Flippant, weary and woeful, Boris Johnson and his government blustered before a justly angry parliament

So far from any grumpiness about being called back from their enforced holiday, our MPs spent their first day “back” from the prorogation that never was by putting on a showcase performance.

Minister after minister traipsed into the House of Commons to answer long, overdue questions about the prorogation, about the scathing Supreme Court judgment, about Operation Yellowhammer and Brexit readiness, about Iran and much else.

In the face of genuine, passionate and challenging questions from backbench MPs and, in particular, Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, Mr Johnson’s senior ministers were unforgivably flippant. Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, seemed to think he was grandstanding at the Old Bailey, Rumpole-style, and failed to show any contrition or regret, either about the prorogation itself, or the legal advice he gave to the government that the move was legal.

He has deigned to say he will “consider” being more open about the legal advice, but made no commitment to do so. Perhaps the Commons will have to drag it out of him, as it has on previous occasions. The MPs are certainly in the mood to do so.

Equally woeful was Michael Gove, who answered serious questions about livelihoods, jobs, peace in Ireland and the rest with a series of quips that would have shamed the Oxford Union Society or any sixth form debating society.

His remarks to the effect that the British Retail Consortium and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders had told him they were “ready” for Brexit was at best ill-defined. Again, there was no sense of the gravity of the situation, whether economic or constitutional.

Nor, again, had Mr Gove come up with the goods demanded by the Commons – the latest papers and so-called non-papers relating to Brexit preparations and negotiations, or lack of them, nor the details of the various other operations named, slightly incongruously, after species of wild birds.

Mercifully, Mr Gove chose not to give the nation a Brexit riff on the dead parrot sketch. That might have shuffled his own career off this mortal coil.

When at last the prime minister emerged, presumably recovering from a bad case of jet lag, he was like a knackered music hall act, going through the motions, reciting the old lines about the “communist” leader of the opposition, the 17.4 million and so on, and all delivered in a curiously jaded way. It is almost as if Mr Johnson knows that his days in Downing Street are numbered.

He knows that he will, sooner or later, have to ask the European Union for an extension to Article 50. And when the 31 October deadline comes and goes, Mr Johnson’s failure to achieve the Brexit he promised, “do or die”, will mean he will, at that point, have no policy on Brexit.

Little wonder he wants to get it all out of the way; but the inherent contradictions of Brexit mean that the prime minister cannot do so. Apart from one short reference, Mr Johnson tried his best to ignore the Supreme Court judgment. It was not convincing. Mr Johnson had an opportunity to set out his vision, his plan for Brexit, and offer a little of the optimism and inspiration he is supposed to be so good at. No sign of either.

So far from being a “dead parliament” as Mr Cox foolishly described a Commons elected in 2017, the atmosphere was, despite Mr Johnson’s weary routine, lively. The people’s elected representatives held the executive to account, embarrassed senior members of the government, and showed up to the nation how hollow the no-deal Brexit plan really is.

No wonder Mr Johnson wants to spend as little time as possible in the chamber, avoid questions, and evade scrutiny. It is he, and no one else, who is the biggest chicken in the coop.