WHY, when farmers had won so much sympathy, support and co-operation from the general public, instead of encouraging support and advising the public to eat British food, did the Government use spin to try to alienate farmers from the public, cover up its own mistakes and try to shift the blame for foot and mouth disease?

Farmers recently received a Government video telling them not to visit neighbouring farms, only to leave their farms when really necessary and to keep their dogs locked up. This advice, along with how to disinfect vehicles etc, arrived too late to be effective, and just before footpaths were re-opened to the public, whose dogs were allowed to roam freely from farm to farm.

The latest spin regards compensation, being highly critical of any farmer who has received more than £1 million. Anyone with knowledge of livestock and pedigree cattle will appreciate their true value.

Farmers who have had foot and mouth on their farms have lost all their assets, hence the valuations are correct.

Lord Haskins seems to have a plan to kill off the countryside, hunting, fishing and farming. He says farmers must insure against disease, but it is not possible to insure against Government policy. Why is the Government still allowing meat imports from countries with foot and mouth? Why are armed forces fed foreign meat? Why does the Government impose so many regulations on British farmers while relaxing import controls on foreign meat produced at lower standards?

No amount of spin will absolve this Government from a complete lack of understanding of farming and the countryside.

David Quarrie,

Lynden Way,

Acomb,

York.

Updated: 10:51 Tuesday, August 21, 2001