Lucky Hattie Harman! Up she pops to take prime minister's question time in Gordon Brown's absence at the Nato summit, the first woman to do so since Maggie. It's scary at the best of times; even Mrs Thatcher got the jitters.
Worse, for Hattie, she's just been in tabloid boiling oil for wearing that stab vest when out with the coppers in Peckham. And, sure enough, PMQs today were littered with clunky references to wearing the "right kit".
But Harman took the initiative, she was bold, she didn't make gaffes. She won. Tory MPs later admitted she'd been better than they'd expected/hoped. "She showed up Gordon," said one. So she did: more aggressive, faster on her feet. But the real surprise what that she also worsted William Hague, who is fast and funny himself.
Why? Because she got her retaliation in first. Why wasn't Theresa May, the shadow leader of the house, asking the questions - or are women in the modern Tory party there to be seen and not heard? Hattie offered Mrs May "sisterly advice. She should not let him get away with it."
After that and the Labour cries of "more", she had no trouble. Hague's jokes were below his best. Perhaps - like Neil Kinnock all those years ago - he felt inhibited attacking a woman. Even the formidable Vince Cable, standing in for Nick "CleggOver", fluffed his chance. His question about the Queen was too clever by half and certain to be ruled out of order.
There was even a Tory MP, Charles Walker, who asked an obliging question about a nasty BNP candidate in the May 1 elections, making jokes likening rape to women's fondness for chocolate. Harman agreed that was awful. It was a breeze; listen for yourself. Hattie triumphant.
When it was over David Miliband rose to report on the crisis in Zimbabwe and the house half-emptied. But those who stayed, some of them veterans of the Rhodesia crises of the 70s, were soberly sensible. The foreign secretary, the youngest since David Owen grappled in vain with Ian Smith, did well, too. He's a bright lad.
Does anyone out there care as they did in the 70s? We'll find out.
