Here's my prediction about FMD...

Firstly I need to clarify, the BBC changed its headline after my last post - I would love to claim it was because of my last post.


Anyway, I predict that the resons for the FMD outbreak will be pinned down to the Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright, it seems to be too close to the outbreak for coincidence. I suspect the BBC and Sy will get serious about this question later but, once again, it surprises me that the obvious link has yet to be seriously made.

I should add and stress that this is an educated guess, I have no physical evidence to back this up - it is just based on the geographical situation.

Is FMD news agenda being manipulated?

The first question I thought of whilst watching the breaking news about the Foot & Mouth Disease outbreak yesterday was "Has this already spread?"

I am sure that I am not the only one to be thinking about that. My concerns are partly selfish because I am planning to walk the first quarter of the Pennine Way at the end of this month, but I cannot believe that this is not a significant question given that we have fears about a repeat of 2001.

So, as this is such an important question, why is this comment:

"Defra said it was investigating other possible outbreaks of the disease"

buried inside the BBC News FMD article. Is someone trying to use the emergency context as a means of manipulating the news agenda, or have the BBC naively failed to recognise the importance of the comment? I honestly cannot see why this is not the headline.

Interesting to note that Sky do have it as a headline.