The recent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease has left me thinking: is it just me or has the blinding incompetence of modern British government and big business reached new heights?
It seems that the private company (Merial Animal Health) and the government department (Institute for Animal Health) who shared the Pirbright facility, near Guildford were more interested in arguing about who should be responsible for bio-security (and more importantly – at least as far as they were concerned – who was going to PAY for it) than actually taking control of the issue.



![Path Closed - Foot and Mouth Control Zone, Pirbright, Surrey, UK. Photo: Colin Smith [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons Path Closed - Foot and Mouth Control Zone, Pirbright, Surrey, UK.](/images/Blog/footandmouth2007.jpg)
![Longford Inn's new moat, Gloucestershire July 2007. Photo: Nicholas Mutton [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons Longford Inn's new moat, Gloucestershire July 2007. Photo: Nicholas Mutton (Wikimedia Commons)](/images/Blog/flood-longford.jpg)
![Tax gets the boot. Photo: Images of Money [CC BY 2.0] (flickr) Tax gets the boot](/images/Blog/incometax.jpg)
![British Aerospace AV-8A Harrier. Photo: lmnop88a [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons British Aerospace AV-8A Harrier](/images/Blog/BAE.jpg)

