In 1987, as Minister for Higher Education and Science, I was despatched by Margaret Thatcher to CERN in Geneva on a delicate mission. It was the era of “the cuts” and I was the bearer of unwelcome news. For us the biggest black holes were in the budget, and particle physicists would have to overhaul their expenditure like everyone else.

It was not that Mrs Thatcher had a grudge against pure science - she was scientifically trained, but as a chemist, and particle physics seemed to her the spoilt child of the scientific family. Our contribution to CERN was expensive and she wanted some of it diverted to less speculative fields of research, with a better chance of producing short-term fruits.

I travelled with steely intent, yet it was impossible not to be awed by the grandiose subterranean structures, the brilliance of the physicists and the nobility of their task: discovering the ultimate constituents of matter. I felt a little humble as I disclosed the tawdry purpose of my visit - though not for long.

New to my job, I had supposed that I could discuss things rationally with scientists. I was wrong. To begin with, they declined to accept my basic premise: that in deciding where the cash should go, governments have to balance priorities, not just with the NHS etc, but between scientific disciplines. My physicists dismissed other claimants for cash, such as their brothers in the promising field of biochemistry, with derision, as wholly undeserving.

Times Archive, 1974: Black holes may be explosive

The young Cambridge astronomer Steve Hawking has suggested that these cosmic objects may occasionally destroy themselves in violent explosions

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Nor did my proposal for greater international co-operation with America go down well. Naively, I had supposed science was an international co-operative endeavour, but again I was wrong. All that mattered was that Europe steal a march on the US in this scientifically sexy field.

Instead of being cool-minded, objective folk, these were fervent searchers after truth, which they pursued in their underground cathedral with quasi-religious intensity. This made earth-crawling people such as politicians, forever rabbiting on about budgets, priorities and growth, not just scientific Philistines, but outright infidels.

I was to meet many more scientists imbued with similar passions. Irrationality in their case took the form of a virulent resentment of particle physicists, not just for hogging research funds but for seeing themselves as the aristocrats of science. I would have said high priests; but priests or aristocrats, we trimmed their funds. I hope the Higgs boson particle will be found in this experiment, not least because if it isn't someone will no doubt argue that failure to discover the ultimate truth about the Universe is due to purblind budget-cutting by petty-minded politicians like myself.

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