Letter: BSE scare

Sir: Since we can continue doing ourselves in with cigarettes, but not with T-bone steaks, can we please have a little less hypocrisy from Dr Jack Cunningham, whose decision to ban beef on the bone would appear to be driven more by political expediency than by intelligent risk assessment.

As for the bits of the animal remaining on sale, no amount of experimentation can ever prove them safe, but a single experiment might one day prove the contrary. If Dr Cunningham really wanted to avoid the slightest risk from beef, as he claims he does, he would ban the lot of it.

BRIAN SIMPSON

London N6