Both the 'Daily Mail' and the 'Guardian' are playing up the whole 'why
doesn't the government act quicker?' thing with regard to 'avian flu'.

Editors must have got similar orders at yesterday's Downing Street media
meeting.

Same as the 'opinion formers' among the 'experts'. The following is
typical (from the 'Guardian' article):

>>>A Home Office report said this week that up to 320,000 people
>>>could die if a pandemic struck Britain.

What a completely ridiculous statement! Sure it wasn't 310,000 or
330,000? How can anyone make a serious prediction to two figures of
accuracy, of how many might die in a pandemic?

What are the loonies who rule us planning?

It strikes me that they might possibly find a 'pet cull', of one kind or
another, very useful for their purposes. The reason I say this is that
it wouldn't just be a matter of them changing a law or a regulation.
There would be widespread resistance, albeit in a hush-hush way. Many
people would keep their pets, but try not to let the neighbours and cops
and busybodies know. (Many people are using their garden hoses too). The
authorities could whip up a hysteria by saying that people who didn't
obey orders were responsible for the deaths of 73 people to avian flu,
etc. etc. Local stories, national stories, anything you want... Whittle
down the number of resisters, increase the solidarity of 'good citizens'
with the State... It would be a great time for headteachers, medics,
cops, local authority executives, regional emergency officials, etc. The
idea would be to create some kind of nightmare scape where no-one knows
what the fuck the rulers might do next. (Which for the most sensitive,
has already started anyway). It would bring the 'emergency' into
millions of people's homes, even more vividly than TV does...

I'm sure the private-practice veterinarians (who do a lot of
money gathering for companies such as Hill's, selling such bullshit as
dog nervousness pills and needless annual vaccinations) could be
'squared' one way or another...

In China the authorities carried out a mass cull of sparrows, which led
to a plague of caterpillars and locusts, which contributed to a famine
in which millions of people died.

<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_articl
e_id=382279&in_page_id=1770>

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1748946,00.html>

-- 
banana     "The thing I hate about you, Rowntree, is the way you
            give Coca-Cola to your scum, and your best teddy-bear to
            Oxfam, and expect us to lick your frigid fingers for the
            rest of your frigid life." (Mick Travis, 'If...', 1968)