Sketch: The Commons has a Beecroft in its bonnet Say, for example, you have an employee who could win a gold medal for "chillaxing," and spends a crazy, scary amount of time playing Fruit Ninja on his iPad. Sure, this employee insists he's working hard, but he isn't actually getting anything done. Naturally, you don't want to wait years before you can kick this guy out - you want to be able to get rid of him now. Well, here's the good news. If "firing at will" becomes law, anyone answering to the above description could ultimately find himself out on his ear. In Dr Cable's absence, the job of defending Beecroft fell to a junior minister, Mark Prisk, the Conservative MP for Hertford and Stortford. Labour MPs jeered and derisively asked Mr Prisk how he expected the report's ideas to help the economy grow. They clearly saw him as an easy target. They were, if you like, firing at will. Mr Prisk did his best to put up a stout defence. He was punchy, springy, quick to his feet; his energy put one vaguely in mind of a middle-aged Scrappy-Doo. Come to think of it, his surname would make a good word to describe people like him. "Prisk" (adj): a portmanteau of "pugnacious" and "brisk." For example: "He fired off a prisk response." Or: "He spoke priskly." Mr Prisk was at least consistent. When someone agreed with him, he called their view an example of "informed debate"; when someone disagreed with him, he called their view an example of "partisan banter." Every time Labour MPs criticised any of the Beecroft ideas, Mr Prisk sniffed that they shouldn't make up their minds until they'd read the report. Difficult, as at the time he was speaking it hadn't been officially published; in fact it was published about an hour after the debate, and only because a leaked version had been on the Telegraph website all day. We wait to see how many of the Beecroft ideas the Government takes up. Whatever happens, the whole affair probably isn't doing much for the job security of Dr Cable.