PMQs: The tragedy of Richard Burgon

PMQs is sixty years old. Speaker Hoyle opened the proceedings with a reminder that the weekly cross-examinations began in July 1961.

Boris wasn’t there. Well, he was, but via Zoom. A televised shot of his head was beamed from Chequers to a flat-screen screwed to a high gallery. This was unfortunate for Sir Keir Starmer who needed to tackle the blond amplitude of Boris in person. Instead, he had to wrestle with an image, to punch at a vacancy and to skewer a shimmering square of coloured pixellations. It was like headbutting a cushion.

Sir Keir was armed with some excellent complaints about the government’s ping debacle. Millions of citizens have equipped themselves with a pocket robot that can place them under house arrest at a moment’s notice. The resulting chaos has been compounded by mixed messages from the government. Sir Keir made fun of their confused ramblings. One minister called the ping ‘advisory.’