In article , martin
writes

Many farmers received substantial compensation for foot and mouth

Farmers did *not* receive 'compensation'.
They were paid the market price for the animals that were forcibly taken
from them and destroyed. They were unable, using this money, to restock
to the same levels when they were finally told they could buy more
stock.

and
for not farming livestock in future.
This explains the large number of shiny new tractors etc. and new 4x4
vehicles a year after NE Yorkshire farming was supposed to be
devastated by the results of F&M.

The farmers round here do not have any new vehicles at all. In fact they
are still struggling, working harder than ever for lower rewards.

If Margaret Thatcher killed our mining industry, then you can say Tony
Blair is well on the way to killing our farming industry. Farmers are
getting pig sick of all the inaccurate, adverse publicity that is being
flung their way. We live on an island: God help us if we ever have a
crisis which means we can't import food and we have no farmers left to
produce it.
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com