China spy case gives MPs the opportunity to discuss their favourite topic: themselves | John Crace

"There are few things that MPs take more seriously than themselves. Their desire to put themselves front and centre of world events. Their need to imagine that everything they do makes a difference. No greater self-love hath any person than this. If they were to have a therapist, I am sure they would be having a field day. The triumph of ego over ever-diminishing quantities of self-worth."

"So the collapse of the Chinese spy trial has been a godsend to almost every opposition MP. Now, you might have thought the key components of the case were two blokes called Christopher being accused of doing the espionage. Albeit fairly basic stuff like leaking diary engagements that weren't exactly state secrets in the first place. But how wrong you would be."

"Because what elevates this case to a matter of national security is that the people allegedly spied on were two Tory MPs. Nothing could be of greater importance than this. Had the Chinese been trying to access our nuclear codes then this would have been an everyday matter of indifference. After all, we are almost certainly doing the same to the Chinese. Or if we aren't, then we ought to be."

MPs display pronounced self-importance, positioning themselves at the centre of international events and inflating the significance of their actions. The collapse of the Chinese spy trial became politically useful to opposition MPs because the alleged victims were two Tory parliamentarians, elevating a relatively minor leak into a national-security issue. The leaked material reportedly involved diary engagements that were not state secrets. Parliamentary scrutiny intensified with multiple urgent questions after the Crown Prosecution Service dropped charges. Conservatives sought to blame the government for the collapse and to portray the outcome as politically influenced.

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