Sketch: The Commons convenes for an emergency back-pat On the whole it wasn't so much an emergency debate as an emergency back-pat. Embodying this much-lauded maturity was Mr Clegg. Today, he said, was not about point-scoring. "This is not a victory for any one individual or any one party - it is a victory for working together and putting narrow interests to one side," he declared nobly. A transcript of his words was available on an email sent to the media by Lib Dem spin doctors, just above a table they'd created to spell out the differences between the parties" positions and show who'd come out best. Mr Cameron looked in good shape for a man who'd apparently had such a busy night. Talks on the Royal Charter, we were told, had concluded at 2.30am. At first the story went round that not only had Mr Cameron been absent, he'd been tucked up in bed, asleep. This news didn't go down well. We were then hastily told that although Mr Cameron hadn't been present he'd been awake. Next we were told that Mr Cameron had in fact been awake till as late as 3.20am, and had got up again for a conference call about the talks just two and a half hours later. Tributes to his tirelessness kept escalating. At any minute I expected to hear that he hadn't slept since Pancake Day, or Christmas, or prep school. Maybe he's actually a dolphin and sleeps with one eye open. That would explain the confusion. Anyway, by the time of the emergency back-pat he seemed in reasonable spirits. As well he might, I suppose, having avoided a potentially embarrassing vote. It took over an hour before an MP expressed doubts about the day's triumph. "This House is at its best when there's an element of tension in the debate," said Charles Walker (Con, Broxbourne), "and I'm concerned that there isn't that tension in the debate today." Unfortunately the chamber had thinned out by then, so there weren't many MPs left to hear him.