Show 1 - Organophosphates

Story starts in Norfolk. Andy Lincoln was delivering treated seeds and breathed in some of the chemicals (Dichlofenthion) they were treated with and also had it on his hands.

Treated with pesticides

Developed by the Germans in WWII as a nerve agent now used as pesticides

"Dichlofenthion not on UK approved list, spoke to Pesticides Safety Directorate, position is that seed is a product ready to use and so long as Maximum Residue Level respected there is no problem importing" - Health & Safety Executive 'Investigations Overview' 31 May 2001"

Lord Larry Whitty, who is a bit cheeky asked the question on 6the Feb 2002

We emailed the French Agricultural Ministry, on 20 Febb 2002 they said

Need to talk to Lord Whitty but chances were very thin

Manage to arrange an interview with him in few days time.

MRL (Maximum Residue Level) is the top level of pesticide in food products. If it exceeds the MRL then the products cannot be sold in shops.

Found out about a conference in Norfolk where the pesticide safety directorate who monitor the use of pesticides.

HSE were there as were the company that imported the seeds (Syngenta)

Mark stood up and asked to talk to anyone from those organisations. The room emptied very quickly with people removing and hiding their name badges on the way out. No-one came forward

Put up a Yellow "Witness appeal" board.

Want to ask them how often they use Aatifon and other related questions but their corporate response was "get orf my land".

They won't say as it's "commercially confidential".

Chances of meeting the Chief Exec of Tescos were slim until Mark spotted that he was speaking at a "Retail Week" conference and managed to ask him some questions.

Larry Whitty didn't know how many pesticides were licensed for use here.

Check with the French about Aaatifon again:

Off to talk to Syngenta to ask them which pesticides that aren't licensed here they bring in and use.

He writes back about a week later but without any answers, says Mark should write to the crop protection association

Went to see Lord Whitty again and confronted him but he's not interested

"Can you confirm that no pesticides are ever used as seed dressings on seed, either in the UK or imported, which are used by Sainsburys' suppliers to grow produce subsequently labelled organic?"

"In certain circumstances where organic seeds are not available, farmers may receive a derogation to permit them to use non-organic seed under UKROFS regulations and EU legislation."

Credits

Associate Producers: JACK CHESHIRE, SUSAN FOULIS

Production Assistant: ALICE OSBORNE

Scenic Supervisor: GABRIEL MOSSA

Vision Mixer: NAOMI NEUFELD

Sound Supervisor: KEITH NIXON

Location Cameras: SIMON NIBLETT, MIKE PARKER, JAMES SALIGARI

Dubbing Mixer: TOM PAGET

Offline Editor: STEVE TEMPIA

Producer: GEOFF ATKINSON

© Channel Four Television Corporation MMII

Subsidising the richest companies

Dumping useless drugs and pharmaceutical in 3rd world countries

Phoned some doctors in Malawi and asked if they had ever had any inappropriate donations.

Pharmaceutical companies with stock coming up to it's sell-by date or passed their use-by date but not reached their expiry date or you just have excess stock can donate it to a charity who will dump it in a 3rd world country fro you rather than disposing of it in a regulated and controlled way.

We are about to get similar laws

Eritrea in 1989 - 86 truckloads of expired Aspirin

Kosovo - Depilatory cream and haemorroid cream

In Bosnia anti-leprosy pills were labelled Paracetemol

He says at least 300-400 tons of non-usable drugs in Mostar

They had to bury the drugs in landfill costing about £100,000

WHO brought in guidelines after Bosnia. No expired stuff, has to be in the right language, has to be generic, has to be wanted, has to be on the countries essential drugs register

Piles of unusable drugs bottles of Nitrous oxide whose expiry date was nearly 10 years ago

"Squaring the Circle", Royal Institute of International Affairs, London 15 Mar 2002

Set up a stall outside and handed out t-shirts with slogans like "just say no to drug dumping" and other inappropriate donations/gifts to the delegates.

We found one

American Home Products donated short dated pain-killers to a hospital in Tirana via an American charity called "Americares"

So Mark decided to donate to them. Took a Lorry full of foreign coins (£3000 worth) and dumped them outside

Americares say they haven't broken WHO guidelines as they got agreement from the Albanian government

If you sell a drug and its below the price you would normally charge you can get a tax deduction

They sell 2 anti-retroviral AIDS drugs in sub-Saharan Africa at $1 per treatment per patient per day, they say that is below the cost price

Gave the drugs away but charged an "administration fee" of $2 per patient per treatment per day

He doesn't admit that $2 is below the cost price he says it is an 85% reduction in the commercial cost (normally $13-15). Generic version of the drug costs 64 cents to produce.

Their response was to call the police.

Report

Managed to hand in an inappropriate gift at the same time (a box of poo)

Credits

Associate Producers: JACK CHESHIRE, SUSAN FOULIS

Production Team: ANNA MACCORMICK, MARK OLDEN

Production Manager: CATHERINE STRAUSS

Scenic Supervisor: GABRIEL MOSSA

Vision Mixer: LEIGH PANTON

OB Camera Supervisor: ROB SARGENT

Lighting Director: ROBIN THORBURN

Location Sound: DAN HARRIS, PAUL SMITH

Online Editor: NICK KING

Director: MICHAEL CUMMING

Made by VERA for Channel Four

Show 3 - Corporate Killing

All of the preventable accidents, such as Bradford football club, The Marchioness, Southall, Paddington, Piper Alpha.

This is because the law is completely inadequate

Over 300 people are killed at work each year and no proper law to deal with it

Labour government said they'd introduce a law called "Corporate Killing"

"A bill will be drafted to provide for safer travel on the railways, in the air, at sea and on the roads, and will take forward proposals for revitalising health and safety at work." (The Queen, 6 December 2000)

3 important bits to this

2. If companies were found at fault they would be fined a percentage of their profits and their directors would be fined a percentage of their bonuses

Labour party said they would introduce this "when parliamentary time allows"

Why have labour delayed on this? Maybe their corporate friends aren't too impressed by the idea.

"If you tell me there has to be someone on the board who is ultimately responsible as a fall guy, we can put someone in place in order that they can be easily fired and replaced"

Mark went up to Cricklewood Broadway, where if you line up at 6am there are vans looking for casual labour

As a company shareholder you can go along to their AGM but you can also phone up and ask for the Chief and Executive and Director's contracts.

Went to George Wimpey and they let them in. But the real reason for going was to insert a "corporate killing clause", asking for the directors to sign up to it, including the phrase:

No-one has signed it yet

Crown immunity

An army landrover hit the barrier, caught the strimmer, dragged him 29 metres and killed him

The guy driving the landrover had just completed exercises in Arizona, had flown over from there, has a 4 hour coach journey and had been asked to drive from Lincoln to Portsmouth by the army

Because the MOD cannot be charged by the CPS because they have Crown immunity

Put up some "Tiredness can kill" signs on the road to the base

Get to go in to speak to the "media controlling ops"

James' dad could bring a civil prosecution, but that would cost thousands and put a huge strain on him. They say they can't answer any questions because Stephen could bring a civil prosecution.

Simon was killed in 1998 at Shoreham Docks by Euromin

Went To Alan Whitehead's Office in Southampton with an urn containing the ashes of the Labour party's corporate killing election pledge and a wreath

When they discussed corporate killing in the House of Commons there were 4 MPs present. One was the speaker who had to be there, one was Alan Whitehead who also had to be there. So that makes 2 MPs that cared about the issue!

Channel 4 said no.

Simon Jones' Memorial campaign have done a lot to promote their cause

Occupied Euromin's dock forcing them to shut it down for the day

George Wimpey's directors have not signed our Corporate Killing Clause. They have signed their own comprehensive Health, SAfety and Environmental Policy Statement

Credits

GEOFF ATKINSON, TOBY BAKER, BLAZKHO, THE CENTRE FOR CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY, COLIN CHALMERS, JACK CHESHIRE, CONSCIOUS CINEMA, MICHAEL CUMMING, SUSAN FOULIS, SALLY FREEMAN, ALAN HADDOW, ANNE & CHRIS JONES, THE SIMON JONES MEMORIAL CAMPAIGN, NICK KING, STEVE LIDGERWOOD, NAOMI NEUFELD, KEITH NIXON, ANNA MACCORMICK, JOHN MCMANUS, GABRIEL MOSSA, MARK OLDEN, ALICE OSBORNE, ELI PERL, STEVE ROBSON, PAUL SMITH, STEVE SMITH, CATHERINE STRAUSS, ROBIN THORBURN, MARK THOMAS, STEVE TEMPIA, STEVE WAGG

© Channel Four Television Corporation MMII

Ilisu Dam

After the show a woman called up asking for Mark to speak about Ilisu at a public meeting in the House of Lords

Mark asks the first lord he speaks to (Eric) why he isn't finding out more about human rights abuses in Turkey. Asks why he isn't going out there

Mark says it needs a concerted campaign. He agrees and suggests that Mark is the right person to organise it.

Buy shares in Balfour Beatty and go to their AGM

Lord Avebury (Eric) came along too.

Yusefeli Dam

"We are seeking ECGD Buyer Credit support for up to £68 milllion." - Letter from AMEC plc to Trade & Industry Select Committee, 3 November 2000.

When you build a dam you have to discuss the impact with the locals that may be affected

Turkey have a terrible human rights record

World Commission on Dams brought out a report saying that no-one could prove they were environmentally friendly

Nick Welsh, Head of Corporate Affairs agrees to meet him

"following a commercial review of the project's progress to date...AMEC has concluded that it's resources would be better deployed in other areas..." - AMEC press Release, 13 March 2002

"AMEC has an option to buy the outstanding 54% interest in SPIE S.A., exercisable from 1 July 2002... Plans for progressing the anticipated exercise are progressing well." - Peter Mason, Chief Executive, AMEC, 7 March 2002.

Spoke to Nick Welsh on the phone who asked for specific questions to respond to. He brings out some tea and coffee for everyone.

SPIE Batignol

Phoned them up and offered to build some art in the head office complex.

Drive over with 7.4 tons of ice in a refrigerated articulated lorry to SPIE-Batignolles' office at Cergy-Pontoise, France on 12 April 2002.

The word Yusefeli is carved into the top of each brick and asks Mme Bourrier, their communications director, to unveil it. She doesn't like it.

Leaving behind a 40 foot long 7.4 ton wall of Ice representing a dam they are going to build.

Credits

Associate Producers: JACK CHESHIRE, SUSAN FOULIS

Production Team: KIRSTY HINTON, ANNA MACCORMICK, MARK OLDEN

Production Manager: CATHERINE STRAUSS

Scenic Supervisor: GABRIEL MOSSA

Vision Mixer: LEIGH PANTON

OB Camera Supervisor: PRAV SHETTY

Lighting Director: ROBIN THORBURN

Location Sound: PAUL SMITH

Online Editor: NICK KING

Director: MICHAEL CUMMING

Made by VERA for Channel Four

Show 5 - Quango State

Mark stays away from politicians in the main as he doesn't like them.

Asked him to look at Quangos

Doesn't seem to be much in the dustbin.

They even get to dictate some laws and in some cases have more powers than the MPs

Some are in charge of massive amounts of money and have huge powers

Had a look at how accountable these bodies are

selflessness

objectivity

openness

leadership

"Public bodies should make registers of interests open to the public. Board members should be required to update them as changes occur." (Guidance on Codes of Practice for Board Members of Public Bodies 1997 - Cabinet Office.

So we look through 50 boards, nearly 1,000 people and go to Companies House and get their directorships and check the registers.

Phoned up the Competition Committee and asked to see their Register of Members Interests. They haven't got one! Say they don't need one. Say they deal with it on an ad-hoc basis but are compiling a register

Tried to track him down, got hold of him in France. Says he has corrected it now. Asked him about his Companies House entry which is really confusing and his response is "What's Companies House?"

Phone them again and point this out so they say they will send over the register. They actually send over the forms that they ask the members to fill in which looks like they haven't actually compiled a register from them yet

Professor Fitzpatrick doesn't mention that he is a director of the BUPA foundation

Sir Anthony Cleaver (the chairman) hadn't included the fact that he was a director of Lockheed Martin and Bermuda Asset Management in the register

At the Public Administration Select Committee hearing Mark is introduced to the committee as a "comedian activist" and an "uncoverer of things that people don't want uncovered" by Tony Wright MP

Tony Wright asks Mark if his show is a current affairs programme as if he says "yes" then the film of the show can be used for broadcast

One of them says Mr Thomas, thank you for turning up, I hope you haven't brought an ice sculpture with you."

Tony Wright reads out Mark's opinion of MPs from a New Statesman article which mark has to respond to.

Sir Sydney Chapman MP (Tory) says he is very grateful and doesn't disagree with any of Mark's 11 recommendations and suggests an amendment. Mark had suggested that all committee members interests be registered within one month of anyone taking up a position. Sir Sydney suggests they should register their interests *before* taking up their position.

Bernie Clifton, Howard Marks and Jo Guest turn up to help call people.

DTI have now launched a declaration of interest procedures probe following the evidence given to the select committee.

Written and performed by: MARK THOMAS

Associate Producers: SUSAN FOULIS

Production Team: ANNA MACCORMICK, MARK OLDEN

Production Manager: CATHERINE STRAUSS

Scenic Supervisor: GABRIEL MOSSA

Vision Mixer: NAOMI NEUFELD

OB Camera Supervisor: ROB SARGENT

Lighting Director: ROBIN THORBURN

Location Sound: DAN HARRISON

Online Editor: NICK KING

Director: MICHAEL CUMMING

Made by VERA for Channel Four

Show 6 - Arms Dealing

Mark brings on a Heckler and Koch MP5 sub machine gun

Heckler and Koch is a German company owned by Royal Ordinance who are owned by BAE Systems

7 years later they bring through and arms control bill but it doesn't mention end-use monitoring of arms and it doesn't mention licensed export controls

Mark set up a font company and started to write to people

They say they will quote but they never did

The Turkish company agree at $850 a gun.

And one from the Iranian defence company at $300 a gun

Go over to the embassy who assure them on quality and say they should talk to the export manager directly and they set up the phone call.

Phone up the Pakistan Ordinance Factory who say theirs is the best quality. They say there will be no problem exporting to Zimbabwe.

They ask to make sure the guns are not going to rebels. Mark reassures them they are going to the military, to Robert Mugabe. They say OK, you have to be careful who you sell to.

They also ask that not too much mark-up is put on the guns.

Mark phones the Pakistani Ordnance Factory from the back of a flat bed lorry on 29th April 2002 outside the Pakistan embassy in London.

They hung up.

Phone up Olli Salo of FinnRappel Oy about sending guns to Algeria. He says "not a problem".

"All the paper we need is an import permit from the country of the destination that's the only paper we want..."

They say they are not exporting, just shipping on.

"He's our agent for many parts of the world with stuff like this and the fact is that the regulation we have there it's very liberal and it's working very smooth.}

"It has to come from outside the European Union. If it comes from Germany we'd need a license but when it comes outside it doesn't. That's the trick."

The Swiss end doesn't know anything about this deal.

Swiss say under current law they are not allowed to export any arms to Zimbabwe.

Mark phones Olli on 29th April 2002

Phoned up Olli again from a flat bed outside the DTI and admitted he was a reporter. He denies everything he says "It's a joke".

Mark takes a stretch limo to BAE systems in Bristol and asks to speak to somebody about the guns he's been buying. Says he has Mr Mugabe in the car and "he's a bit anxious".

Credits

LINCOLN ABRAHAM, AMIS DE LA TERRE, PETE ANDREW, PAUL ANDREWS, IAIN ARMSTRONG, GEOFF ATKINSON, TOBY BAKER, JASON BARTON, CLIVE BATTEN, DAVID BERGMAN, SANDI BIRCH, DR. TONY BRIAN, JOHN CAMPBELL, JULIAN CHATTERJEE, JACK CHESHIRE, ANDY CLIFFORD, BERNIE CLIFTON, MARK CRUICKSHANK, PROF. CLAUDI CUCHILLO, ALISTAIR CUMMING, MICHAEL CUMMING, JOHN DANN, CRESSIDA DAWSON, NICK DEARDEN, PERYS EDWARDS, OLIVER FRANCE, SALLY FREEMAN, SUSAN FOULIS, ROBIN GRAY, DAVE GRIFFITHS, JO GUEST, ALAN HADDOW, DARRYL HARRINGTON, DAN HARRISON, PETER HARVEY, PAUL HIGGINS, NICK HILDYARD, KIRSTY HINTON, ANN & CHRIS JONES, JULES JONES SIMON MEMORIAL CAMPAIGN, NICK KING, SHELLEY KINGSTON, KURDISH FRIENDS, STEVE LIDGERWOOD LEE, CASPER LEVER, MARK LEVICK, ANDY LINCOLN, ANNA MACCORMICK, SCOTT MACKENZIE, CHRISTOPHER MARTIN, POLLY MARKANDYA, HOWARD MARKS, NEIL MCLINTOCK, JOHN MCMANUS, MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES, JEANINE MELLONBY, NICK MICOURIS, CHRIS MITAS, MALCOLM MITCHELL, ELAINE MORRIS, GABRIEL MOSSA, KEVIN MULLEN, NAOMI NEUFELD, ANDY NEWLYN, SIMON NIBLETT, KEITH NIXON, TIM NORMINGTON, PAUL NYE, PK & SARAH, MARK OLDEN, ALICE OSBORNE, TOM PAGET, LEIGH PANTON, MIKE PARKER, GARY PARNHAM, JULIEN PASQUA, SIMON PERROT, ELI PERL. PETE, PHARMACIENS SANS FRONTIERES, DEREK REDINGTON, PETER RICHARDSON, PETE RILEY, STEVE ROBSON, JAMES SALIGARI, ESTELLA SCHMIDT, PRAV SHETTY, PAUL SMITH, STEVE SMITH, TERRY SMITH, CHRISH SQUELCH, SQUELCHY, ANDREW STANNING, CATHERINE STRAUSS, NICK SWIFT, PHIL TAYLOR, SEAN TAYLOR, STEVE TEMPIA, ROBIN THORBURN, MARK THOMAS, DR. UNNIKRISHNAN PV, STEVE WAG, WAR ON WANT, PETE WEBBER, NEIL WHITEMAN, KERIM YILDIZ, and everyone else who helped on the series.

© Channel Four Television Corporation MMII