TOMMY McAvoy is a record holder. Until last October he was the only member of the government to have held exactly the same post continually since May 1997.

That post was pairing whip, or Comptroller of the Queen’s Household, if you want the official title. Tommy is a legend in these parts, and since I know he reads this blog, I’ll leave it at that. Suffice to say that he’s exactly the kind of chap any government would want in the whips’ office; he’s now Deputy Chief Whip.

Last night, on the way to vote in the Aye lobby, I passed the despatch box in the Commons and saw that someone had passed a note to the minister who had been speaking before the vote was called. The note was informing the minister (I think it was Chris Bryant) how long he had to speak before he had to sit down, since business was on a rigid timetable with “knives” — pre-agreed points of interruption when votes are called — inserted into the agenda.

I smiled when I read the note; it read “Two minutes”, and, underneath that, in a clear attempt at instilling some authority into the instruction, the writer had added: “From Tommy”.

Chris’s speech did not overrun.