NORTH Yorkshire's tourist industry is in desperate trouble. Away from York, which has been insulated from the foot and mouth crisis, the sector is heading towards catastrophe.

Yorkshire tourist bosses have repeatedly begged the Government for cash help. Time and again they have been turned down.

The men from the ministry, bunkered in darkest rural Whitehall, say Yorkshire has not been badly affected. Foot and mouth statistics prove that Cumbria and Devon are suffering far worse troubles.

Even before the Settle outbreak, that argument was spurious. It does not matter to visitors how many cases of the disease have been confirmed. What matters is that the public perception is that rural Yorkshire is all but closed for business. That is why they are staying away. That is why many businesses are going to the wall.

Today, the Government has reluctantly dipped a hand in its pocket. Ministers have allocated £24 million in aid - for the entire country to spend.

This is the equivalent of chucking a handful of spare change our way. Yorkshire rural tourism is losing £75 million a month. An extra million or two in aid is derisory: an insult.

Tourism is now considerably more important than farming to the North Yorkshire economy. Quite rightly, Britain's farmers are being compensated for their losses, to the tune of nearly £700 million. The tourist sector's pleas for help deserve an equally generous response.

Yorkshire Forward has a long and growing list of companies in trouble. Its database of despair includes an astonishing variety of businesses, from hiking shoe retailers to mechanics based in farm outbuildings now isolated from their customers. The very diversity of those affected helps to conceal the scale of the suffering.

Rival political parties are right to accuse Labour of trying to ignore this disaster. But instead of bickering and sniping, the parties should unite behind the urgent task of saving Britain's tourist industry.

That would mean putting nation before party. Unfortunately, we fear that may be too much to ask.

Updated: 10:52 Friday, May 25, 2001