Dignity was in short supply among MPs as they debated the sobering issue of whether or not to send our armed forces into battle in a highly-charged House of Commons.

The prime minister's ill-judged 'terrorist sympathiser' comments - a threat to his own side not backing him - hung heavy in a packed chamber.

He was offered a bit of motherly advice from MP Gisela Stuart who suggested he should just apologise.

He didn't take it.

But Labour MPs also failed the self-awareness test as they relished prolonging the indignation that had been previously directed towards their own supporters.

Until now it had been an anti-war minority lobbing insults at those who did not agree with them.

Conservatives, many who agreed that their prime minister had undermined his office as a statesman, decided to go on the attack with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn as he rambled his way through his case against war.

A decision to bomb Islamic State terrorists in Syria will 'almost inevitably lead to the deaths of innocents', he told the House of Commons.

Furious Conservatives wanted to put him on the back foot asking what his current position was on the current action in Iraq, a question he was not keen not to answer.

Neither of the leaders had a great day out at the despatch box.

It was SNP Angus Robertson who really landed the blows.

He boomed that the Prime Minister's case fell down on the 'vital' aspect of whether there were enough ground forces to take and hold IS territory.

He played to the floor repeatedly asking Tory MPs to intervene on his speech to answer the question of how many of the 70,000 rebels were moderate and how many were fundamentalists.

It was only when the leaders sat down that the debate really got going as the veterans with a depth of knowledge really got to the heart of the matter.