Every year on Thanksgiving, the US President gathers in the rose garden with his advisers, family and members of the US press gallery for the annual turkey pardon. It's a great ceremony. The president picks out one turkey out of thousands and saves it from execution. It's a unifying event. It brings the whole nation together with a feeling of sentimental attachment to the pardoned turkey. This year the run-off was between an 18-kilogram beauty by the name of Peas and a 19-kilogram beast by the name of Carrots. There was an election. Peas won. There was a dispute. There was a re-election and Peas won again.

It appears that the practice has lost something in translation across the Atlantic, because this year when the Prime Minister conducted his own version of a turkey pardon there was no up-swelling of gratitude when he saved the member for Hughes. Far from being a unifying event— (Time expired)