The foretelling is absolute and amounts almost to an order.

ECONOMIST: Letters

According to the government's own bovine-tb-impact-assessment, the public costs of carrying out the cull exceed any money saved from predicted falls in bovine TB (an average 16% reduction in new cases over nine years - in absolute figures, this amounts to preventing 47 out of 292 infected herds, for an area about half the size of the Gloucestershire pilot zone).

BBC: Analysis: The battle over brock

But while these are warning signs, it is not clear that the harm in absolute numbers will be great even if the worst should happen and significant amounts of radioactive waste are spewed into the air or the ground.

FORBES: Fear Of Japan's Radiation Is Overdone