Or has PMQs become, like those wrestling bouts shown on the telly, a bit of a put-up job?
The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition traded blows over both Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs, and Rosie Duffield’s likening of being in Labour to being in “an abusive relationship”.
But Sunak too wished to show the world he is not as other men, and in particular that today’s controversies occurred when Johnson was PM.
The Prime Minister replied that he was sticking by his principles and waiting for the findings of the investigation.
Two children watching the exchanges from the gallery did not get bored, so in that respect the pantomime had been a success.
He says that the NHS doesn’t need “Labour’s only idea” – namely, another large-scale NHS reorganisation.
The PM demonstrated his capacity for counter-attack, and neither Starmer nor Flynn managed to disconcert him.
Kruger had to courage to propose that Britain leave the ECHR and draft a new framework for refugees and human rights.
Flynn, the new SNP leader, has more brio than Blackford and could soon outshine Starmer.
The Labour leader presented Sunak as weak for surrendering to housing rebels.
Blackford attacked the Labour leader for “desperately trying to out-Brexit the Prime Minister”. Can it be that Labour is doing better in Scotland and the Nats are starting to feel worried?
The Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition clash over an OECD report on Britains’ economic prospects.
The Prime Minister portrayed himself as a sane, sober, consensual person who is hard at work improving people’s lives.
Sunak responded in a tone of impregnable reasonableness to accusations about Williamson.
“You can’t attack a plan if you don’t have a plan,” the Prime Minister tells the Commons.