Last week, he signed up to M Chirac’s vision of CAP non-reform. And so it has turned out: Mr Schr? dined at Downing Street two days after his election. It looked at the time like an ingenious example of short-term diplomatic opportunism. So was Mr Blair’s last-minute endorsement of Gerhard Schr?’s re-election campaign. Last autumn’s ill-fated Downing Street dinner, conceived ?rois and eventually held ?ept, was one case in point. That is a compelling combination and one for which he deserves only praise – at home.But when he says – as his spokesman did yesterday – “People just have to get used to the idea that just as the French will fight for their interests, so will the UK”, there is an edge there, an irritation, that betrays just how far Britain remains outside the European mainstream.Mr Blair’s efforts to form alliances to pursue Britain’s interests have sometimes misfired and at other times not lived up to expectations.

He is acting both out of economic realism and consideration for Britain’s best interests. I would not have voted to allow bills to be carried over if they have not completed their passage within the session – unless given clear assurances that the quid pro quo would be more time for pre-legislative scrutiny.If these housekeeping measures were put direct to the British people (it is after all their, rather than MPs’, Parliament), there would be an overwhelming majority in support of Mr Cook’s proposals. And because MPs will be able to table questions of a more topical nature, oral question times could become less sterile than they are at present.The argument boiled down last night to those, mostly on the Tory side, joined by an awkward squad of senior male northern Labour MPs with nowhere to go after 7pm, who see the reform package as a plot to stifle opportunities to make the life of the Government more difficult To that extent, they may have a point. Events this September surrounding the Iraq issue have finally made the argument for Parliament to return early before adjourning for the party conferences. As an observer of the political scene, I wholly support the proposals which Robin Cook, the Leader of the Commons, brought forward yesterday to reform the hours of the Lower House. At one point, when he fluffed his autocue lines, Merton said: “If you lose the skill to read out loud you really are losing the power to do this job.” Many a true word, BBC morality decided, and not that much of a jest.p.vallely independent.co.uk.

So remorseless was the barracking that at one point a woman in the audience shouted out: “Leave him alone.” To which Merton replied: “Is that a friend of yours, Angus? Don’t worry, love, it’s only another 20 minutes to go.”Throughout Deayton squirmed with smirking embarrassment. On seeing footage of Ulrika at the top of the show, Hislop began by quipping: “Is there anything else going on in this country apart from a list of Z-list celebrities having sex with each other?” Warned by Deayton not to disclose the identity of Ulrika’s rapist Merton asked: “It wasn’t you, was it?” And so it went on. That explains why it took two programmes of the new series to discover that Angus couldn’t do it any more.Even guests such as Christine Hamilton managed to score points off him, and his co-stars, Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, gave him a merciless kicking. You might call it the Clinton defence: it’s the economy, stupid. The key question decision-makers ask is “Can he do the job?”.

So is Angus Deayton; into its 24th series, his show’s viewing figures are as high as ever and it has moved from BBC2 to BBC1.In the end, I suspect, there is another reason. The reason the TV presenter revealed as Ulrika Jonsson’s alleged date-rapist last week was so swiftly removed from the air, the cynics insist, is because his bosses were going to axe him anyway because of falling viewing figures Barrymore, by contrast, was riding high in the ratings. Nowadays celebrities are allowed to operate in a stratosphere where normal rules of morality, if there are such things, do not apply.Some say it is about ratings. In those days betraying the image of innocence was sufficient. Or indeed when the Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon was summarily removed after he admitted taking cocaine. Gone are the days when the avuncular Frank Bough was swiftly consigned to off-camera darkness when it was revealed that beneath his V-neck pullover lay a propensity for a bit of drug-charged S&M. I’m not that sure viewers would accept him.”What brings about such judgements? Perhaps shifting social mores make judgement calls difficult.