It took a while, but yesterday there was a strange burst of rationality from the ship of fools also known as the Coalition party room.

Months after receiving a parliamentary committee report on nicotine e-cigarettes, in which both the Liberal chairman and leading Liberal member extraordinarily dissented from their own committee’s negative report, health minister Greg Hunt is daring the wrath of the public health puritanical pooh-bahs in agreeing to commission an independent expert inquiry.