Pleased agitators left town saying they would like to return for more free-speech indulgence as the trials neared.
For all that it was billed a classic Commons occasion – Prime Minister's Questions cancelled, a straight 10 hours cleared for speeches, unusual indulgence shown to placard-bearers on Parliament Square – the political prelude to UK air strikes on Syria fell short by a very long way of the calibre we saw and heard when MPs debated the Iraq War or, to go back much further, the Falklands.
When the leader shows himself unable to control his own appetite, the symbolic message, larger than any political speech, is that the indulgence of appetite is not one among many goods, but an absolute good - one that trumps prudence, caution and risks, signalling that everyone needs to curb their appetites except for those with power.
Jimmy Carter made this mistake in his 1976 "Malaise" speech, in which he admonished American "self-indulgence and consumption".
Anyway, there is not much time for such self-indulgence, and the chair's speech, as Motion remarked after four minutes and 20 seconds, has to be exactly eight minutes to suit the BBC's purposes.
Even today, Mr. Bush thunders in his stump speeches against boomer-style self-indulgence and appeals for a "responsibility era" that in some respects sounds like the 1950's; he likes values as clean-cut as his hair.
Thirty-three yeago ago this summer, President Jimmy Carter in 1979 gave what became known as his "malaise" speech, and he was criticized for chiding Americans for their focus on self-indulgence and consumption at a time they needed encouragement.
Here are extracts from his speech, delivered to American religious leaders in New York.Nihilism as a mere philosophical indulgence may prove socially quite harmless.
"Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption," Jimmy Carter declared in 1979 in his "crisis of confidence" speech.
Searching for his acceptance speech on his cellphone – he had written it while flying back – Spall begged the audience's indulgence for his disorganization: "I spent a lot of time being a bridesmaid, but this is the first time I've been a bride".
