We should be relieved that Eric Pickles has been called in to sort this mess out. He can then sort out the other messes DEFRA has got itself into. They could recreate the super ministry of DCLG and DEFRA, under Pickles, whilst getting rid of incompetents like Paterson, half the DEFRA civil servants and Chris Smith.

Cameron should have used this as an opportunity for a bigger reshuffle and dismiss the serially incompetent Owen Paterson