h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What's keeping you? We've been back over 24 hours now. Are you sitting on some eggs, or something? Come on, hurry up - you're missed.

Speak to you SOON!
Sal

Hey there!
I popped in yesterday just long enough to convert my id and get my page back before RL got busy again. I've had a few problems with posting on ezboard lately so I've not been able to add my thoughts to your foot and mouth column. Living here in a small village surrounded by sheep farms (thankfully FMD free so far) I can tell you this disease is no joke and to hear MPs today trying to say rural England is not closed down really makes me laugh (in a cynical, rather bitter manner). All our footpaths have been closed for weeks now, rambling associations have been advised to stay away, my gliding club hasn't closed yet but we're not allowed to fly far from the airfield to avoid forced landings in our neighbours fields, some local sailing clubs have been shut down and so on and on. B&Bs are empty - whether or not they're on land you're allowed to set foot on. People come to the Peak District to enjoy the countryside close-up and if they can't do that they won't come. Trying to entice tourists back is pointless and verging on irresponsible.
We can choose to protect either farming or tourism but not currently both. We have two conflicting industries here and even if the economic balance has shifted since the 1967 outbreak, it still surely isn't acceptable to encourage people back to look at the pretty villages and cuddly animals perishing in their fields - every tourist increasing the risk of spreading the virus to still uninfected regions. Some tourist officer fellow even suggested slaughtering every farm animal in the Lake District to finish the disease and let the hotels and cafes start making money again. Grrrr.

Sorry this turned into a bit of a rambling rant. Rant over. Nice to be back. Still feels strange with funny new rules to get used to, but I'm sure we'll settle in fine and the Beeb will provide a good home for us all.

Ah, there you are! Honestly, isn't it the limit, the way RL keeps interrupting the normal flow of VL? Shame about the probs you've had with ezboard. I've been a bit obsessed with this foot and mouth thing. I got so interested, I thought I'd do an entry on it. I've also been having regular cynical, bitter laughs at the shenanigans of the politicians over this outbreak which is, according to Nick Brown, under control and not an epidemic. I live almost next to Coventry Gliding Club (Husbands Bosworth, nowhere near Coventry, in fact) and I've been told that they're not going up at all. The Grand Union Canal goes across the north edge of the village. I don't think the village shop gets much trade from it at this time of year, but if this is still going on in May, as seems to be anticipated, I guess they'll suffer. The flock of a farmer in Northamptonshire, just over the border from here, has just been given the death sentence, even though they've tested negative, for no reason other than there are a couple of cases elsewhere in the county. It's heart breaking. Believe it or not, some farmers actually get attached to their animals. My brother has several animals in his field that a neighbouring farmer has given to him over the years (as pets) because they were his favourites and he couldn't bear to send them to market. I wonder how that soft old so and so would cope if he was told he had to slaughter his whole flock. I think it would probably finish him off. Did you hear on the news a couple of days ago that the police were confiscating farmers' guns to stop them shooting themselves?

It turns into a rant very easily, doesn't it? Anyway, feel free to rant on. We can rant together on this one.

I think it's going to be ok here with the BBC too. I know some people are getting very upset about censorship but I think they just need to relax and give it time. I don't think most of us want to say anything offensive really. We didn't before so why should we want to now?

Sal

I feel for all the farmers who will now be ordered to slaughter healthy sheep whose only misfortune is to be stuck in a field nearish some infected animals. Not only do farmers become fond of their four-legged beasts but their job is their life and in many cases their history and inheritance. I can well understand why there's genuine concern over suicidal urges. How long can farmers live under siege conditions and retain their sanity and hope of a return to normality without the destruction of their herds. I believe the 1967 outbreak took 6 months to clear and that was relatively localised. We'll be well into the Summer before this is over.
I'd heard some gliding clubs were closed altogether, but not that HusBos was affected - do you know if their airfield is sometimes used for grazing, that seems to have caused the shutdown of the other clubs I'm aware of.
Re the moderation/censorship issue, I'm not overly concerned so far but will miss the ability to post relevant external links in the middle of conversations. One of the strengths of any online community is the ease of information exchange - guess we'll have to find workarounds or become adept at subtle hinting

I'm a bit annoyed with myself. I got home from work just before 9pm, fed the dogs and myself, got all set to watch Newsnight, fell asleep and missed it. They were going to be interviewing Nick Brown. I was really interested to know what he was going to say. All I know now is a couple of sentences on New 24 that 1) he was delaying the mass slaughter of healthy sheep for a couple of days until they've explained to the farmers why they're doing it and 2) the farmers believe politics and not science is leading this slaughter.

I was relieved when they said on the news this morning that Cumbrian farmers were rebelling - saying they weren't going to let the men from the min onto their land. It seems they've been told nothing - other than all their flocks must die. I think it was Wednesday, N Brown told farmers all animals within 2 miles of infected animals would be killed but failed to mention that he didn't include cattle in that sweeping death sentence. I don't know why pigs and sheep are particular targets and cattle are left out - maybe cattle are less susceptible or something. The point was, lots of cattle farmers were plunged into despair unnecessarily because of a lack of care in presenting information. Farmers are also complaining that the ministry can't keep up with killing and destroying diseased animals, yet they're planning to start killing probably more than 100,000 healthy animals.

Are you able to read the stuff on ezboard? I've posted a more or less daily (nightly really) journal on the horror over there. I won't tonight though - can't stay awake and I missed my best source of information.

They used to graze sheep on the airfield. I don't know if they still do. Before I turned into an arthritic old crock, I used to walk my dogs up there and gather mushrooms but then they banned dog walkers. The airfield is certainly still surrounded by fields where sheep graze. The information about stopping flight activity came from a lady whose husband works there so I suppose it's accurate.

The get around for handy URLs that the folks over at the feedback fora have come up with, is to put all your links in a single guide entry (which is allowed apparently) then you can quite legitimately put a link to that page in a conversation.

That's me done. Brain's packed up.

Sal