IT'S been a long, unpleasant and pretty personal 36 hours. We're tired. We haven't just got a six o'clock shadow on our beards, but midnight stubble.

Television is an unforgiving medium, so we both have to be made up. As we go down the internal, concrete fire staircase from the seventh floor, he's rehearsing his lines - "What about this question? What about that?"

We emerge from the gloom of the stairwell into the dazzle of the TV lights. Straight onto the platform: at least a dozen TV cameras, over a hundred journalists. It may be one in the morning but this press conference is to be broadcast live, round Europe and the world. Every word matters. We're on the high wire (or rather he is - all I have to do is sit there).

A phrase or two out of place, and Britain's position in the EU, and wider field could be damaged.

Momentarily, I worry whether it would come out all right, given how knackered we were, and how emotionally drained we felt. But as soon as the Prime Minister opened his mouth, my worries disappeared.

Yes, of course I'm biased: but this was a stunning performance. No notes at all. A message so powerful and clear that I saw quite a number of journalists - almost involuntarily - nod in agreement.

A few weeks ago, I described Tony Blair as a "genius". I guess some people thought I was a creep, offering sycophantic praise of someone who happens to be my boss. But when I used that "g" word I was seeking to make a more serious point.

What is genius if it is not to achieve things which are wholly exceptional and unexpected and quite outwith the normal range of human endeavour?

There would have been plaudits enough if the Prime Minister had simply got through this press conference at the close of the ill-tempered and inconclusive European summit, where the issues boiled down to an argument between Britain and France over the future of Europe and our money - that famous rebate.

B

ut what the Prime Minister did was something quite extraordinary. Within two words he was soaring. As I listened I thought "cripes", "this is as though he'd written a big chunk of a Shakespeare play, and worked out how to orate it - and all in the time we were going down the seven flights of the fire stairs".

I

I think it accurate to describe what I saw as genius, just as it is also entirely correct to describe in the same way the Prime Minister's achievement over a dozen years or more in reforming my party so that it could became electable, and sustain that through three Parliaments.

The Common Agricultural Policy was developed in the 1950s when one of the key things the European Union was for was to increase agricultural production and thus end any prospect of starvation across Europe. A fine and noble objective then, but scarcely so relevant today. That's why we in the UK are arguing for a change in the whole balance of the EU budget, so by concentrating on research, development, innovation, rather than farm subsidies it can look to the future, and a better future not just for us in Europe but in the developing world.