Ken Clarke sat in the gallery of the Commons chamber to watch the Budget.
Earlier, on the radio, he had reminisced about his last budget as Conservative Chancellor.
The veteran Tory big beast mused that he had had one essential advantage at the time - the 1997 General Election, in which, he said: "We were certain to be massacred".
George Osborne had no such luck.
With the polls suggesting a potential photo-finish between the Tories and Labour, and a hung parliament, he had to give it all he had.
He was not helped by his own backbenchers.
The Chancellor had previously announced that there would be no "giveaways or gimmicks".
It is fair to say that many Tory MPs inserted their own dramatic wink into that assertion.
And then there was the family.
Mr Osborne's mum, dad and wife were also in the gallery, watching.
The Chancellor even straightened his tie before he got up to speak.
When he was on his feet he was bullish.
Britain was ""walking tall again", he announced, after years of economic problems.
But then he seemed to slightly veer off course, as if the Budget was his own interpretation of Trainspotting.
"We choose the future", he said to giggles from Labour MPs.
Others howled with laughter by the time he declared: "We choose jobs".
Other, more deliberate, jokes landed better.
Pledging support for the so-called 'internet of things' he ribbed Labour leader Ed Miliband, he of the double kitchen fame, saying that if in the future "to use a completely ridiculous example one had two kitchens, you could control both fridges from the same mobile phone."
Other jokes landed less well.
He told MPs the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt showed a strong leader defeating "an ill-judged alliance between the champion of a united Europe and a renegade force of Scottish nationalists".
It would be "well worth" spending £1m to celebrate the moment in history, he joked.
He also seemed determined to leave no stone unturned, no special interest group overlooked.
Need a new roof for your church? Ask the Chancellor, appeared to be at least part of the message.
But then there was the Chancellor's speaking voice.
It may have many qualities but stamina is not one of them.
Five long years the Chancellor has given Budget speeches.
And there is always a moment in which his voice cracks.
This time it appeared to give out about ten minutes from the end, but then rallied.
He finished with a flourish calling the UK the "comeback country".
Only a cynic would suggest that, following 2012 's omnishambles Budget, he was hoping for his own headlines describing the "comeback kid".
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