Lord Strathclyde said the last time a Conservative backbencher had put forward an amendment against the advice ofthe clerks, both he as shadowleader and the then Labour leaderofthe House had agreed on it being withdrawn.
Theshadowleaderofthe Commons, Angela Eagle, claimed in the Commons that the Sheffield Hallam MP had "refused to appear" on BBC Radio Sheffield to answer questions about the impact of government cuts on his own constituency.
But still theshadowofthe past is in every conversation, from the indicted leader in The Hague, who is filling newspaper inches every other day - and there are an awful lot of newspapers in Liberia - to the young adults whose education was disrupted, to the nation's ruling elite.