It was a déjà vu PMQs today, with Ed Miliband claiming the government was taking us "back to the 1980s".
Maybe the Commons hadn't time-travelled that far, but we were certainly going back to 2011 – a quick count suggests it was the fourth time in three (sitting) months that Labour led with an attack on unemployment.
Safe ground is best for Miliband at the moment. And his unemployment arguments were extremely well-trodden.
"The prime minister told us that unemployment would fall in each year of this Parliament," said Miliband. "Today it rose for the sixth month in the row… Every time he boasts about rising unemployment, it just shows how out of touch he is. Can he confirm that under his policy far from things getting better, he expects things to get worse?"
Cameron reminded the House that forecasts are no longer set out by the government – and in a dig at the last Labour government, "not fixed and fiddled by ministers".
"There is no boasting about anything. We need to get our economy moving."
"It really is back to the 1980s," tutted Miliband in return. "No wonder he's rehired Lord Young [the PM's business adviser and an adviser to Thatcher in the 1980s]."
If Miliband was going to lift examples from history, Cameron was not going to be left behind.
"Last year [Miliband] marched against the cuts," shouted the PM, "now he tells us he accepts the cuts. He's so incompetent, he can't even do a U-turn properly… Why doesn't he come up with something constructive instead of knocking people down?"
Miliband had an answer for that. "I'll tell you what he should do – he should change course," said the Labour leader. (Ok, so it was a little vague, but at least he answered.)
"He is cutting too far and too fast," continued Miliband. "It's his record, however much he twists and turns."
Pointing at the Labour leader, the prime minister said: "He's an expert in changing course. He is flip-flopping on a daily basis."
If this is the level of debate in 2012, someone send me back to the 1980s. I'd take handbags and shoulder pads over this déjà vu debate any day.
Ah, but a ray of hope at the end… Dennis Skinner stood to challenge Cameron over his upcoming appearance at the Leveson inquiry.
"I will be delighted to appear at the Leveson inquiry whenever I am invited," responded Cameron politely.
Then less politely, he dismissed Skinner as a "dinosaur".
Forget unemployment in the 1980s, Cameron's response was Triassic.
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