Yesterday, the Heath & Safety Executive issued their initial report into the Foot & Mouth Disease outbreak in Surrey.

It’s taken them eighteen days and we’re still no nearer the exact truth of the source of the outbreak – meanwhile the country’s farming and livestock industry is heading inexorably to disaster. It simply isn’t good enough to be told the following in the HSE’s initial report.

“Potential for release from the site by human movements

There are various potential routes for accidental or deliberate transfer of material from the site. We have investigated site management systems and records and spoken to a number of employees. As a result we are pursuing lines of inquiry.

Release by human movement must also be considered a real possibility. Further investigation of the above issues is required and is being urgently pursued. “

Any tomfool could have come to that conclusion. Does it tell us what they’ve found? No. As Jonathan Miller in his Dial 999 blog post says:

“The polished blandness of this, redacted by Sir Humphrey in person, tells me this is Whitehall Speak for: “Oh, ****!” There is obviously a lot going on that we are not being told, although I promise we shall find out. Just some initial thoughts. “Various potential routes” means more than one. “We are pursuing lines of inquiry” confirms they have one or more suspects.

So much for the vaunted bio-security, then. And so much for the government’s hope that this could all be quickly blamed on Merial labs. That HSE have not immediately done so is suggestive, if not conclusive.”

I had to laugh at Jonathan Miller’s comment about the useless TV media on the subject, here:

“Sky has a very pretty girl outside Pirbright who knows the square root of f*** all about FMD and would struggle to define or even spell epizootic.”

To keep up to date on FMD, WARMWELL and Jonathan Miller are required reading.

Don’t let Labour bamboozle us all. Seek out the truth.