How, I wonder, would a Labour party in office like the task of meeting Some International Crisis and perhaps of championing freedom and of preserving the sanctity of treaties with a hopelessly weakened Great Britain?

When day after day there are prophecies that next week or the week after there will be Some Great International Crisis that will produce war, you cannot blame people for not going on with housing programmes, or launching new business.

It is that the Coalition Government is running down, hanging on week by week, and month by month, and hoping that Some International Crisis will give it a dose of oxygen and blow it up again.

Clearly, he had the powers already under the circumstances to which he referred - the possibility of Some International Crisis.

He can determine which Bills are hybrid and which are not; use a casting vote if there is a tie; recall the Commons in a recess - a formidable power - in the event of Some International Crisis; certify a money Bill; and rule on matters of privilege.