on an eerie day in 議会 ;SECOND GULF WAR

JOYOUS peals from the belfry of St Margaret's Church, a peace carnival on 議会 Square, 有望な spring 日光 and good-natured toots from slow-moving traffic: outside the House of ありふれたs yesterday lunchtime it did not much feel like a day to 負担 爆弾-bays and 解雇する／砲火／射撃 up a B52.

Inside the 議会, though, the mood at 総理大臣's Question Time was stunned, almost awed. It was all very different from the cheery din of tin whistles, tom-toms and 'Tony Blair's a plonker!' 詠唱するs that could be heard outside.

Just a few hours earlier, on Tuesday night, the House had been on a high as MPs cast their 投票（する）s and reached the 決定／判定勝ち（する） to 行う war.

Now, although still 完全に 十分な, the 議会 had the 空気／公表する of a Wild West saloon the morning after some almighty hooley.

You almost 推定する／予想するd to see the 床に打ち倒す littered with 瓶／封じ込める 最高の，を越すs and bookies' beaten dockets. The place was becalmed.

The 静かな was almost unnerving.

Had someone 圧力（をかける）d the mute button by mistake?

Tony Blair and Iain Duncan Smith did their question-andanswer 決まりきった仕事 without any of the usual background heckles or grunts. They might 同様に have been a couple of 隣人s chewing over some horticultural advice over the garden 盗品故買者. You could have heard a dove （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 its wings.

Mr Duncan Smith asked a 一連の grownup questions about the Iraq 危機 and received polite, 非，不，無-議論の的になる replies.

'The whole House wishes our 軍隊／機動隊s God 速度(を上げる） and a 安全な return,' said Dunkers, who like many 政治家，政治屋s is able to use a cobwebbed 表現 like 'God 速度(を上げる）' and not blush.

Mr Blair agreed with the Leader of the 対立. No one rhubarbed or gossiped. They just sat there, perhaps amazed by the previous night's 投票（する） or perhaps plain 脅すd. I don't know. It was really most 半端物.

The reverie was rudely broken when Charles Kennedy, Lib Dem leader, cranked himself on to his two toothpick-thin 脚s. That boy looks as though h e could use a tablespoonful of malt. Mr Kennedy and his desperate little 禁止（する）d of 投票（する）-vultures have become the 反対する of 激しい 怒り／怒る around the 残り／休憩（する） of the House during this 危機.

労働 and Tory MPs are perfectly happy to 許容する …に反対するing 見解（をとる）s. But the one thing they cannot swallow is the greasy cynicism, as they see it, with which the Lib Dems have tried to muscle in on antiwar 感情s for 選挙（人）の advantage.

'Charles Kennedy!' cried the （衆議院の）議長. 即時に the 議会 resounded to boos and groans and the 時折の hiss.

It happened both times Mr Kennedy stood, and it also happened later to Lib Dem MPs 示す Oaten (Winchester) and Lembit Opik (Montgomeryshire). 'Oh no!'

the House now shouts every time a Lib Dem is 招待するd to speak.

Compare Mr Kennedy's 歓迎会 to the one given a second or two later to Alice Mahon (Lab, Halifax).

Mrs Mahon has been 執拗な in her peace （選挙などの）運動をするing and you might have 推定する／予想するd her to receive the same catcalls as Charlie Boy.

Instead her question she was worried about 力／強力にする 供給（する）s to Iraqi hospitals when the 爆弾s start to 落ちる on Baghdad was heard with 尊敬（する）・点.

Talking of 尊敬（する）・点, or the 欠如（する） of it, Clare Short was absent from the 議会. She has 明らかに been catapulted off to America for a few days.

Shopping? Or maybe looking for a new career?

CHRIS Grayling (反対／詐欺, Epsom) について言及するd her 指名する and John Prescott started muttering something into the ear of the Welsh 長官, Peter Hain. Soon the two of them were sniggering.

行方不明になる Short was also not 現在の for a Tory-organised 緊急 審議, すぐに after 総理大臣's Questions, about 人道的な 救済 成果／努力s in 戦後の Iraq.

Her place was taken not by her わずかな／ほっそりした-talented 副, Sally 'Feeble' Keeble, but by the Foreign Office's longsuffering マイク O'Brien.

Why don't they just 解雇（する） Short and Keeble and give Mr O'Brien the International 援助（する） 大臣の地位 as part of his Foreign Office 責任／義務s?