PMQs sketch: Bring back ya-boo politics – at least it's watchable

We all know what’s wrong with ya-boo politics. Today we saw what’s right with it. Instead of the usual shouting match we had a calm, well-mannered, (and deadly dull,) debate. Miliband devoted all six questions to Ukraine. The party leaders tried to outdo each other in self-importance, bombast and name-dropping. ‘High sentence’ was very much the style.

In Miliband’s estimation we face, ‘the biggest crisis on this continent since Kosovo.’ So for him the tangled history of Europe reaches all the way back to the 1990s. His verdict followed. ‘These actions deserve to be condemned unreservedly,’ he said unmelodiously.

Cameron blathered about the EU leaders’ summit tomorrow. Miliband agreed that this was a significant thing to blather about. ‘One important outcome,’ he said with excitement, ‘could be direct high-level talks between the US and Russia!’

Gosh. Not just direct talks. High-level too.