Putting on trial those responsible for contaminated blood deaths.

Following former Health Minister Andy Burnham's call for those responsible for the UK's contaminated blood scandal 3,000 deaths to be prosecuted The Times published this short letter from me.

"In 1999 the former socialist Prime Minister of France, Laurent Fabius and two of his colleagues, the Health and Social Affairs ministers went on trial over the French state’s cover-ups and dissimulation following the death of 3,00 people from contaminated blood imported from America. The Health Minister was found guilty. The number of British deaths is six times higher but the culture of cover-up and refusal to accept ministerial responsibility which is how the modern British state operates means no-one has been held to account. Andy Burnham is surely right to call for investigations into possible prosecutions."

The Health Minister received the French equivalent of a suspended sentence. But In 1999 the former socialist Prime Minister of France, Laurent Fabius and two of his colleagues, the Health and Social Affairs ministers went on trial over the French state’s cover-ups and dissimulation following the death of 3,00 people from contaminated blood imported from America. The Health Minister was found guilty. The number of British deaths is six times higher but the culture of cover-up and refusal to accept ministerial responsibility which is how the modern British state operates means no-one has been held to account. Andy Burnham is surely right to call for investigations into possible prosecutions. Dr Michel Garretta, the director of France's National Blood Center (Central national de transfusion sanguine), however, was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 500,000 French francs.

As Voltaire said this serves "pour encourager les autres." In Britain no minister faces justice nor any senior official. Meanwhile minimum wage care home workers who make a mistake face prosecution.