Palace of Westminster, London
‘THE PRIME MINISTER.’ The words of the Speaker, uttered with the customary stentorian gravitas, had only a limited effect on the noisy hubbub that always accompanied the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions in the House.
‘Thank you, Mr Speaker,’ the PM began, rising to his feet and looking around a nearly full House of Commons. ‘I am pleased to inform the House that, thanks to some exceptionally skilful negotiations by our hard-working diplomats, the crisis over Taiwan has, to all intents and purposes, been averted.’ He was interrupted by cheers from his own benches and the banging of hands on wood panelling, but he held up his hand for silence.
‘We are not out of the woods yet. There’s still a lot of work to be done. But we have conveyed to the Chinese authorities the impracticality of their position and I am pleased to say their attitude has been most cooperative. I would like to pay tribute to my Right Honourable colleagues, the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for Defence, for all that they and their staff have done to avert this crisis. Ladies and gentlemen, today is a day to showcase the benefits of diplomacy. I would ask you all to join me in celebrating that there has not been one single British casualty throughout this period of tension.’