TO GET into the Commons yesterday, you had to cross a picket line. Actually, it’s not a line so much as a gaggle and I am also told that, technically, it is not a real picket line.

This is because it has been decreed that MPs cannot be impeded on their way to the Commons. Therefore, Labour MPs who crossed the line didn’t actually cross it. (Don’t ask how these things work, they just do: that is the marvel of the Commons.)

The first question at PMQs was about the strike by cleaners. They are paid £5 an hour and have 12 days of paid holiday a year. That compares with MPs who are paid £59,095 per year and have 12 weeks’ paid holiday. Oops, I forgot: MPs don’t call it holiday because they will be working super hard during the summer break that blends seamlessly into the autumn break that turns into the party conference season. The next time they won’t have to cross a picket line for PMQs will be in October.

Kelvin Hopkins was one of a score of Labour MPs wearing stickers supporting the strike. He announced that he had visited the picket line (obviously not crossing it) to show solidarity. He asked Mr Blair to ensure that a fair settlement was reached.

Now the Prime Minister likes a problem, and the bigger the better. He has spent a lot of time and effort, for instance, getting the most-powerful men in the world to end poverty in Africa. But poverty in the Houses of Parliament is, of course, something else entirely. The dispute was a “commercial matter”, said Mr Blair, which was a matter for the House authorities. He went into statesman mode for most of the rest of PMQs, which centred on the fight against terrorism.

The Opposition Leader, Michael Howard, was also in statesman mode. They agreed on everything and praised each other for doing so.

The Commons is suffering from the feeling that the silly season needs to start soon. It was a relief when Labour MP Anne Begg asked the Prime Minister if he would be spending the summer doing what everyone else had been doing last weekend. Mr Blair looked quite perplexed. I could see him mentally ticking off what happened last weekend and coming up only with that exciting event, the Labour National Policy Forum meeting.

Ms Begg saved him by mentioning the words Harry Potter. Mr Blair broke into a grin for it is a name he recognised. You may think that obvious but such things cannot be taken for granted. It is hard to forget Mr Blair’s pre-election appearance on the Richard and Judy quiz show, when he needed help to identify a guinea pig and a courgette.

Ms Begg ruined her question by going all political and talking about literacy. Mr Blair turned to his briefing folder but admitted it held nothing about Harry because all those men at No 10 are Muggles who don’t understand magic makes the world go round.

Mr Blair said that he did understand the book opens with a fictional prime minister being confronted by the minister for magic. “I am still searching for the minister,” he joked. So who is the magical minister? Well, some say it is Peter Mandelson, who isn’t really in Brussels at all.

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