We began with a remembrance of the soldiers "who gave their lives" in Afghanistan over the summer (is "gave" the right word for it?). The Prime Minister called the roll once, and the Leader of the Opposition repeated it name for name.

Why do they do that? Cameron followed Brown's lead when he was in that position, naming the dead himself as if to comfort the families that Brown had failed to reach. Do they do it to heal the wounds? Or in order to point to the column in Hansard and say: "You see, they were not mere numbers to me, I knew their names and paid tribute to their individual sacrifice. It was right that I did." There was a moment in a press conference when I nearly asked a Prime Minister to name one of those whom he said "would never be forgotten". You can only imagine how glad I am that I failed to do so.

There are more detailed reports elsewhere but take it from me, the exchanges at PMQs followed a familiar path. One of the leaders asked: "Why have these figures gone up?" and the other replied: "What, you mean the figures that have gone down?" This one said: "We did all this so much better than you," and that one said: "Au contraire, you'll find that we are doing much better than you." This one said: "Why are apples green?" and his counterpart replied: "Oranges. That's what people want to hear about."

Nadine Dorries played on Tory unrest with the Lib Dems – they who want candidate shortlists composed only of Somali asylum-seekers out on bail for rape – by asking if it wasn't time the PM told the Deputy PM "who is the boss". It got even more laughter when the PM replied: "I know the Hon Lady is extremely frustrated..." (and all those headlines flashed in front of our eyes suggesting she was anything but) "... Perhaps I should start all over again," (bawdy scoffing continued), "I'm going to give up on this one."

It was charming, but then Blair had done exactly that before him.

Indeed, there is quite a sense of both leaders living under the shadows of their predecessors. Cameron often quotes Blair without attribution – earlier this week he was saying: "Just because we can't do everything doesn't mean we shouldn't do something."

And the Labour leader, who received the best part of his political education from Britain's Papa Doc, now finds himself in the next door office to – and under the watchful eye of – Baby Doc.