CITY dwellers and townsfolk have branded the latest foot and mouth outbreak “boring” and “not as good as last time” as it looked to be fizzling out after just one week.
Norman Steele, a taxi driver from Bow, East London, complained that only a few hundred cows had been killed so far, none of which had been set on fire for the television news.
His wife Vera, a waitress, said she realised the outbreak was rubbish when Natasha Kaplinsky did not even bother to make the trip to Surrey for the Six O’Clock news.
Mr Steele said: “Last time around there were huge bonfires all over the place but this time it’s been pathetic. I’ve seen bigger flames during a barbecue in my back yard.
“Christ, even the BBC has been forced to show repeat footage from the previous one because it hasn't got anything horrific this time around. If they aren’t going to show any new burning cows I’m just not interested.”
Mrs Steele said it was Ms Kaplinsky she felt sorry for because she “obviously enjoys herself more” when she gets away from “that George Alagiah”.
She said: “I bet she was over the moon at first, thought she might get a new Barbour and some wellies on expenses, and a few nights in a nice hotel. Now look how it’s turned out for her. It’s a shame.”
News that livestock from another farm were to be destroyed did not impress Mr Steele. “Really, by now you’d expect they would have set fire to the whole of Kent,” he said.
