Good Friday, 13th April 2001

(graphic from BBC Devon Online)

Tony Blair has spent a lot of time in Devon this week. Well, good for him. He's seen for himself the sorts of problems that people all over the region are experiencing during these very difficult times. He went into the shop in Cockington Village (just outside Torquay) and bought a postcard. He is trying to tell the world that "Britain is open and ready for business". He is particularly targetting the Americans, Germans, Japanese and French with that message. "Open the footpaths"! So some did. And I find that rather indefensible when, here at least, the numbers of foot and mouth cases are rising every day - and, in fact, outbreaks are being found 30 miles away from any previous. Is it wise to say we are "open". Would people, for instance, flock to Dartmoor over the Easter break to help out the beleaguered hotel, shop and restaurant owners? If they didn't, would this be because they were being cautious (overly, some would say) for the sake of the animals or because they thought "that it wasn't safe" (how people get to be so ignorant is beyond my comprehension) or because they figured everything would be shut - or just because of the lousy weather? Would they prefer, after all, to go to B&Q and Tesco? We decided to go for a drive onto the moors ourselves and see. Dartmoor is a mere 2 minutes drive from our door - and yet it has felt, over the last few weeks, almost like it was a million miles away.

I was unsure myself. I don't want to be the person who might, unwittingly, transfer the disease to the animals roaming freely on the moor (or were they still roaming freely?) But, we were assured that it would be fine as long as we kept to the tarmac roads. And, after all, BBC crews went up there daily - as did delivery folk - and, of course the people who lived there. So off we trotted.

(I was practising with my new digital camera here - please click on any of the pictures if you want a bigger image. I'm not sure about what I think about either the pictures or the camera. Could be it is my eyes, but I sure as heck didn't get the pictures "in the frame" as I had thought!)

Goodness it was a wicked day!! SOO misty too. What were we doing?? Well, we drove up over the cattle-grid at Roborough, where the "Foot and Mouth Restrictions" sign is - and noted that the new cafe there was doing quite a good bit of business, so perhaps they would continue onto the moor and spread their money a bit?? Nope, didn't seem so. We drove past the Moorland Links - how odd not to see the golfers out (no matter what the weather). Yelverton was busy enough. Plenty of cars parked outside the shops. Onwards then to Princetown. The prison which is always so grim anyway, lurked somewhere down in the mist. The town was empty though. One solitary car outside the "Plume of Feathers" pub. It was Good Friday. Even in this weather, Princetown would normally be full of tourists. Further on from there, the roads were so empty, you rather expected that perhaps a spaceship might loom out of the mist and land in front of you, you know, like they do. We would never have seen it though, for the darned hay truck we were stuck behind, would've mangled it with its great wheels!! :)

There were sheep and ponies grazing! I was so relieved!! Perhaps there were fewer of them - but they were there alright! Phew!! (Would we ever see them again?) You couldn't park to take a photo. That's fine. I agreed with that. You were not, after all, allowed to walk on the moor, only drive. If you parked, you might be tempted to wonder around a little. So, yes, I was pleased that all the little parking bays were cordoned off with either tape or with make-do fences. We swooped down to Two Bridges. There we could stop beside the road and I took this quick snap down over the Two Bridges Hotel. (See Philip Davis, the owner's site and his appeals here. Also, please look at the Two Bridges Hotel website). Outside the hotel (which also, of course, serves as a wonderful bar and restaurant) was a great big "WE ARE OPEN" sign. Alas, no cars were parked in the forecourt. And this was Two Bridges! So picturesque, even in the rain. Where were the ice-cream vans? WHERE WERE THE PEOPLE???

It was embarrassing. Somewhat. We went into the shop and 3 ruddy-complexioned faces beamed towards us in expectation and delight. "Good day te ye". Oh heck, we didn't have any money to spend - hopefully, they would just be encouraged by our visit. We wondered around the shop, picking up toadstools and Everton pixies and mooning pixies and notelets and postcards and brass bells - oh, all that stuff. I "considered" buying a couple of "Lucky Devon Pixies" - they were cheap - but still never worth the asking price. And why would I need them? Oh sorry Pixieland people, we were just looking. We left feeling miserable and with the imprints of those 3 pairs of eyes burning into our backs. How wonderful, how professional, how UNUSUAL, that nobody had pounced with a "Can I help you" or hovered or anything like that. I wanted to go back in and buy the bunny with the enormous ears and ten of their "biggest" spotty toadstools. We'll be back!! (Pixieland Website/shop.Please visit!)

Just around the corner from Pixieland, is Dartmeet. This is another wonderfully beautiful place. Empty. Not just empty, but cordoned off too. How sad.

So then, to Widecombe-in-the-Moor, world famous, of course for Uncle Tom Cobley and all and all. (Complete words to the song at the bottom of this page, if interested! :)) I wonder what Uncle Tom might've made of the "Foot And Mouth" sign outside the Gents toilets??

Or of the fences around the village green, where no animals grazed as they usually do??

And where were the visitors? And why was it so blasted freezing COLD?? We sauntered around (quickly) and looked around the shops (what else was there?). Three shops to be precise. As we came out of each (empty-handed, but for 3 postcards) we could see the vendor in the next shop waiting for us to enter his shop too. It was awful.

An "extra" shop was a pottery shop (window, picture above left). They advertised that Uncle Tom Cobley's "chair" was to be found inside. We didn't go in; just speculated as to what kind of a state it might be in. That's not "lace" you see on the bottom of the shelves in the photos - it's great big clumps of dust!! Like Miss Haversham's wedding-breakfast table!! The pots on those shelves had obviously been there for centuries!!! The other picture above is of the village post-office and the post box from where I sent cards overseas. It was so cold though, that we had to walk back to the car for me to write the things - before driving back to the post-box to post them!!

It was all so depressing.

The River Dart still flowed, regardless. That seemed almost disrespectful and rather uncaring of it. And this pony (curses that he dropped his darned head at such a time!) is oblivious of all the pandemonium around him.

See this little fellow? Isn't he adorable? Think he knows what's going on? Do you think he'll make it to next Spring? And the ones on the right. See the little lamb having a drink? He tried to get a drink off the other sheep afterwards, but she was having none of it!! The thought of all these animals being (seemingly) needlessly slaughtered is just awful.

I wish Mr Blair had been in the car with us on our trip. Yes, the villages are open and fine and lovely and EMPTY! But, people have to drive across the moorland to reach them. And I don't think that's right. What's more, why are there no disinfectant mats at the entrances to the moor? We came across one only and that was outside a farm. It scares me to think that it would take just one car to infect the whole of Dartmoor. That's all. Please, Mr Blair - vaccinate the animals. Please! At least the ones who roam freely on the moorlands. And don't just vaccinate them to slaughter later because of the blasted meat export laws. It's going to be years before we are allowed to export meat anyway. What point if we have no meat left to export anyway??

Back towards Plymouth. To Roborough, on the edge of the moor - and the Tesco car-park. Full it was. And our local McDonalds. So that's where all the people had been???

I wonder if it ever occurred to the likes of Tesco and McDonalds and so many other such companies, with all their billions of pounds, to put their hands in their pockets and give something back to the people whose ruined businesses and lack of customers are contributing towards even bigger profits for themselves? Just a thought. The farmers (rightly) are being compensated. The shopkeepers and the hoteliers and the blacksmith and the tour operator and the waitress and the lady making pots and the cooper and the dry-wall maintainers and the farrower and the ice-cream man and the people who run the miniature pony place - they are being offered LOANS!

Please visit the excellent BBC Devon Online site for all the latest news on the Foot and Mouth crisis and many, many links to MAFF, NFU, Dartmoor National Park, Devon Tourism, "What's On; What's Not" and many more - PLUS an excellent and eye-opening Farmer's Forum.

Latest Update: (26/04/01 22:18:04)

(BBC graphic)

(This does not show that a total of more than 1000 farms have had all their livestock culled because they were "contiguous" to an outbreak. They were all healthy animals.)

(BBC photo)

So Phoenix has been saved by Mr Blair! Well, of course, I am very happy about that - but why did it take a cute, cuddly little calf to make him see sense? That the killing of healthy sheep and cattle is BARBARIC?? He says it wasn't Phoenix that made him "change the rules a bit". No? C'mon Mr Blurr - if this had been Mummy Cow found alive and stuck in front of the media, can you honestly say that you might've taken any notice? And how are the farmers who had *their* healthy cattle and calves culled recently going to feel about this "change of heart". Pretty bitter I should think. Hypocracy.

25/04/01 19:01:31

Cattle are still stuck in the barns because they're not allowed to be moved to the fields and the fresh grass. Consequently, they are starving to death as there is hardly any food left to feed them. This is the 21st century!!

4 mobile incinerators have been shipped in from the USA to help get rid of the massive "backlog" of carcases STILL laying around the fields and rotting, thus seeping into the groundwater and contaminating well water.

And this is Phoenix.

(picture courtesy of the BBC)

And this is her story (courtesy of the BBC)

"A Devon couple is refusing to allow Maff to slaughter a calf on their farm after it escaped an earlier foot-and-mouth cull. The white heifer - named Phoenix - survived for five days in a pile of carcasses next to its dead mother after slaughtermen apparently missed her. Officials were keeping tight-lipped about the situation when they arrived with police escort today Phoenix was discovered alive and well when Maff officials arrived to disinfect Philip and Michaella Board's East Devon farm on Monday. Their healthy livestock of 15 cattle and 30 sheep were slaughtered as a precaution last week after a nearby farm was found to have a confirmed case of foot-and-mouth, but Phoenix survived. This morning, three vets arrived at the farm under police escort. They were there to kill the white heifer, who's now being cared for in a garage carpeted with straw, but after discussions lasting an hour, the Board family asked them to leave. Maff officials say the cull will have to be completed and although Phoenix has been granted a short stay of execution, it's only while they talk to lawyers. Mrs Board says they will not surrender the healthy animal without a court order."

MAFF insist that Phoenix be slaughtered and have gone to court. Apart from the fact that this animal would've HAD f&m by now if she was going to - and that the farm is three miles away from any other - and that there are NO OTHER animals left on the farm to infect even if she was diseased does nothing to melt MAFF's hearts or awaken any damned common-sense in them. Will report on whether Phoenix survived or not.

That there are a couple of suspected cases of "human foot & mouth" (not yet confirmed) worries this country not one iota. (So what, a few blisters for a couple days and then all's well. Hardly devastating, is it?) Seems though that CNN have given that "the UK waits ANXIOUSLY over news ....." as headlines on their text. Hmm, another nail in the coffin of the tourist industry then.