Westminster diary

SOME 30 years ago, as a parliamentary private secretary, I attended a meeting that health secretary Dick Crossman held with the chief medical officer George Godber and experts on declining sperm count – then a new phenomenon. Allan Pacey, a hormone expert at the University of Sheffield, said recently that to find out whether there is a genuine decline in sperm counts and to pinpoint the causes, a large group of men needs to be monitored over many years (New Scientist, 10 January, p 6). Pollutants and other chemicals are likely to be relevant and must be taken into account.…