Chris Gee / ◣ ◢ \ also @chrisgeeuk.bsky.social

ALT Why, Tory MP Sarah Bool asked, had the government decided to do it this way? “You’ll appreciate that it was before my time in the department,” Morgan explained. It wasn’t his fault, he’d only got there in June. “But I’m very keen to learn lessons from this year,” he added brightly, which will be a huge comfort to farmers. Alistair Carmichael, the Committee chair, looked at Morgan in the way that a bull might look at a rambler who had entered its field determined to exercise their right to roam. Had Morgan been told in advance that the scheme was likely to be oversubscribed? “I very much understood the level of demand,” Morgan said. “That’s why we communicated via the DEFRA blog.” And if farmers weren’t checking in on the DEFRA blog five times a day, that was their stupid fault. “Lessons have to be learned,” Morgan said again. It’s not clear who by. Learning lessons isn’t his job. Carmichael pawed the ground and began cantering towards the hapless minister. “The decision to carry on w