David Cameron tried to ignore this ghoul – the responsibility for the bungling in north Africa was all his, and nobody else would be getting any credit! It was, after all, his government that had been responsible for getting Libya thrown out of the Human Rights Council. No-one knows why Colonel Gaddafi was ever a member, but thanks to the PM he jolly well wasn’t any more!

Ed Miliband is himself a haunted man and unfortunately for him the prime minister knows it. Dave rarely lets PMQs pass without cooking up an insult about the Miliband family’s fratricidal tendencies and yesterday was no exception. As Ed the Younger tried to skewer the PM on his lukewarm support for Mr Hague, Cameron spat back with a deadly quip about the ethics of knifing foreign secretaries. Labour ones, of course.

It was a scalding-hot line from Cameron, as they all too frequently are. At this point in the script Ed normally winces, the PLP sighs, the Lib Dems look conflicted and Tory backbenchers splutter their approval before repairing to The Goering for a spot of lunch. But then something strange and nearly effective happened; Ed Miliband called the prime minister’s bluff. ‘The more he brings my relatives into the argument’ he piped up, ‘the more you know he’s … losing the argument’. Soaring oratory it wasn’t. In fact, it was barely oratory at all, but it made the PM’s comment look petty and vindictive and might just persuade Cameron to leave the Brother, Where Art Thou gags at home, at least for a week or two. The leader of the opposition will live in hope.

Equally insubstantial matters were addressed when Peter Bone rose to his feet and began to tell the Commons all about his wife, who, it seems, is dreadfully upset about the European Union. She’s not alone, he informed the prime minister – Tory supporters, Nick Clegg and the Daily Express were also right behind her! Surely now, finally, the PM would have to let the people have their referendum? Apparently not. In his haste to stem the corrosive effects pan-European cooperation, Peter had accidentally pieced together an alliance of people his leader completely ignores. It was a bad oversight and we all hope Mrs Bone won’t be too embarrassed.

The Commons guffawed and I thought of Mr Bone, who once defended paying an employee 87 pence per hour, and the absent Mr Hague who used to vote against the minimum wage. Able rightwing attack dogs in their time, but Labour MPs are no longer afraid of either – these days both men scare their government much more.