Why trail a report five days in advance?

Whilst I have to admit that I was quite impressed with the trailed details of the report that John Redwood will be publishing at the end of the week, I have to also admit I was a little confused by the timing of the whole thing. Normally when you're going to trail a report you don't usually do it a full five days before you publish do you? Usual practice is to brief hacks the night before, or maybe two days before with an embargo right?

Having pondered on this for a moment I thought I might ask someone the question, and was surprised by what I heard. It was suggested to me that the first anyone in CCHQ knew about the detail of Redwood's plans was when he was sitting on News 24 yesterday morning. Apparently, the main story for yesterday was supposed to be Damian Green's announcement on forced marriage which found itself relegated on the news agenda. The BBC were apparently going to use it as one of their main political stories for the day but then Redwood's report popped up.

All very odd if true.

Update: Have just read this over at Iain's blog. Have to say I agree with Redwood's analysis of how Labour have tried to portray his report. The amount of pointless form filling that goes on in business, especially small business trying to grow, is insane.

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