With accusations of sleaze dominating the front pages and the rolling news channels, visitors to the public gallery might have been surprised to hear barely a whisper about money troubles at prime minister's questions this week.
The elephant in the chamber was Conservative MP Derek Conway's generous use of the public purse to top up his sons' pocket money, but - frustratingly for Gordon Brown - the Labour fundraising scandal which last week forced his first ministerial resignation meant he could not stick a clumsy boot in.
Conway's difficulties meant David Cameron had to keep quiet about Peter Hain's departure, while the Tory leader's delay in withdrawing the whip from Conway meant he had to drop his favoured attack on Brown as a "ditherer".
Instead Cameron went on the offensive over the paperwork needed to use police stop and search powers, the key line from a glowing interview which secured him the front page of Wednesday's Sun.
The search form is a foot long, takes seven minutes to complete, and is a "colossal waste of police time", he said, and promised to scrap it.
Brown told him to sit tight until he published a report on police bureaucracy by chief inspector of constabulary Sir Ronnie Flanagan next week.
Cameron continued to ask the PM if he supported getting rid the form, accusing him of being "physically incapable of answering a straight question", and of "flannelling about the Flanagan report".
Brown's Commons replies often take refuge in an eye-popping barrage of statistics to show how Labour has brought about record highs (of good things) and record lows (of bad). So Britain now has "more police officers than ever before in the history of the country" - this could be true, as there were only a thousand Peelers when they were introduced in 1829 - and Labour is "the first government since 1945 to see crime falling".
Brown is building a strong line of attack on Cameron when he accuses him of preparing his lines in front of the mirror - something Brown and Nick Clegg undoubtedly do too - as some of the Tory leader's barbs sounds distinctly over-rehearsed, at times even hammy.
But Cameron's lines are neater than Brown's, and look better on the TV news bulletins. So while he began the day stealing the march on Labour with his Sun interview, he will hope to end it with his promise to increase stop and search still running on Newsnight.
His second line of attack, calling for Muslim clerics who support terrorism to be barred from entering the UK, reprised a speech he gave on Tuesday night and probably gave the story fresh legs.
Brown's response, that the government would follow the correct judicial process, was a good one, but the Tory benches were much amused at his confusion over whether preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi was being banned or expelled.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg managed to still the chamber with an assured question on support for servicemen, ending by telling the PM people believed he "did not care about the armed forces".
PMQs finished with an appearance by Henley MP and London mayoral hopeful Boris Johnson, who used a "point of order" to say he had not - as Brown had earlier claimed - promised to cut spending on the Metropolitan Police (as election pledges go, it does sound unlikely).
Accusing Brown of "inadvertently misleading the House", he managed to deliver the opening of his stump speech before the Speaker told him he had "put the record straight".
The Verdict
Brown - 5/10 - Clumsy, but makes Cameron look opportunistic
Cameron - 6/10 - Knows how to stay on the front foot for the cameras
Clegg - 6/10 - Not making the headlines for the wrong reasons, but struggling to make them at all
