Mrs May makes her point as dignity breaks out at last in the House

If you’ve never watched Prime Minister’s Questions in person, you may not know about the pointing. It happens all the time, and it’s weird. Whenever an MP criticises a rival party, a hefty proportion of his or her colleagues – scores or even hundreds of them at once – will point accusingly at that party’s MPS. If, meanwhile, the MPS being pointed at believe that the criticism is hypocritical, then they – scores or even hundreds of them at once – will point accusingly back. There are times when it seems as if everyone in the Commons is pointing at everyone else – the entire chamber a forest of righteously quivering arms.

At PMQS two weeks ago, for example, Jeremy Corbyn accused the Tories of in-fighting. Immediately, Labour MPS pointed at Tory MPS, Tory MPS pointed at Labour MPS – while Angus Macneil, of the SNP, pointed at both Labour and Tories at once: his right arm outstretched to point at Labour, his left arm outstretched to point at the Tories, and his head jerking 'frantically from left to right to left.

At long last, it seems, the Speaker has finally had enough of it. Normally he scolds MPS only for shouting, but at yesterday’s PMQS he scolded them for pointing, too. Twice, in fact. “Orderrrrr!

‘Normally the Speaker only scolds MPS for shouting, but at PMQS he scolded them for pointing, too. Twice, in fact’

Far too much noise and fingerpointing!” he blared, after five minutes. And then, 20 minutes later: “Orderrrrr! All sorts of very curious hand and finger gestures being deployed…” I appreciate that, in the hierarchy of urgent political issues, “MPS all pointing at each other” comes reasonably low down.

All the same, it does say something about the tone, not to mention the standard, of PMQS. It makes MPS look like the Hubert Lane-ites: the spoilt schoolboys from the Just William books, gleefully pointing and jeering at their foes from behind the safety of the Lanes’ garden gate.

Yesterday, though, there was at least one outbreak of dignity. Just half an hour before PMQS began, Jared O’mara, the MP for Sheffield Hallam, had been suspended by Labour. Mr O’mara – who remarkably has yet to make his maiden speech – was absent. Nicky Morgan (Con, Loughborough) asked Theresa May to respond to Mr O’mara’s alleged remarks about women. To her credit, Mrs May did not seek to exploit the news politically; she did not seize the opportunity to attack Labour in general by, for example, accusing the party of institutional misogyny, or laying the blame with Jeremy Corbyn.

Instead, without even mentioning Mr O’mara, she said simply and soberly that all in the House must “give due care and attention to the way in which we refer to other people, and show women in public life the respect they deserve”. No one heckled, no one jeered – and no one, blessedly, pointed.