MPs pull their punches as new PM makes debut

Maybe it was the large number of new MPs still waiting to find their voice, or the horrific events in Cumbria they were coming to terms with, but for the majority of yesterday's Prime Minister's Questions – Mr Cameron's first in his new role – the usual chaos was replaced by order.

It may not last long, but while it did it was quite a strange spectacle. Mr Cameron was in sporting mood, welcoming new Labour MPs including Chesterfield's Toby Perkins and paying tribute to a more experienced figure on the opposition benches for helping the armed forces.

There was the odd partisan jab – such as the Prime Minister's dig at his predecessor when he insisted he would "give accurate answers rather than make them up on the spot" when he admitted not knowing the response to one question – but in general the Labour questions lacked any sting and an imperious Mr Cameron was happy to be playful rather than the angry man we sometimes see at the Dispatch Box.

Even Shipley MP Philip Davies' reminder of the discomfort ahead if the Prime Minister ignores the Tory Right – stepping up pressure for the Human Rights Act to be scrapped, a move put on hold as a concession to the Liberal Democrats in forming the coalition – failed to ruin the mood as Mr Cameron neatly side-stepped the issue.

Most of the new intake who experienced it will have gone away wondering what happened to the bearpit they had expected when they squeezed onto the green benches or crammed into the doorway.

Has the "new politics" of the coalition finally ended Punch and Judy Politics? More likely this was a one-off for the new boy's first day, I'd say.