Sir, – This year’s budget began to unravel within minutes of the Chancellor sitting down. The focus now is rightly on the eyewatering debt levels and total failure to address the financial problems we face.

Locally, the Tees Valley was denied the opportunity to take part in the city regions pilot and our ports have had their pleas for recently-introduced new taxes to be reversed ignored, threatening thousands of jobs.

I was struck, however, by a spending cut hidden deep within the red budget book. Uncovered by internet bloggers, but otherwise unnoticed, page 131 includes a commitment to cutting £44m from animal disease surveillance.

I remember at the time of the foot-and-mouth and bluetongue outbreaks the media was full of comment on the need for early detection and containment, yet this cut strikes at the heart of detection efforts.

Just as swine flu is beginning to dominate the nightly news, our unlucky Chancellor is slashing the budget for monitoring animal disease.

Napoleon used to listen attentively to the praise heaped upon the qualifications of his generals and officers before asking “yes, but is he lucky?”

When we next face an outbreak of animal disease, I trust the national media will take note of the cuts made in the budget; the severity of such outbreaks may be an act of god, but it will also be due to a lack of planning which may yet cost our rural economy and health dearly. I would rather not rely on the luck of this current government any longer.

JAMES WHARTON Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Stockton South.