OUR sympathies through the MMR debate have rested with those parents who remain concerned that the vaccine might be linked to autism and inflammatory bowel disease.

The Government says that scientists haven't proved a link. The key word is "proved".

It leaves millions of parents whose conclusion is that the link exists, but is still waiting to be found. And they don't find that reassuring.

Tony Blair didn't help, a few weeks ago, by declining to say whether his infant son had been inoculated, defending baby Leo's right to privacy.

We understand the cynics who've witnessed the appearance of the Dad mug at Downing Street Press conferences, and the Blair children wheeled out for photocalls to reinforce the values of family life, and cried double-standards.

Whatever the PM's motives, the delay in providing even a coded answer to the question only served to heap uncertainty on other parents around the country who, as their children reach inoculation age, are faced with the "to jab or not to jab" dilemma. And, as today's figures demonstrate, those ranks are growing daily.

Amid it all, of course, is another tenet of democracy, if not the Nanny State - the right to choose.

Medical experts remain bothered by the potential consequence of an epidemic resulting from the falling MMR take-up. The county's director of public health, Prof Brian McCloskey, has been voicing fears for two years.

It seems obvious to us that the right for parents to opt for a single jab programme is in the best interests of us all.