Things can only get better (they can't get much worse)

In these scenarios - as he does with all others - the Gord simply dug his heels in, ignored the Tory jeers, and stuck to his Parliamentary guns: no referendum, it's a treaty not a constitution, we'll have a whipped vote in on it after three months of "debate", what do you think we're running here - a democracy?

By the time Tuesday arrived, all the talk was about the latest triple whammy to pound the PM: the Gould report on the election in Scotland, Yates of the Yard coming to give evidence to the Public Accounts Select Committee, and Lib Dem Norman Baker's conclusive evidence that Dr David Kelly was murdered by aliens. Actually, scratch the last one.

Yates threw a good performance and alleged - nurse the smelling salts - that Downing Street wasn't overly keen on being under investigation. That's funny, John, most people just love the boys in blue arresting them, leaking stuff to the press, and going through their bins.

The Gould report alleged that all parties were so busy colluding in the reforms to the Scottish system for their own reasons, that nobody considered the implication that thousands of people could be effectively disenfranchised. Alex "Judge John Deed" Salmond starting whistling and largely looking the other way at the findings: he don't care what those pen-pushers say, he won the election his way - and fair and square to boot. Cameron: "after months of stoking up anti-Scottish opinion largely because I am not popular north of the border I'll suddenly start behaving like Braveheart and calling this an outrage and blaming it on wee Dougie Alexander who was in charge of the Scotland Office at the time." The Gord: "Oh, shit."

It was a tactic that worked quite well in Prime Minister's Questions the next day, and Davy certainly had Brown rattled. The former had split up his questions instead of asking them all in a block at the beginning of the session, with the result that the PM was high strung and stressed all the way through the half-hour. An unedifying bout of stuttering and angry declamation culminated in the Speaker asking the Prime Minister to use more "temperate language" after he came dangerously close to calling Cameron a liar. Brown: 0. Cameron: 1.

In the brief period between waking up on Thursday morning and the MPs' expenses being released at about 5pm, everybody remembered that the LibDems were holding a leadership contest. And then promptly forgot again.

There was some interesting stuff from Brown about the nature of liberty and what the Government would do to protect it. Good stuff, and the news that Brian Haw's encampment is now legally sanctioned is the subject of celebration in Basra. Meanwhile, Straw announced consultation documents on the right to protest, and judicial appointments and later revealed that a green paper was to be published on a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

MPs are spending £82m of YOUR money on hard drugs and hookers according to the Mail. Guido, cleverly anticipating the claim that staff deserve decent pay and MPs need staff, focused on one St Philip of Hollobone who had only spent 75p on expenses this year, and, according to TheyWorkForYou, is one of the best MPs for answering correspondence (according to all those who correspond with him through TheyWorkForYou).

Friday was non-sitting so everybody nursed their hangovers and contemplated the fact that the latest YouGov poll for the Telegraph showed the Tories maintaining their three point lead over the comrades, combined with the exceptionally depressing news that Brown's personal rating had plunged into the red for the first time just as Cameron's squeaks into the black.

It'll need a belter of a Queen's Speech to put this one back on track, folks.