Isn't it obvious?

I'm always unsettled by the word "obviously". People too often use it in relation to things which are not at all obvious.

For example, Finance Minister Andrew Davies said this in the Senedd chamber today while answering questions about the Assembly's budget:

"Our complaint with the Treasury was that obviously they were using the baseline reduction in terms of calculating the percentage increase into the spending review consequentials that would arise from that."

Of course. It's obvious.

Nothing about the Assembly's budget is obvious, as others have commented. My favourite aspect of it is the fact that responsibility for match funding has gone from the Economy Minister - Mr Davies's old job - to the Finance Minister. So Mr Davies used to be in charge of this big spending responsibility in his old job, and now he's in charge of it in his new job.

This decision - enabling him to be associated with favourable press coverage in local papers every time match funding is used to build a new bridge - was taken by the Labour-only administration before the election. Obviously.