The show trials, that is, after the massacre (the victims are in the dock, obviously).Kim Howells was obviously sober. But his analysis of the two-state situation is more commonly heard from someone face down in a Leicester Square gutter.Finally, John Maples put the rudest point of order we'd heard, accusing the Speaker of a lack of honour, refusing to call a Tory on the only Israel question on the order paper. Terrible fate.Ian Pearson sounds as if he is about to burst into tears It is a very odd quality in a minister Sion Simon is his PPS There can't be any appointment more humiliating. But I sense a roar of protest: You have a cruel streak which I deprecate But you're right. Handsome, popular, humorous Stephen Pound is PPS to Hazel Blears.Douglas Alexander produced a classic: "I certainly recognise the status quo needs to be taken forward," he said. It's a sort of parliamentary limbo from which no "character" has ever emerged. Yet we have some abiding sense that death, even violent and untimely death, cannot destroy our relationships at the most important level; that love is indeed, as the Bible says, strong as death..

Politicians are stumbling around Parliament, giddy from binge lawmaking. Each week, another new law is introduced to give the police state more power, and the public even less. Today the House of Commons debates the Government's new terror laws. But what is the point of creating new laws when old ones are not enforced? The rise of Islamic terrorism in Britain did not happen overnight nor did animal-rights activists or binge-drinking yobs appear from out of the blue. In each case, there was a litany of illegal activity taking place and in every instance the phrases that spring from news reports are "case dropped" or "no charges filed". Trustees at Stockwell mosque in south London have said they tried getting police help two years ago when an extremist group tried to take over The police did nothing. The closure of a guinea pig farm in Newchurch came after years of sustained harassment..

"Take away that pudding, it has no theme," Churchill is said to have said Such was Tuesday In no particular order, then. John Bercow's passionate attack on the Uzbek government ("brutal and sadistic regime" inspiring "hand-wringing impotence" caused by "reckless pursuit of filthy lucre") was met with Labour laughter It may be too late for Mr Bercow. He has become a "character" and nothing he says can be taken seriously. David Tredinnick is never listened to (people only wait for the words "complementary medicine"). Bill Cash is never listened to (people only wait for the letters E and U). And now, John Bercow will never be listened to (people only register his manner). We acknowledge the awful hurt of bereavement, especially of violent bereavement. When we are aware of a deep bond with the departed, it sometimes helps us see that death in itself is not the thing most to be feared.