Who would be a new Prime Minister? David Cameron's in-tray will be overflowing with 'urgent' requests and insistent demands. Every special interest group which felt neglected by 13 years of the Labour government believes they deserve a hearing. Many will consider they are owed a positive response to their request.

Inevitably, with the economic constraints imposed by the requirement to reduce the deficit and the political reality of operating in a coalition some of those requests will have to be turned down. But lines must be drawn in the sand. On some issues, Mr Cameron must deliver.

For the countryside, one problem dominates: the scourge of bovine TB. Last year 40,000 cows were slaughtered and taxpayers forked out £90 million to compensate farmers for the stock they lost. Bad as they are, those figures hide even greater misery. The compensation does not always cover the cost of replacing animals or make up for the loss of prized pedigree stock. Then there is the anxiety of every TB test and the anguish of a breakdown in a previously clean herd. Add to that, the often unseen devastation to wild animals, particularly badger and deer, and it is shameful that in 13 years Labour failed to tackle the crisis.

So if Mr Cameron does only one thing for the countryside in his first 100 days at Number 10 it must be to tackle in a serious way the bovine TB nightmare. And that must include the urgent implemention of a policy that appeared on both the Conservative and Lib Dem manifestos, namely the science-based targeted culling of infected badgers.

The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) is – understandably since its members are hardest hit by bovine TB – leading the call to Mr Cameron to act. Few other countryside organisations with an interest in farming would disagree with that priority, however. There are, of course other rural issues to which the new Government must give some attention but without tackling bovine TB livestock farming and in particular dairy farming is going to be operating with one arm tied behind its back. Lift that scourge and so much else can improve for the better within the rural economy.

New governments of all political persuasions come to power with high expectations on their shoulders. Many, sadly, disappoint. Over-promising and under- delivering is a trait of new governments everywhere; promises made on the campaign trail are easy; policy delivered around the cabinet table and in the House of Commons much more difficult. David Cameron will have more excuses than most for failing to deliver everything he promised, given the peculiar nature of the new politics under which he must work and the terrifying size of the financial crisis.

That makes it all the more important that he does deliver on the really key issues. They do not come much more 'key' so far as the rural community is concerned than tackling bovine TB. It was only a lack of will that hampered Labour on this vital issue. The new coalition cannot afford to fail the countryside too.