There's Only One Person To Blame, Drakeford

The BBC has carried some pretty awesome news this evening.

A public health law which includes a ban on e-cigarette use in some public places has been rejected by AMs after a row between Labour and Plaid Cymru. 

Plaid voted against the bill in a last-minute move, meaning the assembly was tied 26-26 and the bill failed. 

It comes after Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews said a previous deal with the party was a "cheap date". 

Health Minister Mark Drakeford said he was "deeply disappointed" that the bill would not become law.

So that's the ban on vaping in public places binned then, possibly for good.

Now, I'll reserve comment about how pathetic Welsh politics must be if an appalling law was tossed out not because it was appalling, but instead because of puerile "he said, she said" piffle you'd expect teenagers to have grown out of, let alone those entrusted with government.

But Drakeford's response is an incredible display of cognitive dissonance which is as amusing as it is staggering.

“There will be widespread anger that opposition parties, who had exerted a real influence on the Bill, failed to support it into law and abandoned all the important protections for the public it would have put in place, preventing a range of public health harms. They chose not to do so and they must answer for their conduct. 

“It would have introduced important new measures to improve the provision of pharmacy services across Wales and the provision of public toilets for the young and old; it would have introduced a ban on intimate piercing for children under 16 ..."

Yes it would have, but it's not opposition parties who are to blame, now is it Mark?

No. The person at fault is the one who initiated ignorance-based policy-making, ignored the scientific consensus on benefits of e-cigs, and knowingly lied to the Welsh Assembly in a desperate - and now ultimately vain - attempt to install one of his personal pathetic and evidence-free prejudices as Welsh state policy.

The culpable person could have removed the utterly daft vaping ban provisions - the major divisive sticking point - from the Health Bill at any time during its passage through the Senedd, but steadfastly refused to do so. Instead - seemingly determined to reserve himself a place in history as one of the most ignorant and comical politicians to have ever lived - he ramped up the lies and deceit to ever more preposterous levels the longer the farce went on. His own bigotry and irrational hatred was evidently more important than pharmacy services, public loos and piercing safeguards for children.

So if you want to see who is responsible for the failure of your Health Bill, Mark Drakeford, look in a fucking mirror.