It was the first prime minister's question time since the festive break but any hopes of a fresh approach in 2008 were quickly dashed.

On Tuesday David Cameron had praised US presidential candidate Barack Obama and vowed to bring some of the same spirit of hope to the British political debate.

"I think his optimism and sense of hope for the future is inspiring a lot of people," the Conservative leader had said.

But with Cameron and Gordon Brown harking back to their own and each other's records it was more a re-run of the past rather than an Obama-ite agenda for the future.

Cameron began by asking whether ministers intended to press ahead with identity cards given that the government had managed to lose half the population's personal data.

Brown insisted that the whole point of ID cards was to protect identity as they required unique biometric information in order to be used, and quoted Cameron's advisers saying they approved of them.

The Tory leader retorted by quoting Alistair Darling saying he did not want his "entire life reduced to a magnetic strip on a plastic card", joking that "compared with being chancellor in his government being a magnetic strip on a plastic card would be a welcome relief".

Clumsily segueing straight into a question on capital gains tax, Cameron then asked whether the chancellor was set for "another humiliating u-turn" on increasing the charge by 80 per cent.

Again we were transported back to September 1992: "He [Cameron] was principle adviser to the chancellor when it was 40 per cent, he was also principle adviser at the time of Black Wednesday," Brown said.

If 15 years seems a long time ago, Cameron then took things back to the early 1970s.

"I remember a politician in his twenties who supported wholesale renationalisation, punitive tax rates and wore his CND badge with pride - that was the prime minister," the Tory leader said, conjuring up an image of a flared trouser-wearing Brown yelling slogans through a megaphone.

But then some much needed excitement was created by the first PMQ appearance of Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

Instead of sitting exposed at the end of the Lib Dem frontbench, as his predecessors have done, Clegg sat two down with his former leadership rival Chris Huhne next to him and chief whip Paul Burstow in the spot previously occupied by Charles Kennedy, Sir Menzies Campbell and Vince Cable in quick succession.

The pair seemed to provide some kind of psychological buffer from the rest of the House which can be ruthlessly cruel and unforgiving of Lib Dem leaders who do not have the crutch and barrier of a despatch box.

"He's moving away from me already," Cameron had noted earlier, adding that: "I'm relieved that it is no longer my party that has got this habit of replacing its leader on quite such a regular basis."

With almost every household in the country adversely affected, Clegg sensibly chose rising fuel bills to quiz Brown on and then focused on the unfairness of pre-pay energy meters that mean the poor pay more than anyone else.

Brown welcomed Clegg with seemingly telling warmth, saying: "There is an open door for him and we are ready to discuss the issues that affect the country where there is common ground."

The verdict

Gordon Brown: 6/10 - Not bad but he set the bar low in '07.

David Cameron: 6/10 - Some way to go if he is trying emulate Obama.

Nick Clegg: 8/10 - Sensible question, competently delivered - a sure-footed debut.