Mrs Fawkes prevented Guido from seeing the first PMQs clash live (the picture on the right is from a previous PMQs session) but reports reach Guido that in the Public Gallery were Gordon’s brother and Wilf Stevenson. They will have been disappointed.

Watching the recording, Brown got off to a surprisingly shaky and stammering start. The act he is putting on will be difficult to maintain, trying to sound unnaturally consensua, as fake as his new smile. Give it a few months and the inner Gordon will come through. His perfomance was such that he was slapped down by Ming. That was a change…