The big question in the chamber today was: where is the deputy prime minister? We know that Cameron is busy having arguments over the Falklands with President Fernandez de Kirchner on the sidelines of the G20 but when he is away, we’re meant to welcome Mr Nick Clegg to the dispatch box. Yet Mr Clegg, there was none! Perhaps he has been relegated to the substitute’s substitute bench?

In his place came the one time future Conservative prime minister William Hague, finally achieving his life’s ambition, standing tall at the despatch box answering ‘Questions to the Prime Minister’. Today these covered a range of issues from the NHS to regional pay, from aviation strategies in Northern Ireland to Aung San Suu Kyi; but throughout Mr Hague gave a performance of which Mrs Thatcher would be proud. ‘More value for money under the Conservatives’ will add some rightwing spice to tomorrow’s Hansard. Today’s opponent was Harriet Harman, standing in for Ed Miliband.

There was a very strong element of déjà vu during today’s PMQs – those of us who are assiduous followers of the weekly battle have been waiting in anticipation for a rematch of the ‘Hague vs Harman’ battle – a key highlight of the Brown years. In addition to the déjà vu, there was a real feeling of ‘what might have been …’ from the Tory backbenches, who, if not regretting their choice of leader, were perhaps  wishing he was a little more like William ‘14 pints’ Hague. The almighty cheer let out when he stood up could probably be heard down in Mexico, if not Port Stanley – the prime minister had better watch out.

Labour’s deputy leader was filling in for her boss and put in, rather like Mr Hague, a polished and solid performance that ranged from statesmanlike (she asked about human rights in Burma) to ferociously party political (she rightly called out the government on its failure to honour its commitments on the NHS, not least the failure to hire 3,000 more midwives, as promised).

Labour seems to have finally realised that the ‘grey vote’ is both up for grabs and needs to be won over; so it was great to see Harriet attack the government’s approach towards older people who require medical support and care. As she rightly noted, this is an approach that can be broken down into two options – ‘wait in pain or pay and try to go private’; neither of which should be part of the deal in 21^st century Britain.

There was an array of backbench questions on a range of topics from all sides of the house – including on relations with the new French president, plans for regional pay, the regional growth fund and healthcare.

Honorable mentions go to:

1)      Ed Balls MP: the shadow chancellor was mentioned twice by the foreign secretary, despite not even being in the chamber. Whatever people think about Ed Balls, he is a big beast who scares the pants off the Tories and we should always remember that.

2)      Simon Hughes MP: the Lib Dem deputy leader dropped one almighty clanger when he called Hague the ‘deputy prime minister’ – are you thinking what we’re thinking, Mr Hughes?

3)      Mr Speaker: Denis MacShane asked Hague to record in Hansard the name of a civil rights activist in China. He refused but credit to John Bercow – Mr Speaker got the name in Hansard.

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Adam Jogee is a member of Progress and tweets @AJogee