THE government can be fairly prompt and decisive on issues that fall within the remit of a single ministerial department. But when a whole host of powerful departments are involved such as the Home Office, the Foreign Office, the department of Health and the Ministry of Defence, are all involved, the response tends to be much slower.
So it was with the government’s response to the International Red Cross’ call last year to clamp down on work that could lead to the development of bioweapons. That was the first time since 1918 that the IRC had taken such an initiative in response to the threat of…
