The accepted wisdom of the events of last October focuses heavily on a chain of events starting with Labour's election speculation, the George Osborne conference announcement on Inheritance Tax, David Cameron's own conference speech and Brown's Andrew Marr interview on the Saturday calling off the election. I remember one other key event in helping to define the renewed view that Brown was a disaster, and that was the first PMQs after the recess, where Brown was on the back foot from the beginning, and David Cameron's very first question was to effectively accuse Brown of not being truthful. The whole exchange is worth re-reading in full, as it defined the relationship of the two leaders with each other and in the eyes of the public for the rest of the year, and cemented Brown's image as a ditherer and a bottler, and Cameron's as the man in the ascendancy.
Some commentators might feel that the banking bail-out this morning will overshadow anything the party leaders might say to each other in the noon face-off. And, let's face it, in the two days since Parliament has re-assembled, the atmosphere in the House has been lethargic and off-beat, as Iain Martin and Jonathan Isaby have both pointed out. Nevertheless, David Cameron will face the choice today between being more low-key and consensual, or hammering Brown for his Government's part responsibility for the mess we are in, and particularly the Prime Minister's reputation for economic competence, which has been severely shaken but is not gone completely, at least according to the polls. Looking back to last October, and the lessons to be drawn from it, I hope and expect we will see David Cameron hit the PM hard this afternoon, despite the apparent consensus on the bailout package.