THERE are bound to be all sorts of attempts to spin it in other directions -- but the report on New Labour's handling of Britain's appalling Foot and Mouth epidemic is a stinging slap on the wrists of Government Ministers.

The Lessons to be Learned inquiry, the last of three independent inquiries commissioned following the tragic events of last year, is explicit in its findings.

Should a similar outbreak occur in the future, New Labour should hand over the job of dealing with it to those who know what they're doing. The report calls for the Army to be enlisted to prevent any outbreak escalating into the major crisis, which so crippled the countryside, ruined farming businesses and seriously threatened the national economy.

It was clear at the time that political inefficiency, the hallmark of this Government, had led to devastating delays in tackling what threatened from the start to be a mounting disaster.

Heavily politicised moves to talk down an emergency, vain attempts to reassure the tourism industry and a refusal to take early bitter medicine to confront the disease were unforgivable and visibly inept.

Government Ministers found themselves dangerously out of their depth, but still unable to admit inadequacies. In the interests of its own face-saving, New Labour tried to appease everyone only weeks before a General Election -- farmers reluctant to vaccinate, hoteliers anxious to trade -- and, in the process, very nearly lost everything on funeral pyres, which became sickening familiarities on the skyline of England.

Mrs Jean Allison

Whalley Road

Shuttleworth

Ramsbottom, Bury