영국의 광우병 사태 당시 농업부장관으로 진실을 은폐했다는 오명을 역사에 남긴 존 검머 의원이 35년간의 의정생활을 마감했다는 소식입니다. 존검머는 농업부장관과 환경부장관을 역임했으며, 딸과 함께 BBC 방송에 출연하여 “광우병 걸린 쇠고기를 먹는다고 인간광우병에 걸리지 않는다”며 햄버거들 먹는 쇼를 연출했던 장본인으로 악명이 높습니다.

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John Gummer, the MP who fed his daughter a hamburger during the mad cow disease crisis, quits Parliament

By Daily Mail Reporter

출처 : [Daily Mail] Last updated at 9:09 AM on 31st December 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1239435/John-Gummer-man-fed-daughter-hamburger-BSE-crisis-quits-Commons.html?ITO=1490

Nineteen years after he was infamously photographed feeding his daughter a hamburger at the height of the mad cow disease scare, John Gummer is to quit the Commons.

The former environment secretary will leave Parliament at the general election to take on a wider international role in combating global warming, he announced today.

The MP for Suffolk Coastal said the failure of the recent UN climate change summit in Copenhagen to secure a legally binding deal had prompted him to look beyond Westminster.

Sound bite: former agriculture minister John Gummer and his four-year-old daughter Cordelia tuck into burgers in that infamous 1990 photograph

Gummer will be remembered by many for the incident in 1990 when he was photographed feeding his four-year-old daughter Cordelia a hamburger in an attempt to calm fears over the safety of beef during the mad cow disease outbreak.

It was later claimed that the photographs were staged and the hamburger had actually been bitten into by a civil servant.

Announcing his decision to quit as an MP, he said: ‘Since the very disappointing results of the Copenhagen negotiations, I have been forced to rethink my plans for the future.

‘In discussion with colleagues in the rest of Europe and the United States, as well as with international NGOs, I have realised that I cannot commit myself to the work that they believe has to be done and continue to serve my constituents as I would want.

‘The things that I am urged to take on will demand a good deal of absence from home, which is simply incompatible either with the inevitably heavy legislative programme of a new parliament or with attendance at the many constituency functions upon which I have always laid great stress.

‘During the 35 years that I have had the privilege of being a Member of Parliament, I have always put my constituency work first and I am not prepared to skimp on it now.

‘It is, therefore, with very great sadness that I have decided it is simply not possible to contest the next election and still promise the kind of service that my constituents have rightly grown to expect.

Mr Gummer is one of more than 120 MPs who have declared they will step down at the election – with dozens more expected to quit in what is set to be the largest such exodus in living history, fuelled in part by the expenses scandal.

Parting company: Conservative leader David Cameron with outgoing MP John Gummer

The former cabinet minister emerged relatively unscathed from the revelations, although he faced criticism for claiming £9,000 a year for gardening at his second home.

Explaining his decision not to fight the election, he said: ‘As agriculture minister and then as environment secretary, I had the opportunity to play some part internationally in awakening the world to the dangers (of climate change) and, since then, it has been a constant theme in my work as a backbencher.

‘I had hoped that I would continue on that course in the next Parliament, under the leadership of David Cameron whose commitment to combating climate change is so refreshingly direct and determined.’

He went on: ‘Climate change is not only a crisis without historic parallel – it is an urgent political threat.

‘We will never win this battle if we diminish people’s lives or preach at them. The threat must not be used as an excuse for unnecessary state direction and control.

‘Instead, it is all of us, as citizens, entrepreneurs, and consumers, who will make change happen.

‘Politicians and campaigners have to enable that change: they must unleash the power of the free market; they must harness the skills and innovation that drive it; and they must create the opportunities for competition to deliver new answers to this entirely new challenge.

‘Those of us who have any chance to influence the course of events, even in a small way, have simply to make that our first priority, however difficult the choice.’

He welcomed the recognition of local activists that ‘the international battle against climate change makes such serious personal demands that I cannot properly avoid them’.