PMQs turned into something of a chuckle-fest but the only person not laughing appeared to be one Edward Samuel Miliband.
Try as he might to pin down the Tory toff on how Dave's loadsamoney friends in the City were being allowed to avoid tax, the PM was able to dodge the Miliband barbs because he had been provided with some readymade gags courtesy of, er, the Labour frontbench past and present.
The parting shot of an aide to the Welsh Labour leader, Carwyn Jones, was to liken the chief comrade to one of the Chuckle Brothers. But to add insult to Labour injury, one of the Chucklers responded by quipping that he would never want to be called an Ed Miliband. (NB the Chuckle Bros didn't even complain when Messrs Paisley and McGuinness were compared to them.)
As Flashman rolled off how former Blairite Ministers had cast aspersions about the chief comrade's policies, he asked: "Is it any wonder that the Chuckle Brothers have lodged an official complaint and said they don't want to be compared to the two clowns opposite."
If that was not enough Ed Balls's unfortunate lapse of memory over the name of a Labour supporter from the world of business also helped Blue Dave dodge the tax dodge question.
He barked: "The day after his Shadow Chancellor was asked on the television could he think of one single business leader(who supported Labour), do you know what he said - he said: 'Bill somebody.' Bill somebody's not a person, bill somebody's Labour's policy!" The Tory berserkers went, yes, berserk with glee. The comrades slunk deeper into their seats as the Miliband hole got deeper and deeper.
Ed stiffened his back and kept on stoically about the hedge fund tax avoiders but daylight was fast beginning to disappear as the PM asked if one of Labour's biggest donors, who had avoided tax by making a gift to Labour in shares, had given the taxpayers their money back.
There then followed a slanging match over your party donor was a bigger tax exile than my party donor by which time Red Ed's hedge fund dodgers' point had dissipated into thin air.
Meantime during all the blue-red dinging and donging, the SNP contingent appeared to be in a state of transcendental nirvana with glazed smiles on their faces; the Ashdown poll numbers still singing in their heads.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article