But how grateful ,after 40 minutes of solemnity, the House was to be given a licence by Johnson the ex-PM to laugh.
Some MPs continued to boo him, which was as it should be. Johnson delights the pit by infuriating the prigs.
Also: on the centenary of his assassination, Unionist MP and war hero gunned down by IRA gets memorial in Parlaiment.
Johnson was once again placed under no real pressure by an opponent who relapsed into verbose self-righteousness.
An off-colour joke between colleagues. Why say it? Why leak it? Why print it? Why lie about telling it?
There was a disconcerting absence of disagreement as MPs competed with each other to see who could demand the toughest sanctions.
The Prime Minister much preferred talking about a serious subject, the defence of Ukraine, indeed the defence of freedom.
The Prime Minister was in ebullient form, full of hope for himself and his country, two entities he wishes never to see sundered.
How the pendulum swung from the police not pursuing guilty Savile to pursuing innocent Proctor – and the disaster of Operation Midland.
He had to stand in the stocks and allow himself to be pelted, sometimes by members of his own party.
Anyone who refuses to understand why calling Sir Keir Starmer “a lawyer” is an insult will never comprehend Johnson’s appeal to the wider public.
The Prime Minister engaged in demeaning exchanges with the Leader of the Opposition, but will be worried by a lack of support on his own side.
“One of the most friendly, thoughtful and well-liked members of the House of Commons.”
The Speaker recognises that formal attire serves an important purposes, for legislator and official alike. If only his predecessors had done so.
Hoyle is within his rights to disapprove of the media reporting Commons gossip about Rayner, but not to summon journalists.