Half a week on, and there is still no sign of another "radical thinker" stepping forward to fill the huge void in our lives left by the departure of Steve Hilton, the prime minister's 'Director of Strategy'. The talk is whether Mr Cameron, his government and perhaps the country, can survive.

It is, perhaps, a somewhat uncharitable thing to say of the House of Commons that the mood which descended upon it at Prime Minister's Questions, as it contemplated the likelihood that six British soldiers had been killed in an apparent landmine explosion in Afghanistan, seemed rather stifling.

In the middle of the week, Mr Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, announced that he was not "ideologically wedded" to retaining the 50p upper rate of income tax. Concerned Vince watchers were put on immediate alert.

With the Prime Minister in Washington, questions today fell to be answered by Nick Clegg. This was clearly an opportunity for the opposition to have a go at the Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party. Labour members joined in too.