There were extraordinarily wild scenes in the Commons yesterday as the Liberal Democrats and Tories wrapped themselves in the Union Jack, told America to get lost, gave the Government a kick and went home early to sing Land of Hope and Glory and drink PimmÂ’s. It was like a dream, if an extremely noisy one.
The madness of it all surprised everyone, for it had begun soberly with a worthy but dull Lib Dem speech on the inequities of our extradition treaty with the US. It was, as they say in that terrible place called America, Yawnsville. But then Mike OÂ’Brien, the Solicitor-General, made a crucial error: he said something interesting.
Mr OÂ’Brien did not refer to British bankers at the centre of this debate as the NatWest Three. Instead he called them the Enron Three. The Tory backbenches buzzed with outrage. Boris Johnson shook his head so hard that I thought it would come off. |