Westminster at its worst

Anyone who thinks the House of Commons behaves badly at the best of times would have been sickened today. David Cameron went on the appalling case of Baby P, and twice the Speaker had to remind baying MPs that they are discussing the gruesome death of a 17-month-old toddler. His first intervention should have been enough to silence them (“It will not do, shouting across the chamber when this terrible news has come to us”) and after it, David Cameron switched. Whether deliberately or not he lost his cool, sweeping his notes to the floor. His question did deserve an answer: why should this baby’s death be investigated by the same council supposed to be looking after him?

Gordon Brown waffled for a while, then said: “I do regret [him] making a party political issue of this issue”. Sure, Cameron had been short – but party politics? When Brown gets in trouble, he reverts to playing the national unity card but here it was utterly inappropriate.  Cameron