I couldn't believe it when I heard on the news that our farming stock has now been hit with Blue Tongue disease. As if the farmers didn't have enough to cope with already with Foot and Mouth. This is the first time the disease has ever been recorded in the UK, and it happens at the same time as Foot and Mouth. Our thoughts and prayers at Church on the Net go out to British farmers.

The other thing that amazed me was the name, though, "Blue Tongue". Never mind that, according to the DEFRA website a blue tongue is rarely a clinical sign of the illness, don't you think the name is delightfully graphic? Human diseases don't seem to have such clear names, although I suppose 'whooping cough' comes close.

It set me wondering what diseases we would name in our society if we looked carefully. What about

• "Rights not responsibility disease"? Can be diagnosed by seeing a greater care about what is owed to the sufferer than what they owe and the latter stages involve losing it all anyway.
• "Who cares about tomorrow disease"? Clinical symptoms including debt, relational unfaithfulness, a tendency to twist the truth and occasional abuse of alcohol or even drugs.
• "Money disease"? Sufferers of this disease find it increasingly hard to value anything except money, resulting in isolation, misery and extreme poverty in everything which matters. Highly contagious.

Have you any suggestions?

But the great thing, of course, is that there is a cure to all of these...