YESTERDAY was a red ­letter day in the weirdly amorphous world of parliamentary committees.

It’s been ages since they had a proper bastard to have a pop at, that they were not in some way beholden to.

So when senior Google executive Matt Brittin took his seat they were positively salivating at the opportunity to showboat and set out their credentials as tough seekers of the truth and paragons of probity, both of which are sadly lacking most of the time.