Tony Blair’s mind must have been firmly fixed on his Black Wednesday. Things couldn’t possibly get worse, he probably thought.

Then along came bird flu. And right on my doorstep too, right in the heart of my MEP Robert Sturdy’s constituency in Norfolk.

Being an early bird myself, I called him in Brussels at 6.15am (7.15am his time) to tell him the bad news. He had not yet been told.

He was shocked, but his main concern was that the government should not bungle this. We issued a press release outlining the measures introduced by Robert which have been included in guidelines for dealing with bird flu; he was a rapporteur on this.

He emphasised that these measures should include the low strain pathogene too, such as H7, and not just the more virulent strains. This means a slaughtering policy, ring fencing the affected area and paying compensation.

Farmers are not a sexy subject, and they have had a nightmare week having just learnt that the government has asked the European Commission for an extension to pay their single farm payment from 30 June to 15 October.

This delay is crippling them. And sadly the news has been buried by other bunglings and misdemeanours of our government.