Guido never really bought into the decrying of Norman Lamont. He said a few things that were ill-judged but his judgement wasn’t that bad. He was put into the ERM debacle by Major and was happy to escape it, even if it was a messy exit.

So it was good to see his double rehabilitation yesterday, not just with Shriti welcoming “green shoots” but the Prime Mentalist himself quoting the former Chancellor’s views. Cameron was attacking the VAT reduction, Brown defended it bya citing Lord Lamont support for it. Prudent Gordon who spent a decades denouncing Lamont as an uncaring, incompetent, economic buffoon responsible for the destruction of the British economy, is now cited by Brown as evidence of the rectitude of Labour economic strategy.

In the same vein yesterday Phil Woolas chided Norman Tebbit on the Daily Politics for his wooly liberalism on immigration issues. Who is nasty now?

At PMQs Gordon told Dave that around the world “no one except him is proposing we cut public spending at this time”. Not true Gordon, the Irish Times reported yesterday that the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, has told senior trade union officials that the state’s borrowing figures are unsustainable, billions will be cut from exchequer spending this year. Guido will bet a lot of Guinness that as a result Ireland will be out of the recession before Britain.

Merrill Lynch has just issued a warning that “In our view, the UK faces a unique set of challenges making the sovereign and the banks especially vulnerable… We believe the issue for the UK is that asset quality deterioration across all lending types is pretty much certain.” Credit markets are roughly assigning a 10% probability that the UK will default on government debt within the next five years. If government spending is not controlled, Gordon really could bankrupt us…

UPDATE 15 January : Simon Carr’s sketch this morning makes a good point:

Cameron was wading into the VAT reduction (at a national cost of £12bn it’s giving two packets of crisps to the average family a day). Brown defended it and cited Conservative support for the policy. Chief supporter: Lord Lamont. Gordon has spent 10 years denouncing Lamont as an incompetent, malevolent, economic illiterate who was responsible for the destruction of British economy. And Cameron isn’t suitable to be in public life because he was once standing beside him in a photograph. He really is shameless, our PM.

A Freudian slip from the Prime Mentalist? In his own mind he believes he is the saviour of the global economy, his bail-out copied from the Swedes, he reckons has been copied by all. Sarkozy thinks differently, Merkel thinks he is going to destroy the public finances, EU Finance Commissioner McCreevy gave a pointed speech about the downward spiral of government debt.

He leads the world he is saving, in his mind…

Quentin Letts in the Mail and Anne Treneman in the Times have identified another abuse office of by Brown. Have you wondered why it increasingly sounds like a football match during PMQs and big debates? The speaker is more than ever admonishing even frontbenchers. Letts highlights the tactics of Labour Party’s yobbish, undemocratic whips:

An astonishing 17 members of the Government Whips’ Office rushed in as Mr Osborne started speaking, to mix with Labour backbenchers and give an impression of widespread outrage.

The way they appeared from nowhere it was as though someone had just lifted a manhole cover and so many sewer mice had come scampering into the cockpit of democracy.

I have noted before the rising tendency of these state-paid Whips (they receive ministerial salaries which place them comfortably in the current top-rate tax bracket) to pack the Labour benches when a Tory is speaking. Never has it been so bad or obvious.

Whips traditionally kept silent in the Chamber. Under the leadership of Gordon Brown – the same Gordon Brown who poses as a defender of Parliament and who claims to want to hear the Tories make their case – this custom has been trashed.

The Whips are now rent-a-gob.

Today a twitchy little man called Lucas, one of the Whips’ number, stood by the double doors heckling Mr Osborne like a football hooligan. The place where Mr Lucas was standing was not officially part of the Commons playing-field.A moment later he stepped over the red line on the carpet and strode to a seat.So it can be said legitimately that a servant of the Crown entered the Commons bawling abuse, like a drunk entering a Wild West saloon.

Another Whip, Bob Blizzard (normally meek), was sitting beyond the gangway in a little knot of Labour MPs. Mr Osborne was trying to explain Conservative policy. Labour people kept trying to get him to give way so that they could make interventions – and throw him off track. “Give way!” shouted Mr Blizzard. I watched him. He said it more than five times, top of his voice, smirking as he did so. Five times!

Speaker Martin tried briefly to quell the Government side but he was no match for this wall of noise.

Another Whip, Mark Tami, chuckled as larky neighbours kept jumping up to try to disrupt Mr Osborne.

Ian Austin, yet another high-salaried tribune of Her Majesty’s Government, leaned back, played pocket billiards and drawled ruderies out of one side of his gob.

Nick Brown, Chief Whip, sat near the Chancellor and oozed satisfaction.

Have just watched (for the first time all the way through) Sky’s coverage of PMQs and have to say the post-match play-by-play format is superior to Brillo’s post-PMQs style – have a few old political war horses round to chuck in their tuppence on the issues – format. It was a bit stale and boring in comparison.

Sky’s coverage was more like sports reporting, which is how it should be. PMQs is a bloodsport…

Will be flicking between coverage on Daily Politics and on Sky: