On "Question Time" last night, a question was asked about whether Britain's licencing laws were in part responsible for the culture of binge drinking. Tessa Jowell's responded with a typically politician's answer eventually saying that she and the government would look at licencing reforms if necessary to address the issue.

All well and good, apart from the fact that she was Kim Howell's boss and seems to have completely forgotten that there is a major reform of the licencing laws recently passed but not yet implemented. It took the Lib Dem spokesman to remind her of this a little later.

The military refer to certain types of missiles as "fire and forget" and this seems to be the way many ministers seem to approach making laws. I'm genuinely not sure whether this is reasonable or not. I am certain *someone* does need to be following up on the impact of changes, but should *ministers* have this as part of their responsibility, or should they always be focused on the current and future issues?