He said that Conservative and Lib Dem colleagues had "made the coalition work effectively" and argued that peers had "taken to coalition more quickly and more naturally" than might have been expected because no party has an overall majority in the Lords, meaning that negotiation between parties was commonplace.

BBC: Queen's Speech debate

But going back to 2000, the above statement uses the term "strictly limited" for the import of game consoles, meaning there's still space for negotiation.

ENGADGET: China's complicated history with video games: when a ban isn't really a ban

Hence, in the past week or so, the insistence, by such well-meaning luminaries as Jordan's king and the Saudi foreign minister, that the time is ripe for negotiation.

ECONOMIST: The Middle East