Bad news from U.K....

The nightmare of foot-and-mouth disease returned to Britain last night, forcing Gordon Brown to cut short his holiday after only a few hours in Devon to chair a crisis meeting of Cobra, the emergency planning unit in Downing Street today.

The outbreak among cattle on a farm in Guildford has caused an immediate ban in all transport of cattle and pigs in Britain and raised the spectre of the 2001 outbreak that disfigured Britain with pyres of burning of cattle carcasses and cost the nation £8bn in compensation.

This outbreak is a matter of very serious concern. I'm sure the concern extends throughout the U.K. and to neighbouring Ireland. My brother who had a small farm in the Midlands (Ireland) will be following developments closely.