When a celebrity stops in to watch prime minister's questions we often know about it - Bruce Forysth and his wife caused quite a stir earlier this year, although not as much as Shilpa Shetty the year before.

This Wednesday comedian Paul Merton was watching unobtrusively from behind the press gallery, and I caught up with him afterwards to ask what he made of it all. You can hear his views - he thought it was a win for Brown - in this week's ePolitix podcast.

We've also been speaking to Kim Howells about the revival of Gordon Brown, while Michael Fallon looks ahead to next week's pre-Budget Report.

With Brown's new-found skill at the despatch box in mind we've also spoken to Sky News political editor turned author Adam Boulton, who talks about the different styles of David Cameron and the prime minister.

To subscribe to the podcast, which is published every Thursday, via iTunes click here.

She may not have found herself in the dole queue after leaving the security service last year, but Baroness Manningham-Buller will have some empathy with the millions of people left out of work as a result of the global recession.

In an interview with the House Magazine, the peer spoke of the grief she felt at leaving the Security Service after 30 years.

"I think I was very fortunate, and privileged, to have a fascinating and rewarding career in the Service," she said. "Leaving it, which I had always decided to do after a total of 10 years as deputy director general and director general, was a bit like bereavement.

"What do I miss? My friends and colleagues there and in other organisations with whom I worked in the UK and overseas."

Jim Knight, Michael Gove, David Laws and Lord Baker on education

Sam Macrory on the row over regional select committees

Richard Hall explores the prime minister's Glenrothes by-election boost

Profile: David Willetts

And Charles Kennedy meets cartoonist Martin Rowson

Read the whole issue online

Slightly later than usual due to technical difficulties at Westminster Tower, our weekly podcast is here.

We've been talking to MPs Lembit Opik and Parmjit Dhanda about PMQs and the Obama effect at Westminster, and looking forward to next week's business we've also spoken to shadow Olympics minister Hugh Robertson and parliamentary expert Lord Norton of Louth.

If you missed our verdict on this week's PMQs - even scores all round this time - you can read it here.

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 House Magazine this week asked MPs which candidate in the American election they are supporting and we've reproduced their full and unedited responses on our MP blog.

Notably, none of those who replied, including the Conservatives, chose to back John McCain.

Exclusive interviews
Justice secretary Jack Straw
Chief inspector of prisons Ann Owers
Manufacturing guru Lord Bhattacharyya

Top commentary
Tom Bradby on 'Yacht-gate'
Jonathan Caine on David Cameron
Mark Littlewood on Nick Clegg
Lance Price on New Labour

Plus
Graham Sharpe's betting column, Ken Clarke looks back on his career and the top 10 political scandals
Read the magazine in full online

It's been noted before - and gleefully underlined by the Tories - that Gordon Brown has a tendancy to rely on a small-ish pool of jokes on official visits and to warm up the crowd before he gives a speech.

The Glenrothes Gazette - which carries an exclusive interview with the PM tomorrow - reports that he has been using another well-worn witticism on the stump ahead of the by-election:

"Mr Brown joked that when he first became an MP in Fife in 1983, his election manifesto had emphasised the need to elect an MP with youth and fresh ideas.

"At the last election I put on my manifesto this constituency needs a Member of Parliament with maturity."

Or, it was time for a novice, it isn't now.

Are all subjects discussed in our weekly podcast, where we talk to MPs David Lammy, Andrew Lansley, Mark Prisk, John Thurso and James Duddridge.

We also look forward to next week's business in Parliament, and anticipate the by-election and those two crucial presidential races: for the White House, and to become the next president of the Lib Dems.

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."

Exclusive interviews
Culture secretary Andy Burnham
Former government chief scientist Professor Sir David King
Care Quality Commission chairwoman Baroness Barbara Young

Top commentary
Tom Bradby rounds up the mood post-conference
George Parker on the Labour Party
Francis Elliot on the Conservatives
Michael White on the Lib Dems

Plus
Graham Sharpe's betting column, Jack McConnell looks back on his career and the top 10 political comebacks
Read the magazine in full online

Things have been slow for Dave the Chameleon, "that nice frog on the bike" used by Labour to mock David Cameron ahead of the 2006 local elections.

Fortunately Dave, who has been resting since his campaign site was closed down, is now being paid to act as the face of the relaunched Jazz FM.

The Monitor has compiled a list of the top 10 political comebacks. And the winner is...

1 IAN PAISLEY Author of such best-sellers as 'Save Ulster from Sodomy' and later physically ejected from the European Parliament for denouncing the Pope as the Antichrist, would anyone have predicted that Ian Paisley would eventually become first minister of Northern Ireland?

2 CHARLES II From hiding in a tree to King of England in just over a decade, Charles II undertook a comeback of Lazarus-esque proportions.

3 WINSTON CHURCHILL Impossible to avoid in any political top 10, the leader of the wartime coalition and one of the greatest-ever Britons was once a much-criticised chancellor and was lampooned as woefully out of step for his views on India and the abdication of Edward VIII.

4 WILLIAM GLADSTONE Became prime minister for the first time in 1864 and for the fourth and final time in 1892.

5 HAROLD WILSON Won more general elections than any other 20th century prime minister.

Read more »

Andrew Alexander is in the chamber and will be blogging on PMQs a bit later this afternoon, but on TV at least that looked like Gordon Brown's best session yet. He was on top of the detail, roundly cheered by his own side, and easily able to swot away those Conservatives who weren't quite conforming with David Cameron's call for cross-party consensus (as well as having a cheeky pop at the Tory leader himself).

For the first time you'll also be able to watch PMQs on ePolitix, via our new Sky News feed here. Please let us know your comments.

The Treasury's bail-out of the banks is pretty much the only political story in town today, but there were a few mentions of the Glenrothes by-election in this morning's papers.

The Times limits itself to reporting that Gordon Brown "wants" to campaign in the Scottish constituency ahead of the November 6 poll.

The Mail goes further, saying that the PM will "put his leadership on the line" and buck the convention - ignored on several occasions by Tony Blair - that the premier steers clear of by-elections.

The reports are based on comments by new Scottish secretary Jim Murphy, who according to the Scottish Press Association told reporters while out knocking on doors that "he would be an enormous asset to the campaign here in Glenrothes".

"I would like him to be here, he would like to be here, but his first responsibility in Glenrothes is to get a solution to the international economic crisis," Murphy said.

"If he can do that as well as come to Glenrothes, he would like to, I would like him to, [candidate] Lindsay Roy would like him to.

"He is a phenomenal, formidable campaigner and he is determined to try and come here."

This could be a strong hint Brown will attend, but it could also be the words of a minister trying to answer press questions on the ground without using a sterile formula about prime ministerial convention.

The Herald's political blog thinks Brown will turn up for an hour or two, and there could well be a backbench question on the subject at the first PMQs of term this afternoon.