What the papers say

Journalist Mike Philpott reviews the morning papers on Friday

The Mail and The Guardian both carry what appears to be a beautiful colour photograph in greens, blues and yellows.

It turns out to be a computerised image of the foot-and-mouth virus.

Both report that this is the tiny organism that has closed down the British countryside.

There are many appeals to people who live in towns not to travel to the countryside, and to people in the countryside not to travel to towns.

The Express says the virus can be carried on the soles of shoes or on the wheels of vehicles, and farmers are being urged to place disinfected straw at the entrances to their farms to minimise the spread of the disease.

Races fear

The Irish News says the horse racing industry is bracing itself for the cancellation of three of the biggest events in the National Hunt calendar, at Cheltenham, Aintree and Fairyhouse.

The paper adds that horses are immune to the illness, but can act as carriers.

The paper recalls that racing was wiped out for three months during the last major outbreak more than three decades ago.

It comments that, although the latest alert is a cruel blow to Northern Ireland's struggling agricultural industry, no chances can be taken.

It hopes that if all current precautions are adhered to, local farms will escape infection.

The Irish Times reports that supermarkets in the Republic have been given instructions on how to deal with meat and dairy products from Britain.

It also reports that police patrols have been set up on the southern side of the border to check the movement of vehicles.

The News Letter reports that scientists trying to trace the source of the disease in Britain face an uphill struggle.

The paper says it could even have arrived in food from overseas.

Police recruitment row

On the day that recruitment begins for the new police force, the papers talk of anger about the subject - anger from nationalists that recruitment is going ahead before full agreement on policing, and anger from the RUC chief constable, who accused Sinn Fein of denying people the freedom to choose.

The News Letter expresses its own anger at the SDLP, because of what it sees as the party's failure to put clear blue water between itself and republicans on this and other crucial issues.

The paper says the coming together of moderate unionism and nationalism - the only thing capable of saving the democratic process - has been compromised by the SDLP's inflexibility.

It is time, it says, for the party to take its courage in both hands and join the police boards.

The Irish Times takes a similar line, arguing that policing was always going to be the final obstacle for nationalists and republicans in coming to terms with a new order.

We are reaching the point, says the paper, where they have to buy into the new structures or watch the Good Friday Agreement come tumbling down.

It adds that if the agreement goes into review, nationalists may find that, at the end of it, there is no David Trimble and no middle-ground unionist bloc with whom to do business.

The current version of the Patten reforms is not perfect, it says, but nationalists and republicans must do the right thing by their own people and go for it.

Declining accent?

Finally, The Mail reports on the decline of the Liverpool accent.

The paper says the accent that won world fame with the Beatles is a blend of Irish-Welsh and catarrh.

The theory was that the adenoidal twang - similar to a blocked nose - was the result of air pollution from the city's big industries.

One expert says Scouse is now on the decline because of the better quality of the air.