Following the Queen's speech there is a multi-day debate, in theory to decide on Parliament's reply thanking the monarch for making the speech.

The debate starts with a general discussion of the programme of the government and then spends time on each subject area.

The highlight so far is Tony Blair likening the Opposition Leader to a fly weight boxer who is going to be knocked out when he fights Labour's next heavyweight leader. This is being seen as a sort of endorsement of Gordon Brown. Brown seemed to think so anyway, as he patted Blair's shoulder as he sat down.

A commentator (Gordon Brown's biographer) on a BBC programme I saw seemed to think Blair was just going through the motions and that Cameron was really eager to see the end of the Blair era and taken on Brown.

There may be some unreality about the whole debate, because when Brown becomes Prime Minister he will probably see political advantage in dropping Blair's daft ideas and replacing them with his own silly plans.

The other big political story of the day (perhaps soon to be of the century) is that Yates of the Yard (the man investigating the cash for peerages scandal) has sent a letter to a Parliamentary committee to say he is making good progress, has strong evidence that has not yet been publicly revealed and hopes to send papers to prosecuting lawyers in January.

Frenzied speculation is that if Blair is questioned under caution (i.e. that he is a suspect in the criminal investigation not just a witness), let alone if he is arrested (prior to questioning, as is the standard police procedure) then this might cause an earlier resignation than Blair currently hopes.