On Fri, 15 Aug 2003 12:29:26 +0100, Jane Ransom
wrote:

If Margaret Thatcher killed our mining industry, then you can say Tony
Blair is well on the way to killing our farming industry.
See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1972204.stm

"Farmers ruined

Thousands of farmers lost their livelihoods, never to be able to face
the battle of re-stocking their fields and re-starting their jobs from
scratch.

That was why Waugh's trial was so significant.

The farming world believes the government made mistake after mistake
in its fight against the outbreak.

But foot-and-mouth revealed a picture of the animal industry across
the country that few had properly comprehended - like the huge volume
of animal traffic around the country to markets or half-way farms and
then processors, a fast-moving shuttle of sheep in particular that
whipped the virus nationwide.

Several different governmental and regional inquiries are now
investigating the sorry saga and trying to plot future strategies for
recovery and regeneration."

It seems that the UK cattle market system was to blame. The Dutch
system was similar.

I don't recall Tony Blair setting the UK system up.

As a result of the comparatively minor Dutch outbreak of F&M cattle
markets were closed never to reopen. Trading is done via internet
AFAIK.
--
Martin