To Guest above I agree totally with what you say. In Ireland the response to the threat of Foot and Mouth was met with good management on the part of the government, farming community and the nation as a whole. Just by the nature of the beast - a little good luck as well - particularly as not all that far away in the UK the means of disposing of carcasses was mass incineration.

One possible reason for the difference in attitude could well be the relative importance of farming to both countries - Farming is about twelve times more important to Ireland than it is to the UK (England in particular).

That, "the British government made blunder after blunder, they were useless." is sadly an undeniable fact.