There was a shocking number of empty seats. Cassandra warns that this sort of drab production will mean even more, driving core audiences to the seductive HD cinema broadcasts.

I've watched plenty of sessions of Prime Minister's Questions where David Cameron had got the better of Ed Miliband. But this was different. It wasn't that Labour didn't look like a potential party of government. They simply didn't look like a mature political party at all.

The market was flat for most of the session but fell sharply after Reid's comments, a signal that investors remain skittish about the wrangling in Washington. The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, rose on Reid's words.

Whatever their personal animosities, Mr Balls and Mr Miliband remain united in their gut belief that raising rates of corporate taxation will yield revenue without driving businesses (and the jobs they provide) out of the country. Similarly, although they half mumble from the corners of their mouths that working should always pay better than welfare dependency, they remain emotionally committed to policies which achieve the reverse.

The ECB began the process ideally looking for a high profile former England player to replace Morris but a succession of candidates ruled themselves out including Andrew Strauss and Angus Fraser, who has decided to stay at Middlesex.