In his former guise as plain old leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg's interjections in the House hardly left his mouth before being out-volumed by a chorus of jeers and laughter.
His grand title of deputy minister comes with a defensive prop of the dispatch box to lean on - sampled today for the first time by Clegg as he set out government plans for Constitutional reform - but the background noise remains the same.
Clegg may preach the Sesame Street mantra of 'cooperation' - "the principle that underlines these reforms will bring together all sides of the House", he insisted - but in the era of New Politics the opposition of the Labour benches remains firmly of the old school.
Plans for a referendum on electoral reform, legislation to create an elected Upper House, and the government's controversial plans to secure fixed term Parliaments, all met with howls of Labour anguish and an early call for the deputy prime minister to "get off his high horse".
Clegg, whose debut performance appeared to be nerve-free, gave as good as he got.
Finally, after nearly three years of preaching to empty chambers and the regular frustration of seeing his twin questions at PMQs slapped down, Clegg – surrounded by ministers from both Lib Dem and Tory ranks - was enjoying the chance to answer back
Kevin Brennan asked what the logic was of the government's proposed 55 per cent threshold to force a dissolution of Parliament.
Clegg accused the opposition of "wilfully misrepresenting how this safeguard will function."
Chris Bryant told the deputy prime minister that the average length of Parliament since 1832 was just three years and eight months - far shorter than the five years fixed term being proposed.
"You've just had five years!" Clegg shouted back. "You had 13 years - we are finally going to go on and do it."
And when pressed on the need for urgency over plans to cut the number of MPs, Clegg repeated what we can expect to be a frequently used come-back: "You had 13 years. We've only had three weeks."
It's an argument that stacks up well for now, and the glum expressions on the Labour benches - led by an out of sorts Jack Straw, whose mammoth speech soon lost all sides of the House - suggest that it's one that isn't easy to answer.
However, in six months' time that line won't work so well for Clegg, and the deputy prime minister set himself a first - albeit fluid - deadline when he gave watching hacks a story by announcing the creation of a committee to drive through Lords reform and publish a draft bill "no later than the end of the year."
Clegg will chair the committee, which will also take in the leaders, deputy leaders, shadow leaders of both Houses – as well, as shadow justice secretary Straw, who temporarily silenced the jeers when he announced that he was looking forward to working with Clegg.
New Politics briefly spread to the Labour benches, but again Bryant attempted to bring it down a peg or two, primly suggesting it was "customary for the appointment of committees to be subject to votes."
Clegg, verbally strutting his way through the afternoon, told Bryant that he was lucky to have heard the announcement in the chamber, rather than via the chosen New Labour media route.
He'll have enjoyed this, and, given the negative reception which welcomed him, Clegg might think that there'll be easy days to come.
However, at the start of this coalition government's life, and with the open goal hit of New Labour's latter years of constitutional foot-dragging, Clegg is having it easy.
New Politics has Clegg bounding for now, but he will know that without visible progress it - and he - will soon begin to look as tired as the old lot.
Sam Macrory is political editor of The House Magazine.
