I WAS pleased to read in your newspaper last week that the local MP has robustly attacked the government's handling of measures to control foot and mouth disease as 'gross mismanagement'.

The Government's record has been dreadful as the experiences of hundreds of farmers, businesses and residents throughout Devon can attest.

However, Mr. Burnett's recent criticisms in the local press are curiously at odds with his approach, and that of his party, in the House of Commons just a few short weeks ago, on March 21, during a parliamentary debate called by the Conservatives to hold the Government's conduct of the crisis to account. This was at a time when the extent of the Government's failure was not yet as widely recognised.

The Liberal Democrats' press release concerning that debate read as follows,

'The Tories broke the political consensus on the foot and mouth crisis by using one of their Opposition Day debates this week to criticise the Government's handling of the crisis. David Heath (Lib Dem Agriculture Spokesman) expressed support for the difficult decisions that the Minister had to make over the past few weeks, and said that dissension, whether by farmers or on political grounds was the enemy of progress.'

At no stage in that debate, did Mr. Burnett express any of the criticisms of the Government that he now makes nor, indeed, despite his recent well-publicised strictures in the local newspapers, has he ever done so on any occasion in parliament since the outbreak began.

Geoffrey Cox

Conservative prospective parliamentary

candidate for West Devon and Torridge

I AM a little surprised to see the Liberal Democrat MP for Torridge and West Devon jump on the Tory bandwagon, attacking the Government (Times, April 26). For the past weeks of the foot and mouth crisis, he has been giving the impression in the Times that Ministers Brown and Meacher have been hanging on his every word on the subject and acting accordingly.

His comments 'invidious and incompetent', when describing mass burial, seem to directly contradict the actions of Devon Waste Management — an arms-length company of the Lib Dem-controlled Devon County Council, who have just agreed a mass burial package at Deep Moor in Torrington.

To date, many millions of our taxes have been paid out to the agricultural industry, and many millions more will be needed to recover from this crisis.

It is the responsibility of all those involved to do everything in their power to ensure foot and mouth is eradicated and the countryside opened up for the sake of our tourist industry and those dependent on it. Will he be ready to support the necessary reforms needed in farming, to minimise the recurrence of this terrible disease?

David Brenton

Prospective parliamentary Labour candidate

for West Devon and Torridge

A RESULT of a poll shows that seven per cent of farmers affected by foot and mouth will not return to the industry. Not surprising! But what is disturbing is the fact that this is what the European Union wants to hear. As long as we stay a member of the EU, they will win the battle.

May I remind your readers that in 1998, an EU meeting of agriculture ministers was told of the European Commission's long-term plan to abolish livestock farming in the United Kingdom.

Let us be positive, withdraw from that straight-jacket, and hand farming back to farmers, not politicians.

Dave Weeks

UK Independence Party

Courtlyns

Exbourne