Even the most committed centrist journalists in Britain have taken to quoting Lenin this week: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Usually busy conflating the mild social democracy of Jeremy Corbyn with full communism, their attention this week has been captured by the fever-pitch psychodrama of the Conservative Party, as the government publicly implodes and manages to paralyze itself at every turn.

The “meaningful vote” that turned out not to be meaningful, nor a vote, when it was withdrawn from the timetable at the last minute kicked off the week of chaos. As if to underline that the British Parliament is an embarrassing anachronism deliberately removed from the lives of most citizens, parliamentary proceedings were halted when Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Mole removed the mace — a ceremonial gold-plated stick symbolizing the monarch — from a table in the center of the House of Commons.

It’s a rarely seen gesture intended to scandalize the house, usually when members feel the debate underway is undemocratic or causes heightened tensions and emotions. Having to explain the move to those unfamiliar with obscure parliamentary tradition, and those watching abroad, only bolsters the yawning sense of embarrassment at the utter state of British politics in the past few years.