With perfect timing, just a day before the Assembly has a Tory scheduled debate on red-tape for farmers, Elin Jones announces a review into...you guessed it...red-tape for farmers.
I'm not a farmer and I won't pretend I know anything about the amount of effect of red-tape for farmers, but two things tickled me about this announcement. The first was the timing of this announcement, the second is the Tories' response.
On the radio today the spokesman for the Tories, Mr Brynle "I am a Politician Honest" Williams AM, denounced the move as stealing the Tories' ideas. Fair enough, he clearly is right, but Brynle was gutted that the government had done this. Surely, as Agricultural spokesman, he should have been delighted that something which his party thinks is beneficial to farmers is being implemented?
It seems that, for Brynle at least, the purpose of tomorrow's debate was not to convince the government to help farmers, but to try and stick a knife into the government in front of the powerful farmer's lobby. He'd clearly rather score political points than see red-tape cut for farmers.
Whatever happened to consensus politics?
Update: Brynle on BBC News tonight saying that it "is very sad" to see the government do what he wanted them to do. I assume that what' so sad for him is seeing them do it without first letting him call them ugly names for not doing it.
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