AS with BSE, much will no doubt be written with self-righteous hindsight over the foot and mouth outbreak; but, to be brutally realistic, it has been a disaster waiting to happen.

However, it is not the farmers, or their practices, that are to blame - only politicians and their policies.

I need only refer to two factors which are germane to the issue:

- Over the past decade, over 800 small to medium sized abattoirs have been forced to close.

I accept that there had to be some rationalisation but the bulk of the blame has to be borne by the introduction and zealous enforcement of European regulations, dreamt up, not by men of the farming industry, but by Brussels bureaucrats who spend their lives creating work for their own survival. They seem to have an infinite capacity for producing costly and largely meaningless legislation - in short, our men in Brussels all suffer from the highly infectious disease, the Red Tape Worm.

The result of their labours, so far as the slaughtering industry is concerned, is that we have fewer but larger abattoirs that are capable of bearing the new overheads imposed upon them.

Because of this, animals have to travel greater distances and there is the inevitable exposure to the rapid spread of disease when it strikes as fast as F&M.

The logical consequence is that instead of the disease being contained in a tight area of the north-west Midlands, as in 1967, there have now been confirmed cases in all corners of the country which will make control that much more difficult.

- My second point, is that our politicians' obsequious obsession with Europe has led to the UK losing control of its imports.

We are the world's dumping ground - Germans and French can ban our meat overnight but we continue to accept beef from Berlin, complete with bits of spinal cord.

We haven't had an outbreak of foot and mouth for 20 years, and I have no doubt the virus has come from overseas.

This is no surprise, as we are still taking large consignments of meat from the African continent where foot and mouth is endemic.

Only last week, a regular buyer of ours at the market lost an order for 150 hinds of beef destined, I am told, for Booker Supermarkets and the winning consignment came from Botswana; but I doubt they would be labelled as such on the top shelf.

Another glaring example stems from the outbreak of F&M in South Africa, last year, following which we were the only country that remained open to take their beef.

I firmly believe we must reappraise our very special qualities and needs - we are an island and we must protect these shores from viral invasion.

Having pointed the finger, we must not allow the bureaucrats and the animal rights extremists to combine to destroy our livestock industry any further.

In itself, I do not think travelling long distances is unreasonably stressful for animals. Both in nature and in transport, animals have always gone a long way, and especially sheep on a lorry tend to put their bodies into a sort of suspended state, a trance is only broken when they are unloaded.

Compare with the nightmare journeys that we put ourselves through as humans, and I don't hear the NSPCC decrying the 36-hour bus journeys undertaken by school children on ski trips; or the Human Rights Commission taking legal action against God for keeping those poor people snowbound in a train for 24 hours.

When it is all over, and we pray that it will be quickly, there must be some sober reflection but we must not end up by giving our agricultural industry to other countries overseas.

I know things are changing almost hourly with the foot and mouth outbreak, but as at the time of going to press on Wednesday morning, we have around 17 confirmed cases of which, thankfully, none are yet in Yorkshire, although there is a suspected sheep contact that ended up in a Welsh abattoir.

The worst feature is that four or five of the country's main sheep procurement dealers are involved and this can only have hastened the spread.

The current seven-day ban on all livestock movement comes to an end on Friday, at 5pm, and it is likely that some form of movement will be allowed thereafter, on a restricted basis. It may be that MAFF will allow animals only to move from farm to abattoir, but this will inevitably mean an optimum number of vehicles travelling around the country, each carrying its specific load from one farm.

Alternatively, auction markets may be opened up on a strict licence basis to allow their use as collection centres which would then enable full loads of stock to be gathered up for onward despatch to the abattoirs.

It is this latter course that would be the one I would favour as most acceptable in the circumstances; and it would enable some semblance of trade to resume to relieve the economic pressure on our farmers.

The long-term prognosis is pretty dreadful, in that a disease-free status can only be declared 21 days following the last confirmation of an infected animal.

As far as the outside world is concerned, it is probable that there will be an international movement ban for a further six months from the date we declare a disease-free status.

The immediate future is pretty grim.

My text for this next piece is taken from the book of Winston Churchill who said, at the outbreak of the First World War: "The maxim of the British people is 'business as usual'."

I don't pretend it is going to be easy, but we must find some way to keep going.

As livestock auctioneers, we are probably hit harder than most, in that our income stream has been stopped at a stroke, without notice; we have no compensation in prospect, and from experience the business lost will never be recovered.

As far as possible, we are trying to find a bright side to this very dark cloud and our actions are targetted in two directions:

- Firstly, our market staff are cleansing, disinfecting and sterilising our auction premises, so that we will be able to offer a safe environment when we are allowed to open.

- Secondly, and of more relevance to farmers, we are still operating a marketing service.

We have customers on both sides of the book wanting to trade stock and we will commence business as soon as movement is allowed.

This doesn't mean, necessarily, that the market premises have to be used and, in addition, we will offer a service to trade direct from farm to abattoir.

Only yesterday, I negotiated a good block of killing space in a large abattoir and we shall be gathering together orders ready for the first deliveries.

At both Malton and York, we shall be sending round a circular asking farmers to let us know what stock they have available and wish to sell.

If you don't get a form, please give us a ring. I will be available at either Malton or York but, more specifically, the teams dealing with livestock during the crisis will be:

Malton (01653) 692151 - Philip Place, Charlie Breese & David Lindley

(01653) 697820 - Michael Harrison, Peter Woodall & John Cundall

York (01904) 489731 - Roger Pearce, Edward Stephenson & Richard Tasker

I finish with the well worn maxim: "Help us to help you."

If we stick together we have a chance of coming out of this tragedy bruised but not destroyed.

Updated: 10:31 Friday, March 02, 2001