Andrew Alexander has delivered his verdict from the Commons chamber here, a narrow victory for Gordon Brown in his book.

For my part from the television pictures I'd say that was about right, with an honourable mention for Nick Clegg.

After a rocky start, the Lib Dem leader is getting better and better at PMQs, usually choosing good subjects, finding an appropriate form of words to express his anger and appearing to stand outside the Cameron-Brown spat that so turns off the public and disfigured proceedings last week.

But, as William Hague found, and polls show, this appears to be having no impact whatsoever on the polls.

New Forest East MP Julian Lewis, who has become something of a campaigner against the noisy protesters in Parliament Square, has just raised the subject again in a point of order following local government questions.

The Tory MP said he had received a letter from Westminster City Council, the local authority responsible for the square in front of the Palace of Westminster, saying they have no plans to prosecute any of the protesters.

As we've noted before, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act bans all unlicensed protests on Parliament Square - with the exemption of Brian Haw, who is allowed to stay in residence because his occupation pre-dates the law.

Lewis said the council had told him they were reluctant to prosecute because "the courts would be unlikely to impose a penalty much beyond a nominal fine".

He contrasted this with a recent report - one I can't find online - that Westminster City had ordered Debenhams to stop playing Christmas carols outside their store because, in the words of its 'noise team manager', "we don't think it's fair for hundreds of thousands of daily visitors to be bombarded by loud music as they walk past shops".

Lewis said: "Perhaps we should advise Debenhams that they should intersperse the carols with terms of abuse of politicians and our armed forces in order to be able to play their carols."

This morning's DCMS committee hearing into the BBC's commercial operations was, unsurprisingly, dominated by questions about "Sachsgate".

So keen were the MPs to ask director general Mark Thompson and BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons about the Ross and Brand scandal, the witnesses were kept in the hot seat for an hour longer than scheduled - until Sir Michael started to warn he was going to miss his train to Cardiff.

When they did get onto the subject of the inquiry proper, there was an interesting suggestion that the corporation has toned down its plans for BBC Local.

The service would see video news added to its network of local websites, and is under fire from commercial media providers concerned that BBC muscle will jeopardise local papers and TV.

But Thompson said the proposals are now more than four years old - pre-dating his arrival as DG - and have since become much more "focused".

He suggested the websites would allow local councillors and interest groups to access the public, but would be "punctiliously public service" rather than the "super-local TV" originally envisaged.

Amid the furore over 'sex education for five-year-olds' an MP has just suggested that sex education should be scrapped altogether. According to Conservative Philip Davies, giving young people more information has led to an increase in teenage pregnancies.

"The more sex education we seem to have had, the more unwanted pregnancies and teenage pregnancies we seem to have had," the Shipley MP said.

Claiming that "more sex education isn't the answer", he proposed that "perhaps less sex education or perhaps even no sex education" might help tackle the problem.

Remarking on the "looks on the faces of the frontbench opposite", schools minister Jim Knight said he was pleased Davies "doesn't reflect the opinion of his party's frontbench".

Culture, media and sport questions should be renamed BBC questions if today's Commons exchanges were anything to go by. Culture secretary Andy Burnham spent a large chunk of his time at the despatch box defending the broadcaster from attacks ranging from the ongoing Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross furore to the large bonuses bestowed on BBC personnel.

Denis MacShane pointed out that were he to use "that English vernacular word that begins with 'f' and ends with 'k' you would chop me off at the knees if not higher before I'd even got up". And bemoaning the "really offensive language" on TV, the former Europe minister called on the secretary of state to "tell the BBC, please tell Ofcom, you don't hear that in France, you don't hear it in Germany, you don't hear it in America". "Why has British broadcasting got to be in the linguistic sewer of our great language?" he asked.

Another amusing non-BBC related moment came when Burnham gave his support to X Factor reject Laura White. Describing his Leigh constituent as "wonderful and talented", he said it had been a "very harsh" decision to vote her out on Saturday.

I have a theyworkforyou alert to keep up with comments - always worth reading - in the Lords by Baroness Trumpington.

Recent inimitable contributions from the 86-year-old former agriculture minister and one time mayor of Cambridge include:

On attempts to reduce junk mail: "My Lords, does the minister agree that he is on a hiding to nothing and cannot win on this issue? Is he aware that I am entirely dressed by junk mail?"

On Boris Johnson's decision to scrap the planned pedestrianisation of Parliament Square: It was "extremely helpful to those of us who find it impossible to get home without a taxi. There are many disabled people here, quite apart from visitors. This House exists for its occupants, not for visitors. If any change is going to be made to Parliament Square, could those little tent people be moved to Marble Arch?"

On visitors to Parliament: "I sometimes wonder, looking at the very, very tiny children who come here, how much they will learn about the work done here and about this place. Is there any age limit? I sometimes think that they come here when they are a little too young."

On speed 'lumps': "My Lords, what is the government's view on removing lumps in the road and replacing them with cameras? I am told that these lumps cause bad emissions from cars and that they are equally bad for the cars themselves. It would be a great benefit to Prince of Wales Drive in Battersea if only we could have cameras and not lumps."

Something of a personal crusade, on addressing peers in the house: "My Lords, does the noble Baroness find as irritating as I do ministers who start everything off with, 'Well, my Lords'? Are they telling me that they are well? Are they asking me whether I am well? In either case, I hope that she will agree that it is incorrect."

Trumpington is a small village just outside Cambridge, and there's a great story here about how she chose her title.

As well as MPs' endless attempts to associate themselves with Barack Obama (apparently he won some small poll the other day), PMQs was notable for David Cameron's continued attempts to eschew parliamentary procedure and address Gordon Brown directly, rather than through the Speaker.

So instead of calling him the prime minister or right honourable gentleman, as is the custom, the Tory leader instead said to Brown: "You killed change when you bottled that election and you buried change when you appointed Peter Mandelson*."

It is a tactic Cameron has increasingly deployed in recent weeks, the point presumably being to make for a more effective soundbite and disassociate himself from Parliament's archaic language.

But Labour MPs were determined not to let him get away with it again, barracking enough to force the Speaker to intervene and remind Cameron that he "knows the procedures of the House".

Brown himself later said that the exchange showed that Cameron is a "novice on parliamentary procedure".

*Technically of course, this should have been the Lord Mandelson of Foy and Hartlepool as well.

A funny moment during Jamie Oliver's appearance before the Commons health committee came when Conservative MP Peter Bone offered insight into his teenage dating tips.

Discussing plans to make cooking lessons compulsory for 11- to 14-year-olds, the Wellingborough MP said he chose domestic science over woodwork because "I thought girls - domestic science, so I'll go to domestic science".

The Naked Chef quipped to chuckles that he was clearly "very clever", but with his mind elsewhere the MP did not pick up many skills in the kitchen and recalls that the dog got most of the benefits of his culinary efforts.

Oliver also got a laugh when, discussing the marketing of unhealthy products, he remarked that only a madman would want to eat Britain's most controversial spread in large quantities.

"Marmite... has some really good nutritional features but is obviously high in salt," he told MPs. "But you'd never want to eat a kilo of Marmite would you?"

The speaker has told MPs that a licence allowing the protesters on Parliament Square to use loud hailers has expired.

He was responding to a complaint from Tory Julian Lewis, who said the demonstrators camped outside the Palace of Westminster - who can be heard in many offices - were using them "persistently, incessantly and at unreasonable volume".

Michael Martin told the chamber: "The position is as he said that the licence for the use of loud hailers has run out and I have had this drawn to the attention of Westminster Council.

"As he also says, legislation governing this matter and the powers needed by the police to ensure the proper functioning of Parliament are still being considered.

"I would expect consultation by the government with myself and the House authorities.

"I hope that the concerns of members, staff and others coming here, both in terms of access to the building and disturbance from noise, will have been duly taken into account when the legislative proposals are put before the House."

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Did this week mark a return to Punch and Judy politics?

That was the view of several MPs we spoke to in our weekly podcast, available here.

Jim Fitzpatrick certainly thought Cameron had abandoned consensus politics at PMQs.

Also Peter Luff talks about Lord Mandelson's appearance in front of the committee he chairs, while Bernard Jenkin looks forward to next week's defence debate.

And of course, there's that boat. Incidentally, Lib Dem Tim Farron also told us that he thought Nick Clegg and Vince Cable were the "Obama and Biden" of British politics.

The financial crisis has shown the third party's top dogs in a pretty good light - if you were paying attention - but will the public see enough of it to consider giving them their vote?

This morning's public administration committee hearing into good government was a jolly affair.

Labour MP Paul Flynn at one point said how much nicer the witnesses - David Blunkett, Ken Clarke, Peter Lilley and Nick Raynsford - all are now they're not in office.

And it's true that these big beasts (perhaps Lilley or Raynsford don't qualify for this special Westminster catagory) are now free to roam about the estate, offering freelance wisdom with a smile.

Lots of interesting ground covered - the high turnover of junior ministers because of the needs of the system of patronage, the hysterical pace forced on government by the modern media, and an insight into how senior ministers get on with their civil servants.

During a discussion on memoirs Blunkett said his had been, at more than 800 pages, far too long, but he hoped it would be useful to students in the future.

Clarke, discussing the thankless task of sitting waiting to speak in a sparsely populated Commons chamber knowing that few people are listening, said: "The only place you can keep your views secret are in the chamber of the House of Commons - they will leak out of any other place I express them."

Labour MP David Winnick tried to keep the "yacht-gate" row rumbling in the Commons this morning, taking a pop at George Osborne via the curious session that is questions to the Speaker's committee on the Electoral Commission. Winnick slammed as "illegal" any attempt to solicit a donation from a foreigner (a charge the shadow chancellor firmly denies). "Would it not be appropriate for the Electoral Commission to investigate accordingly?" he asked.

But it was the Walsall MP himself who ended up getting a ticking off from the Speaker for failing to inform Osborne that he was to attack him in the chamber (a big parliamentary no-no). Michael Martin said Winnick had "been here long enough" to know "the courtersies of the House".

As it was, Peter Viggers (who answers for the Commision in the House) said that while the committee "does not get involved in individual cases", there was in fact no cause for an inquiry.

Andrew Alexander has given his verdict on this week's PMQs. I was watching on TV and it certainly looked like a more lively session than we've seen in recent weeks.

You can also hear what transport minister Jim Fitzpatrick and Lib Dem environment spokesman Tim Farron have to say in tomorrow's ePolitix.com parliamentary podcast.

The row over Lord Mandelson's accountability to the Commons rumbled on during a statement from junior business minister Ian Pearson today.

The business secretary's Conservative shadow Alan Duncan said the event was an "unacceptable mixture of farce and contempt". "This department has no one of cabinet rank in this House, so instead a minister of state has just read out a statement that the
real secretary of state will deliver in another place [the Lords, in layman's terms] in three hours time."

Of the statement itself, he added that it was "first made in a select committee, then in a press release sent out by the department yesterday lunchtime and then in a press conference attended by the secretary of state and the prime minister".

As a former adviser to then Conservative industry secretary Lord Young, business select committee chairman Peter Luff at least accepts the principle of cabinet members sitting in the second chamber. But he added that there was "nothing" in Pearson's statement that Mandelson didn't say in the committee. "That raises important questions about accountability to the House of Commons," he said.

As George Osborne faces sustained scrutiny over his alleged links to Russian oligarch Olieg Deripaska, who better to bring up the issue of "Tory sleaze" than Labour veteran Dennis Skinner?

Notorious for his immaculately timed interventions, the "beast of Bolsover" caused uproar in the Commons when he asked Gordon Brown to reassure the House that "whatever he does in order to clear the debts of the nation's finances he will never ever meet a Russian billionaire to try and cadge the money".

Brown replied, in his most austere tone, that this was "a very serious matter indeed" and said he hopes it's investigated by the authorities.