If the (official) Tories go down to an even worse defeat next time, Howard will be for the chop the next day, even if he manages to hold on to his own seat.

And the paradoxical thing is that disillusion with Labour could well hit the Tories badly, since it would make it much more likely that former Labour voters will vote tactically, and switch to the Lib Dems in seats where they are the challenger, of which there are quite a lot, including Howard's.

Given the vagaries of the electoral system it would be quite possible for the Tories to get a higher proportion of the vote overall and win fewer seats.

And, no, you don't quite agree with me about Prime Minister's Questions, Fionn. My main contention is that, win or lose, this doesn't really matter a straw when it comes to determining how people vote and whether they vote, out in the real world. It's really primarily about impressing other MPs - which of course is important in its way, as poor old Iain found out this week.

How Howard comes across next time he's up against Jeremy Paxman on TV is probably a lot more significant than how he comes across up when he's up against Tony Blair.