Flicking through the Budget Red Book (as one does) Guido’s eye alights on page 131. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is cutting £44 million from “animal disease surveillance through a more risk-based approach to monitoring and enforcement and by sharing costs with industry“.

The same beloved “risk-based approach” as was advocated by the then Chancellor Brown and his SpAd, Ed Balls, for financial markets?   The same.

Just as Swine Flu approaches British shores?  Don’t worry, it started in America…