playing career at Norwich and Julie used to babysit for his children who also took riding lessons.
This love for horses extended to her art and despite being left handed she used to hand draw amazing pictures; those who will have visited her over the years can’t have failed to notice the many horse figurines adorning her shelves
On leaving school Julie went to work at a dog kennels in Acle, Her energy and always friendly smiling face and disposition won her many friends Julie demonstrated an amazing courage and confidence throughout her life in spite of her condition, something we should all draw inspiration from She never let her disability get in the way of anything and during the summer often wore blouses and tops that displayed her arm rather than trying to hide it Outside of work Julie took up long distance running, taking part in a number of Norfolk half and full marathons, several Great North runs and two London Marathons, (in 1995 and 2001 producing very respectable times of 4.04 and 4.05 respectively).
In later life she moved first to Horsford and was a regular sight either out running or walking for
miles with her beloved collie Robbie before finally settling nine years ago in Horsham St Faith
Julie’s health took a turn for the worst around 18 months ago and during that time all attempts to find a diagnosis proved hugely and frustratingly fruitless. It was thought her decreasing mobility stemmed from the vascular issues associated with her arm However in July we received the MND diagnosis we had all feared This diagnosis shook us all and Julie was devastated.
MND is a brutal condition that takes away everything except one’s mental capacity and offers nothing in return, least of all hope, and for Julie not even her resolute and enduring stubbornness could resist this Her decline was rapid and within 6 weeks she very sadly left us
Of course we are all sad that Julie has gone but let’s also celebrate the fact that she has lived here with us, amongst us She brought such joy to each and everyone of us and we’re all blessed to have known her
This earth sadly was no longer a place for her, she’d simply outgrown it and moved on to somewhere she can be free from pain, restore her mobility and can spread her love, her joy and her warmth God bless and thank you Julie for everything
The head of Russia's nuclear testing site said on Tuesday his secretive facility was ready to resume nuclear tests "at any moment" if Moscow gave the order, in rare comments likely to fuel concerns that the risk of such a step is rising Moscow has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since 1990, the year before the fall of the Soviet Union, but some Western and Russian analysts say President Vladimir Putin could order one to try to send a message of deterrence to the West if it lets Ukraine use its long-range missiles to strike Russia, something that is under discussion
A nuclear test by Russia could
encourage others such as China or the United States to follow suit, starting a new nuclear arms race between the big powers, which stopped nuclear testing in the years after the Soviet collapse Russia's testing site, located on the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, was where the Soviet Union conducted more than 200 nuclear tests, including the detonation of the world's most powerful nuclear bomb ever in 1961 It is closely watched by Western spy satellites for activity amid signs of construction work last summer shown in open-source satellite images.
Rear Admiral Andrei Sinitsyn, the head of the facility, gave a rare interview to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the Russian government's official newspaper, which was published days after Putin warned the West it would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles and spoke of retaliation
"The test site is ready for resumption of full-scale testing activities It is ready in its entirety. Laboratory and testing facilities are ready The personnel are ready. If the order comes, we can start testing at any moment," said Sinitsyn.
He was pictured in his naval uniform alongside a cabinet holding a book about Putin and a giant white porcelain polar bear, and painted a picture of a facility kept in a high state of readiness that was protected by elite troops
"The most important thing for us is not to disrupt the implementation of state tasks. If the task of resuming tests is set, it will be accomplished within the time frame stipulated," he said
Putin, in charge of the world's largest nuclear power, signed a law last November withdrawing Russia's ratification of the global treaty
banning nuclear weapons tests, a move he said was designed to bring Russia into line with the United States, which signed but never ratified the treaty.
Russian diplomats said at the time that Moscow would not resume nuclear testing unless Washington does Putin said in June Russia could test a nuclear weapon "if necessary", but saw no need to do so at the present time.
The United States last tested in 1992. Only North Korea has conducted a test involving a nuclear explosion this century.
A senior member of a Russian thinktank whose ideas sometimes become
government policy suggested in May that Moscow consider a "demonstrative" nuclear explosion to cow the West
In an article for Profil, a business magazine, Dmitry Suslov said Russia needed to act to dissuade the West from crossing a red line
"The political and psychological effect of a nuclear mushroom cloud, which will be shown live on all TV channels around the world, will hopefully remind Western politicians of the one thing that has prevented wars between the great powers since 1945 and that they have now largely lost - fear of nuclear war," Suslov wrote.
I joined the RAF in 1956 as a 4-year regular airman and - after medical training - was posted to RAF Hospital Christmas Island in late August 1957 where I was to witness both Grapple ‘X’ and ‘Y’ hydrogen bomb tests.
By Derek Woolf
Throughout my time at the hospital I was based in the MI room where, with two colleagues, I dealt with the many and varied issues that arose
through either illness or injury. Infections due to coral poisoning, particularly to feet, were common as were the many ear infections resulting from showering in salt water.
Acute sunburn cases - in some patients severe 2nd degree burns/blistering - were also common, particularly among new arrivals attempting to achieve a tan
too quickly, many of them - but not exclusively - sappers from the Royal Engineers who received far more sun exposure than most by virtue of their duties.The many other minor and more serious conditions that arose through accident ensured that we had a pretty busy time.
Occasional patient escort duties to Tripler US Army Hospital in Honolulu provided the odd welcome respite from my work on the Island, as did infrequent spells manning the small airfield MI Room where minor injuries were treated on the spot. My experience of the two H-bomb detonations probably differed from those of others because of my location For Grapple ‘X’ I was sat on the floor of the hospital office with my back to the wall and hands over eyes while the Senior Medical Officer called out the countdown over the phone as he received it from Air Traffic Control On detonation I recall the tremendous heat surge and the room filling with light before we were ordered outside in time to experience the shockwave for which we were totally unprepared. We subsequently discovered that the door has been ripped away from the pre-fab X-ray department and one of the marquee wards partially demolished Fortunately the few inpatients had been moved out previously!
For Grapple ‘Y’ I reported to the airfield, this time clothed in a white cotton suit with hood and mask, where I sat with a medical officer at the rear of the group of a hundred or so men, also similarly garbed. At three megatons this detonation was almost twice the size of Grapple ‘X’ and was even more spectacular a sight and sound
Fortunately, other than one man who panicked and was bruised when rugby tackled by his friend, there were no casualties requiring treatment.
I remained at the hospital until the end of my tour in June 1958 After leaving Christmas Island I continued to serve at various station medical centres until, as a SNCO, I was commissioned in 1968 There followed various hospital appointments and, finally, a posting to PMRAF Hospital Akrotiri as OC Admin in 1974. This was following the Turkish invasion of Northern Cyprus and subsequent partition of the island - a very busy time I finally retired from the RAF in 1978 when, after two years in the NHS at Regional level, I became the director of an independent hospital where I remained until retirement in 1993 In a period of over six decades some memories fade but the Christmas Island tests will remain an unforgettable experience, heightened by the knowledge of their effects on many of those who witnessed them. Now age 85, I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones - such health issues that I have pale into insignificance when compared with the problems suffered by many of my fellow veterans and their descendants I wish them all every success in their continuing search for justice The saddest fact of all is that, with the award of the Nuclear Test Medal, those veterans who have passed will never know that their service has been recognised
Several years ago I started up a Facebook group for descendents of nuclear test veterans called Fallout This came about after speaking to Ken McGinley and Alan Rimmer who have been campaigning f the nuclear veterans since 1983 My own father Roy, who passed away in 2001 with bone cancer, w at the christmas isla tests Whilst talking with them both it became apparent to me that there were other descendants who were in the sam position as I was Thinking back to Ju 2001 when dad passed away and be child whose parents had divorced when I was little, I found I was very alone in what I was going through. I knew no other veterans' children and I was starting to suffer with a rare genetic condition, which would take two years or so to be diagnosed. During this time I struggled to come to terms not only with my father’s passing, but also with the pain I was
suffering with on a daily basis from my condition It was around this time I was put in contact with Ken and Alan They were
phone and it was they that put the idea in my head about connecting up with other children. Dercums Disease is a rare genetic condition which causes the body to produce painful fatty lymphomas These grow from the size of a pea and grow and grow, they eventually group together and become masses which have two be removed on a regular basis I also have a
condition which mainly effects the elderly, called disc degeneration disease Once I set up the fallout group I found there others going through ar issues; their fathers died and they and their ngs were suffering ar strange conditions all had something in mon, we were able to ort each other in what were going through main aim of the group be there as a support ach other, to be able to se others who are g through a tough time, ng information that help their families, ething that in the nning I’d not had. For ’s VERY important s support there for those who may feel alone and not know where to turn for help and advice. We are the Fallout of these tests, the result of something so awful that governments refuse to face the truth So its most important that we stand firmly united together and show the world that even though our governments have abandoned us, we won’t abandon each other!
It was 72 years this month on October 3rd 1952 that the first and the dirtiest-- of all 21 of Britain’s atmospheric nuclear tests was carried out Codenamed Hurricane it was exploded in the hull of HMS Plum, a Royal Navy frigate, moored at the Monte Bello Islands, 80 miles off the Northwest coast of Australia. It wasn’t a pretty sight. As it erupted observers described it as a more of a dirty, distorted cauliflower rather than the classic symmetrical mushroom shape seen in the American and Soviet tests.
Hailed as a triumph by Churchill, scientists privately were disappointed especially as it was plain for all to see that this was an extremely dirty bomb It
vapourised the frigate and lifted thousands of tons of mud and water into the air There they mixed with the fission products of the nuclear reaction to form a dense, deadly cloud of radioactive particles. The sheer weight of the particles brought much of it down on the surrounding islands turning the once pristine tropical lagoons into toxic sinks of death
A few minutes later the hellish mix was joined by a fierce rainstorm that lasted for nine minutes, boosting the fallout to levels no-one expected. Records show there were three major radiation scares: the first two involved servicemen and scientists sent ashore But the worst incident involved HMS
Tracker, part of the task force sent to the islands An official report stated: “At 1900 hours the radioactive background on Tracker rose by a factor of 500, putting out of operation all the personnel-monitoring equipment on board ”
Britain’s A-bomb chief Dr William Penney and Task Force Commander Rear Admiral Torless assured everyone that no harm was done to any serviceman But medical records obtained by fission line show a total of 205 servicemen later suffered illnesses including seven blood cancers, 23 solid cancers, 41 skin diseases and 73 reporting problems with their children
rue to form the abour Party is howing itself to e just another athetic bunch chancers who ill say anything Not only has it oners in the teeth by taking away their heating allowance, but they now appear to have frozen Britain's nuclear veterans out of any chance of compensation There is no mention of them in the manifesto, or indeed at any of the major speeches at the Labour conference in Liverpool It's no surprise really especially as Tony Blair Mark2 appears to be running the show and pulling Starmer's strings It was Blair, along with Kinnock and the rest of the Labour heirarchy who solemnly promised to sort the veterans out when they achieved power In the 1990s Labour MP Bob Clay remembers a young lobby
correspondent called Alistair Campbell assuring him that he had the ear of Blair and compensation was 'nailed on' under a Labour government. But as soon as Labour came to power those promises evaporated. In a letter to Ken McGinley a shame-faced Blair apologised for his duplicity citing how the "realities of Government" had changed his mind Much as the Left villify the Tories, it was they who gave the veterans war pensions which allowed at least some of the veterans to gain financial recourse. It also doled out some £6million for stairlifts and the like for incapacitated veterans And of course it was the muchmaligned Boris Johnson who agreed to a 'commemorative' medal for those who took part in the bomb tests In the immortal words of Monty Python: "What has Labour ever done for the nuclear veterans?"
Answer: NOTHING!