TO most of us, the foot-and-mouth outbreak has been reduced to a dim montage of memories. Cattle burning on funeral pyres; roads closed and the countryside empty; a postponed election by a panicking Prime Minister... all now history.

Many, however, still feel the pain of what to them wasn't a crisis but a catastrophe.

The full impact on rural areas is made clear in a report out today. Farmers and others felt bereaved and fearful, researchers found.

The report has another message. Much of the distress was exacerbated by Government bungling. Britain clearly didn't learn the lessons of the 1968 foot-and-mouth epidemic: we must not ignore the lessons from 2001.

Updated: 11:26 Friday, October 07, 2005