Anyone who had doubts about Mary Wallace's suitability for the position of Minister of State for Agriculture will surely have been silenced yesterday by her performance at Minister's Questions.

During a debate on red-tape and regulation, Wallace burst into a recitation of "Old McDonald Had a Farm"

It is important to state the only occasion in which all that paperwork would need to be used would be in a case where a farmer had all of the following on his or her farm: wild birds nesting; a habitat or two; sludge; cattle, sheep, goats and pigs; milking cows; and arable crops. He or she would also have to have an outbreak of foot and mouth; blue tongue; and swine vesicular disease. He or she would be a fairly unusual farmer
"Eee I, Eee I, Oh."

It's great to see that Wallace has shrugged off the complete incompetence that beset her during her stint as Minister with responsibility for Disability issues.

I'm also reliably informed that before he was made Minister of State at Transport, our old pal Ivor Callely had to hum the entire theme tune to "Thomas the Tank Engine" before being appointed.