Inside Out West - 18/10/2010

Alastair McKee investigates secret footage of a bizarre cold war experiment conducted by government scientists from Porton Down in Wiltshire. As fears about the threat posed by the Soviet Union grew, Britain was testing its own biological weapons on monkeys and guinea pigs. Operation Cauldron took place in 1952 on a barge moored off the Isle of Lewis. It involved the animals being exposed to clouds of biological agents including the pneumonic and bubonic plague. The footage has been kept secret for nearly sixty years but was obtained by a campaigner in Dorset after a dogged letter writing campaign using the Freedom of Information Act. Also in the programme, the controversial American organisation offering to pay drug addicts to be sterilised. 'Project Prevention' is coming to the UK and Bristol is one of the cities being targetted. The organisation believes its strategy will help to reduce the number of babies being born hooked on drugs but the idea has not gone down well with many of the support groups working with drug addicts in the Bristol area. And the sensible Somerset shoes that are going down a storm in the unlikeliest of places. Clarks shoes have become the 'must-have' footwear in Jamaica, even inspiring a hit song for the edgy dancehall artist Vybz Kartel.