Banned wagon A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit
WHEN the 'Liberty and Livelihood' march eventually goes ahead, its title will not be without a certain irony. Liberty and the countryside, not for the first time, have shown themselves to be uncomfortable companions. This weekend doglovers everywhere should be converging on Birmingham for Crufts. However, last week it joined the growing number of events that have been cancelled due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
But why? When foot-and-mouth was reported late last month, the Kennel Club, which runs Crufts, approached the Ministry of Agriculture (Maff) and asked them for advice. Maff scientists were straightforward: although any meeting-place could theoretically aid the transmission of foot-and-mouth, Crufts posed no more threat than, say, a supermarket. It is held in an urban area, and centres on pedigree dogs, who neither incubate the disease nor tend to spend much of their lives outdoors.
What the Kennel Club hadn't reckoned with was the bullying tactics of the National Farmers' Union. The NFU insisted we were posing a huge risk,' says Phil Buckley of the Kennel Club. 'We felt we had to call off the show because the last thing we wanted was another anti-dog backlash. It is very hard for the trade stand-holders, who bring thousands of pounds worth of stock and rely on the show for their business.'
Crufts isn't the only thing to have fallen victim. All National Trust houses have been closed — as if 18th-century tapestries harboured foot-and-mouth. Footpaths have been sealed off, even where there are no animals for miles around. Urban authorities, even when faced with the threat of terrorist bombs, have learnt that you cannot simply shut everything down and stop anyone doing anything. When it comes to liberty, the country has a lot to learn from the town.
Ross Clark Ross Clark
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