What were all those MPs doing on their phones?

When Labour's John McDonnell stood up to respond to the autumn statement on Wednesday, half his party's MPs started noodling on their phones behind him. Was it the height of rudeness - or all part of a modern-day MP's duties?

They filed into the House of Commons chamber to learn what Brexit means for the economy, and filed out to be shamed the next morning by newspaper picture editors armed with yellow pens. In one photograph, half of the 42 Labour MPs sitting behind John McDonnell can be seen immersed in their mobile phones while the shadow chancellor responds to the autumn statement.

"Isn't that awful?" asked Judith Woods in the Daily Telegraph, comparing the "rude" MPs to millennials unable to resist the lure of their devices during pub quizzes. "Isn't this addiction steering dangerously close to out-and-out junkiedom?" she added, gamely offering to "restore Britain's manners to their factory settings".