As you well know, football edged that little bit closer to home last night as England expertly and confidently bided their time to dispatch Colombia on penalty kicks.
The game was the biggest television draw since the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, with ITV reporting a peak of 24.4million viewers – an 81% share of the total UK audience.
Alas, while many fans were able to plant themselves in front of a screen of some description, it turns out that a smattering of politicians working the Tuesday shift at the Houses of Parliament were prevented from doing so.
Conservative MP Douglas Ross (who also moonlights as a professional linesman from time to time) was seething about missing the match, accusing his rival party, the Scottish National Party (SNP), of deliberately dragging their heels to ensure he would miss the majority of the action.
We saw games again from the @theSNP tonight. I don’t mind how often we vote but it took longer for 33 of their MPs to vote than it did for more than 300 on the other side with House Staff sent to investigate the problem. Feel for staff forced to stay on to deal with these antics. pic.twitter.com/zJUbdvxrSj
— Douglas Ross MP (@Douglas4Moray) July 3, 2018
The SNP forced five votes during the last-16 tie, beginning at 19:00 BST on the dot – the exact time England kicked off at the Otkrytiye Arena.
The session dragged on for over and hour, finally adjourning at 20:18 BST – one minute before Harry Kane thumped the Three Lions ahead from the spot to open the scoring.
Needless to say, those politicians wanting to watch the game were not best pleased, with one accusing the opposition of “pathetic theatrics”, according to BBC News.
Seems the flagrant shithousery we’ve been treated to so far at the World Cup is now even seeping into high level government.
Marvellous.