Twenty's plenty? Au contraire - it's too little

IT'S not often that the nation looks to Wales for lessons in reactive government Labour's record there has been startlingly bad but on one crucial issue perhaps it should.

- Melanie McDonagh

Wales, like London, introduced a 20mph speed limit across much of the country in September. The Welsh responded with the eloquence characteristic of that nation that it was a really awful idea: 470,000 people signed a petition against it.

So back in April the First Minister carried out that well-known motoring manoeuvre, the U-turn. The 20mph proposals are being largely reversed, chiefly on those roads which aren't much used by pedestrians anyway.