If Dale will indulge me (and I'm a bit persona non grata at the moment) can I make an appeal for Americans not to stop coming to the UK because of foot and mouth disease.
Many of you will know already but this is nothing like BSE. F & M only affects livestock and, contrary to what I understand you are reading in your papers, Britain is not closed! The disease is like a bad dose of the 'flu and normally doesn't kill the animal. You can still eat meat from infected animals, although the yield may be less. It can't be transmitted to humans (foot IN mouth disease I've suffered from for years).
F & M could be got rid of quite easily by a programme of mass vaccination but then we wouldn't be able to export our beef because there would be no way of guaranteeing it was free of the disease.
Mass slaughter, and what a horrible sight it is, is the Government's way of "controlling" the spread of the disease which, incidentally, is believed to have come to Britain in illegally imported, contaminated meat which was bought at a street market by a Chinese Restaurant. The restaurant's leftovers were sold to a farmer who fed his animals with it...
So those of you who were thinking of coming to the UK can still do so and enjoy your holiday. The only restriction you will face is that you can't go wandering over farmland. You can still visit bike shops and go cycling in the countryside as long as you stick to the roads. You can still visit Buckingham Palace (no jokes about mad cows, please) or take in the Fringe in Edinburgh. And can I make a special plea for you all to come to Dundee-it's great and only 45 minutes from Bob Reid's cycling emporium!
Scotland is heavily dependent on tourism and if everyone on the list tells ten others, it might be enough to stop some hotels or tourist attractions going out of business.
Trust me-I'm a journalist(?!)
Regards, Bruce
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