HENRY DEEDES: Jess Phillips is no shrinking violet, but she was right to call for calm – Daily Mail, Daily Mail

Grown-ups like to warn overly-revved up children that it’ll all end in tears. Many of us here in Westminster have been heeding similar warnings about Parliament for quite some time.

The House of Commons is now a swirl of toxicity. Noxious. There are run-down boozers scattered alongLondon‘s Old Kent Road that feel more inviting.

On Wednesday, when returning members were wound tighter than watch springs, things finally spilled over.

The Prime Minister’s comments about the late Jo Cox were crass. Idiotic even. Should he apologize? I should say so.

But the truth is the explosion of animosity between the two sides of the chamber on Wednesday had been a long time coming. So it was mildly depressing that after Jess Phillips (Lab, Yardley) tabled an Urgent Question yesterday on the Prime Minister’s use of language, the session once again descended into partisan point-scoring.

Boris, predictably, didn’t show up. Kevin Foster, a blameless squirt from the Welsh Office, was dispatched as the Prime Ministerial flak jacket.

He wasn’t much cop, which was to be expected. Though there was a slightly graceless lack of charity around the House for the hopeless position in which he’d been put.

Phillips accused the Prime Minister of deliberately trying to stoke hatred in the chamber. As a personal friend of Cox, it is understandable she would wish to take the PM to task over his remarks.

And as the recipient of death threats, it is also right that Phillips would wish to tone down the incendiary language.

But as Parliamentary observers will attest, Phillips is hardly one of the chamber’s shrinking violets. It should not escape comment that she is often, in fact, one of its more animated contributors. Maria Miller (Con, Basingstoke) noted that at the previous day’s febrile sitting Phillips had been one of the MPs screaming the loudest. Muffled murmurs of approval from the Tory backbenches.

Miller and Phillips are colleagues on the Women and Equalities Commission. Phillips’s look of irritation suggested they wouldn’t be sharing spa days any time soon. Jeremy Corbyn was ‘extremely disappointed’ the PM hadn’t shown up. Possibly one for the ‘not true’ file.

Last thing Jezza wanted yesterday was another argument about ducking an election. Actually, Corbyn was admirably statesmanlike.

‘No side has the monopoly on virtue,’ he said, reminding members of their duty to remain civil. We could have done with more speeches such as his.

Elfin-like Kirsty Blackman (SNP, Aberdeen North) said the Prime Minister was demonstrating to young people all they had to do was break the law ‘and shout people down’ to get ahead in life. The Scots Nats shout people down? Never! There was uproar when Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con, Harwich and North Essex) unnecessarily tossed a hand grenade at the dispatch box by suggesting members ceased from invoking Mrs Cox’s name to political advantage.

‘Outrageous!’ Screamed the Labor benches. Strange chap, Sir Bernard. Does insist on kicking a hornet’s nest.

Ex-Labor leader Ed Miliband blamed the referendum: ‘Not all of us wanted one

Mother of the House Harriet Harman suggested the Parliamentary rules on name-calling might be updated.

The current guidelines, which bar members from calling each other ‘stool pigeon’ or ‘braggart’ aren’t exactly tuned to the vernacular of the 21 st century.

We had some light relief from Sir Alan Duncan (Con, Rutland and Melton) morphing nicely into a playful backbench tabby cat, who hoped the House’s esteem would not fall as low as it did 350 years ago when Samuel Pepys noted: ‘The Rump has fallen so low in the eyes of the people the lads on the street do now cry “Kiss my Parliament!” ‘

In other news, the House voted not to break for Conservative Party conference in Manchester. Imagine the howls of outrage if the Tories had conspired to block a Labor conference!

Most Tories intend to journey North anyway. Considering the atmosphere around here, who can blame them?

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said on Wednesday this is a dead Parliament – and he was right.