As deadly Foot and Mouth disease rages across British farms, a regional TV audience is in tense debate with politicians

By Spring 2001, a surprise epidemic of Foot and Mouth disease among British farm animals had become a full-blown national crisis. This heated debate, staged and televised by Central TV in the Midlands, testifies to that sense of crisis. In the first half of the programme, farmers and members of the public make impassioned contributions from the floor while Labour, Conservative and Lim Dem politicians defensively kick the political football about. In the second half, the debate turns to whether the expected General Election should be postponed in light of the crisis. In-between the two, during the Central TV master recording presented here, we hear some intriguing snatches of non-broadcast audio, as the host preps an audience member for taking part a few minutes later.

The crisis was later largely forgotten, other than by the directly affected. Official Foot and Mouth policy had vacillated between panic and draconianism; many thousands of healthy animals were killed, unnecessarily according to some. The election was indeed postponed by a month and was marked, as much as anything else, by growing apathy. Modern UK politics starts here?

Television current affairs discussion programme about topical issues. This episode live from rural Oxfordshire focuses on the government handling of the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in 2001. The programme features an in studio discussion with a studio audience and panellists government minister Jeff Rooker, former Conservative minister John Naples and Liberal Democrat MP David Rendel.