Oh what a thing this learning is
Just when it seemed safe to pick up a newspaper again, foot-and-mouth banner headlines have returned. This time, the controversy surrounding compensation payments to farmers has grabbed media attention. Reputedly, 37 farmers have become millionaires as a result of Government money.
If this news proves to be true, it would seem appropriate for hospitality operators in rural areas to feel bitter, or neglected, or just plain peeved about the way the farming industry seems able to manipulate the Treasury into doling out large sums of cash every time it hits a rough patch. No other industry enjoys the same favoured relationship with the bankers of taxpayers' money.
But jealousy never did anyone any good and, by reacting negatively to the payments, the tourism industry and other rural businesses hit by the crisis will be dancing to the tune that the Government appears to be orchestrating quite deliberately.
By leaking the details of compensation payments - which is what is being suggested has happened - the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has deflected attention from the fact that Prime Minister Tony Blair has so far refused to initiate a public inquiry into the foot-and-mouth crisis. He knows that such an investigation would raise too many questions about the Government's handling of the affair.
Already, ministers are getting worried about the probes being set up by the National Audit Office and the Commons' Public Accounts Committee. The levels of compensation to farmers and the practices of some private contractors involved in the clean-up operation are likely to be investigated, with embarrassing results for ministers. A public inquiry could, and probably would, uncover further depths of incompetence too damaging for any government to hide.
On the other hand, such an inquiry might be exactly what the tourism industry needs. At the risk of keeping the crisis in the headlines and therefore continuing the bad publicity for Britain, such a postmortem might help establish the need to subsidise rural businesses in times of crisis in the same way that the farmers have been supported.
So, rather than getting hot under the collar about farming's compensation millionaires, tourism should be, once again, sending representation to Government saying, "Don't forget about us."
Last week, official figures from the Office for National Statistics indicated that "the worst effects of the foot-and-mouth crisis on tourism could be over". Apparently, the number of foreign visitors to Britain in June this year dipped in comparison with the figure for June last year, but the rate of decline was less than for previous months.
This is good news. It should not, however, be used as a smoke screen to hide the decline suffered by parts of UK hospitality as a result of the Government's measures. That decline will not be forgotten easily by those affected. It will, however, blur in the collective memory of the new ministry for rural affairs.
A full public inquiry - not a witch hunt, but a constructive lesson-learning investigation - will do much to prevent that memory from fading. So come on, Mr Blair, act now before you lose all credibility with the wider rural community. Set up a public inquiry and include hospitality in the analysis.
Forbes Mutch, Editor,Caterer & Hotelkeeper
