Et tu, Heathcoat-Amory? The Conservative MP had the final question of PMQs on Wednesday, and by using it to talk about the evils of wind farms he helped Gordon Brown off the hook. Well, up to a point.
Appearing in the Commons the day after it emerged that the government had overseen a quite staggering blunder in losing the records of 25 million people from the child benefits database, Gordon Brown ought to have been pulverised by David Cameron.
Yet for much of the session, and thanks finally to Heathcoat-Amory, Brown was able to keep his MPs in combative spirits and avoid the pincers of the nimbler Tory leader.
A cleverly-planted friendly question from Labour's Anne McKechin was up first, asking the PM to make a statement on the Revenue and Customs calamity and allowing him to tackle the problem on his own terms.
He profoundly regretted and apologised for the "inconvenience and worry" caused to the 7.25 million families whose data was on the two CDs that have vanished somewhere between Tyne and Wear and London.
Brown did not sound like he felt particularly apologetic, and his tactic for dealing with this monumental cock-up seemed to be to blame it on the junior employee responsible for sealing the jiffy bag.
Of course no minister, let alone prime minister, wants to have to take responsibility for a far-away office junior who clearly breached the rules.
But Brown failed to answer Cameron's suggestion that if such a lowly member of staff could repeatedly copy a major government database with the speed at which a party leader fills his iPod in the morning, it might be evidence of "systemic failure".
Cameron tried to get Brown to agree that the department was a basket-case. But Brown was on solid ground when he announced the establishment of a review - number 1,001 of his premiership so far - by the cabinet secretary and insisted that the right rules were in place.
The loss of the data drew gasps of disbelief in the chamber when the scale of the problem was revealed by Alistair Darling on Tuesday, but the Labour ranks noisily dismissed Cameron's claim to be standing up for concerned families.
If Cameron found Brown more confident and resilient than in recent weeks, he did pierce the PM's defences with his attack on the ID cards database - saying the public would think it was "truly bizarre" and "weird" that he would not reconsider the plain in light of the HMRC cock-up.
Brown seemed to lose his cool and fell back on listing the government's successes - a healthy economy, low inflation - emergency lines that are so well worn he was drowned out in hoots of derision.
The avuncular-yet-forensic acting Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable widened the debate to some of the Treasury's other recent blunders, but the PM deflected the attack with his usual confusing joke about the Lib Dems' leadership election.
Labour MPs would have left the chamber demoralised by Brown's performance, but for a heroic rescue by Heathcoat-Amory.
The patrician Tory - Eton and Balliol-educated, and one of the House's wealthier MPs - launched a tirade against wind farms.
Short of mentioning 'bicycles' he could not have done more to lift Labour spirits, because - as everyone knows - Cameron has tried to install a wind turbine on the roof of his London home.
"No wonder the leader of the opposition is blushing", said Brown. "His party is all talk, and no action." It did not make any particular sense, but it allowed Labour MPs to leave the chamber with an unaccustomed spring in their step.
The verdict:
Gordon Brown: 7/10 - Apparently thriving under pressure, Brown was more robust despite answering tough questions over HMRC
David Cameron: 7/10 - Another open goal thanks to official cock-ups. Failed to bring the PM to his knees, but did make him lose his temper
Vince Cable: 8/10 - Brown ignores him every week, but the best leader the Lib Dems never had probes with a confidence Sir Menzies Campbell never achieved
