A quietly simmering PMQs

Butch? What the hell does it mean? At the last session of Prime Minister’s Questions, Cameron boasted rather rashly that he was ‘butch’. Today Chris Bryant used it again when he accused the prime minister of anti-female prejudice in the recent reshuffle. ‘He described himself as butch last week,’ said Bryant. ‘Just what is his problem with women?’

Ed Miliband added to the attack and dubbed the prime minister, ‘Mr Butch.’ The word is out-dated but full of flavour and it carries hints of campness and homoeroticism. And perhaps a dash of homophobia too. But it doesn’t pack enough semantic value to have any traction as an insult.

Hostilities remained on a low simmer today. With the statement on Hillsborough due straight after PMQs, both leaders were striving for a high-minded and Corinthian tone. So luckily we were spared the spectacle of them rolling in the mud and cursing at each other like two chimney-sweeps scrabbling over a dropped sixpence.