Foot-and-mouth: Blair in command of crisis control

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MARCH 25. It sounds like war. The British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, is reported to have taken ``direct command'' of the operations; a crisis management centre with the chilling acronym ``Cobra'' is monitoring developments round the clock; the Queen has said ``yes'' to the cancellation of her favourite sporting event, the Royal Windsor Horse Show; the Tory leader, Mr. William Hague, wants a ``crisis Cabinet'' to be set up to handle the emergency; and the media is awash with grim pictures and forecasts.

The foot-and-mouth outbreak, which entered the fifth week on Sunday, is being described as the Blair Government's biggest crisis which has already upset his carefully laidout plans for a return to a second term in office in May. With experts indicating that the epidemic may last several months, the prospects of a general election on May 3 look increasingly slim though Mr. Blair is said to be still keen on going ahead with it. As he rushed back from the European Union Summit in Stockholm on Saturday and flew directly to some of the worst foot-and-mouth affected areas, he was uncharitably criticised for trying to speed up things in order to show some progress over the next few days to justify his May 3 timetable. There were suggestions of a rift between the Palace and Downing Street over the handling of the crisis, and particularly Mr. Blair's obsession with elections.

A personal donation of £ 500,000 by Prince Charles to help farmers and his decision to cancel his overseas holiday (the last time he cancelled a holiday was during the Gulf War) were widely interpreted as a measure of his concern over the situation, prompting speculation that the Palace would have wished to see a greater sense of urgency on the part of the Government. Within hours of the donation, The Times reported that Prince Charles had ``agreed to go into election `purdah' on foot-and-mouth amid growing concern that his outspoken support for farmers risks dragging him into a party political battle.''

``There is unease both with St. James' Palace and in some parts of Whitehall that the farmers' plight is now such a highly charged issue that any further comment from the Prince risks stepping over the line which keeps the Royal Family out of politics'', it said, adding significantly that Downing Street played down suggestions that it had ``gagged the Prince.''

The Queen's public endorsement of the cancellation of the Royal Windsor Horse Show, scheduled for May 9, was interpreted by the pro-Tory newspaper The Sunday Telegraph as yet another signal from the Palace that it viewed the foot-and-mouth crisis extremely seriously - and the subtext was that Prime Minister should take a cue from the Royal Family and drop his election plans. It quoted a Tory frontbencher, Mr. Nigel Evans, as saying: ``The Queen and Prince Charles have shown they are distressed and concerned and have taken appropriate action. It is only right that the Prime Minister also takes precautionary action in order that election on May 3 can be postponed if deemed necessary.''

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Section  : International
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