To sit on the front row requires a brief moment of hanging almost over the side of the chamber itself. It’s a privileged perch but there are moments, like Wednesday’s sulphurous exchanges, when it’s wiser to keep the hostilities at a distance and watch the bearpit on television. John Bercow, the Speaker, described the atmosphere as “worse than any I’ve known in my 22 years in the House”. It is, of course, a subjective question but this observer, of a similar vintage, cannot remember hatred being so nakedly expressed by so many and at such length across the divide. The whipping of Labour MPs to support the Iraq war in March…

Source: The Times September 26, 2019 23:03 UTC