POLITICAL capital will inevitably be made out of the disaster facing the British livestock industry.

As the implications of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak mounted by the hour, Agriculture Minister Nick Brown and his Tory shadow Tim Yeo wasted valuable time and energy exchanging bitter words yesterday.

But the immediate priority is to forget the squabbling over which party would have handled the outbreak better, and concentrate on doing everything possible to contain the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

Not even the slightest risk can be taken. That will undoubtedly mean hardship, inconvenience and severe financial loss for people in many walks of life.

But the potential consequences of failing to act with the utmost caution are unthinkable.

Questions will, of course, also need to be answered in due course - and lessons learned - about whether sufficient action was taken quickly enough over fears about a possible outbreak.

With suggestions that suspicions first surfaced weeks ago, a thorough investigation will be needed to clarify how the virus spread with such devastating implications.

The impact of the crisis on so many strands of society is a graphic reminder of the need to reinforce stringent safeguards throughout farming.

An industry not yet fully recovered from the ramifications of the BSE crisis, now faces another nightmare.

And whether they are directly affected, or suffering from the effects of the ban on transporting livestock, urgent consideration must be given to bailing out farmers who face ruin.

The politics can wait. Positive action can't.