It used to be said of Jimmy McGregor that he was the fourth official member of the Legislative Council. Whatever the three ex officio members thought, SuperJim thought it too.
Sure enough, our Jim soon found himself elevated to the Executive Council. Nowadays, of course, the Government has no official members. The civil service looms intimidatingly from the Government benches. It speaks its mind with the same authority it always did. But it has no votes.
Except one. David Chu's. Up he stands and defends its positions as eloquently as SuperJim did.
This is odd, given Mr Chu's position on the Preparatory Committee. But that may say more about the Government than about Mr Chu. Last night he even voted against his fellow Preparatory Committee member Eric Li.
Mr Li, an honourable and principled Public Accounts Committee chairman, was attacking the Government, though with sorrow in his heart, for its refusal to hand over Executive Council papers.
These papers might prove it had acted correctly over the Hospital Authority. Alternatively they might prove the Director of Audit's point that the Government had got the authority horribly wrong and misled Exco into the bargain. But unless it was prepared to hand over the papers how would anybody know? Emily Lau supported him with her usual vim and vigour - although she left the Attorney-General shaking his head.
Albert Chan, a man not given to supporting the Government under any circumstances, called Hong Kong's political system feudalistic and backward. Executive-led government was totalitarian and colonial into the bargain. Then he admitted the Government was generally most co-operative. But not this time.
