Foot and Mouth

9.54.21pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 6th Aug 2007

Liberal Democrat Sue Doughty talks to BBC News 24 at Wanborough about the Foot & Mouth outbreak in Guildford

I remember, only too well the last Foot and Mouth outbreak, I was working for Paul Keetch MP in Hereford. Whilst I was mainly employed to work on the campaigning side there was no escape getting involved in Foot and Mouth - it took up almost all of his time and his staff. It was horrendous and the situation for so many was unimaginable. I also have a vivid memory of funeral pyres that will stay with me forever. So many people suffered last time, I can only imagine what people are feeling now there has been another outbreak.

Let's hope that the 'outbreak' this time is very limited, it may be it came from the lab, or is (more worryingly) flood related as the media are now speculating.

The response this time from the Government and its agencies has been much quicker and will hopefully be better - I think Labour handled it fairly badly last time, lets hope they have learnt. A ban on livestock movement was introduced within three hours of the the confirmation, although this can lead to many problems for the farmers livelihoods particularly at this time, it was a speedy and correct response.

Hopefully if the cause of the outbreak can be traced and no other animals found infected the ban could be lifted relatively soon and farming could get back to normal, or as normal as farming can get back to after this.