Slaughter of the innocents

The postponed cull of Parliament has not stopped the slaughter of the innocents in the countryside around Salisbury. Two weeks running 'The Journal' has dutifully recorded the animal welfare crisis, the human tragedy and the economic disaster that has befallen our community - even though we have been spared foot-and-mouth itself, so far.

Our elder daughter, in her last few weeks as a student at the Royal Veterinary College, has been drafted to Essex with a team of experts. Her tales are horrifying, the lessons sobering. FMD doesn't affect humans - but it is far from being like a cold, or 'flu, to susceptible animals. It is a killer to the young, and horribly painful to older beasts.

Transmission of the virus is by direct or indirect contact (droplets), animate vectors (humans etc.), inanimate vectors (vehicles, implements). Airborn, the virus can travel 40 miles overland and 200 miles over the sea.

There are no winners in this tragedy - but we shouldn't have had to argue about asking the army to help earlier. I have in front of me as I write the 1968 Western Command Report which says, 'Overall command and direction must be exercised by a Civilian Commander. A Military Commander should be appointed as a Deputy Commander'. It ends by saying, 'Up to date standing instructions should be prepared and maintained now for immediate handout in the event of an outbreak'. So why weren't they?

It is probably too late for vaccination now - and anyway it is very much a second-best option. It would have serious and far-reaching consequences for the entirety of British agriculture - it could lead to FMD becoming endemic in the UK. Bad for animals and bad for farming.

FMD might have entered the UK via illegal meat imports - but it could have entered legally from countries with endemic FMD. We must stop this now and unilaterally. We are in a crazy situation. Supermarkets sell imported meat which is cheaper because foreign welfare standards are lower. British farmers exist by exporting almost the same amount by value to premium markets abroad. This is mad. Food imports should conform to British standards - and be labelled accordingly.

The Government should compensate for irrecoverable losses, help retention of laid-off workers, speed up VAT refunds and much else. We should encourage new, small, local abbatoirs and establish a national gene bank.

So, first things first. Sort out the disease. By June it should be tailing off. But that is the height of the tourist season - if there is any tourist industry left by then. The balance of public interest must slowly and cautiously shift towards the hundreds of small businesses in South Wilts, which in fact employ more people than farming. So we need a campaign to promote domestic tourism and another campaign to attract back overseas visitors. As I swiftly learned when I was Minister for Tourism, that market is highly segmented and you don't improve the inward market by stopping people travelling abroad. Remember Harold Wilson's £50 travel limit?

Clinical analysis of what's gone wrong has its place. But I hope it is a long time before I hear again good farmers crying down the phone to me in the House of Commons. If there's one thing I could do today, it would be to ease animal movement restrictions at the discretion of a local vet. Marooning beasts a mile or two from food and shelter without a risk assessment just to play it by Whitehall rules is a Whitehall farce.

As one exhausted MAFF official put it to me, over the years, the rural link has been dismantled, ministry lines have been drawn and local awareness and decision-making diminished. So never mind whose fault it was - we surely must put this right. That really is an election issue - and you know which way my mind is working.

ROBERT KEY MP