The Sketch: The PM displays his perfect pitch when it comes to sincerity

After yesterday morning's press we thought we were in the Sixsmith-Mottram matrix (you will remember how the Transport Department's senior civil servant summarised that situation with mandarin precision: "Everyone's f****d!"). The French veto meant no second resolution. If Tony Blair went to war without one, he'd eviscerate the UN, marginalise Britain in Europe, tear his party in two and get killed over top-up fees by the vengeful left.

But later that morning, there had been a victory in the Parliamentary Labour Party. The prospect of regicide had rallied the waverers. Jack Straw did well. Very well, by some accounts. He brought dissenters into a sort of ragged, mutinous line-like thing. And then Blair produced yet another new character in the House of Commons, a variation of "Public School Scrum Half Whose Sister's Been Insulted In A Bar".

This was the bible study variant. "The Scrum Half at Bible Study". It listens intently. Its seriousness is palpable. It is in the grip of a higher power.

Maybe God, maybe not. But its sincerity is very deftly pitched: "It is important I set out what I believe to be (drop voice almost to inaudibility) right." What makes this characterisation rare is that, for it to work, the Prime Minister has to be telling the truth. As long as he confined himself to how hard he had been working to secure the UN's co-operation he was unassailable.

Labour's Derek Foster laid it on thick; too thick. The Prime Minister's heroic efforts with the UN enjoyed the overwhelming support of all sides of the House, he said. That brought forward a muted round of hear-hears, with one false treble. It sounded very half-hearted and was followed by embarrassed laughter.

Labour's Tony Wright normally gives us a shimmering gong but very little dinner; yesterday, he presented us with soup to nuts. He read a 1998 letter signed by the current American hawks calling for regime change in Iraq – with no mention of weapons of mass destruction, moral imperatives, human rights, or terrorists. "This is the smoking gun!" he said, and he was clearly right. Rumsfeld et alii have been planning this attack for years, the current rationale is incidental.

Mr Blair eclipsed the point by saying he was not responsible for what other administrations said; he couldn't even control what some people in his own administration were saying. Warm, companionable laughter filled the House.

John Randall (anti-war Tory who resigned as a whip) asked to see the advice the Attorney General had given the Government. He said it would help persuade his constituents war was right. Mr Blair said: "It is not the convention to publish the advice. It is the convention to say we have a legal basis for action." I bet it is, matey! The rumour is the Attorney General's advice has been negative. So Mr Randall's air force constituents could be tried for war crimes in the International Court we've signed up to. As could Mr Blair.

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