By Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent

If it was, we could all have watched the BBC's Andrew Gilligan being cross examined over his controversial story that the government sexed up its dossier on weapons of mass destruction.

Instead, those with nothing better to do had to settle for another prime minister's question time.

And while the Hutton proceedings fizzed, PMQs simply went phut.

Thanks to his obsession with all things European, Iain Duncan Smith led on the single currency, branding the prime minister too chicken to hold a referendum on the issue for fear he would be rejected by the voters.

Since the Swedes said no - and despite the prime minister's inevitable refusal to rule out such a poll here within the next couple of years - this is a dead duck of an issue.

Few believe there will be a UK vote before the next general election - there must be a doubt as to whether anyone cares if Mr Duncan Smith scores a few points off the PM during question time on the issue.

Tax hike

He did better with the council tax, apparently revealing to the prime minister that his government had broken yet another manifesto promise by increasing the tax by 70% since 1997.

For all those average families paying the extra �413 a year, that really does matter. And suggestions their bills are set to rise even higher is fertile territory.

The prime minister blustered, quite a lot, about how it wasn't really his fault. He had given the cash to the local councils and it was their fault that bills had risen.

Even worse for Tony Blair were the attacks on his plans for tuition fees.

Just before question time he had been subjected to some critical questioning by his own MPs on precisely this issue.

And they are revolting in a way only backbench MPs can revolt. They, of course, are reflecting widespread oppositon amongst voters - the people who keep them in their jobs.

Terror threat

The prime minister is in serious trouble over this one. So Mr Duncan Smith left it to a couple of backbenchers to raise it.

Meanwhile Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy did himself no harm by raising the revelation that, before taking Britain to war, the prime minister over-ruled intelligence chiefs' advice that to do so would increase the risk of terrorism.

He also wondered why the prime minister's statement that there was no suggestion Saddam Hussein could nuke the UK was taken out of the WMD dossier.

That brought the traditional put-down that the Lib Dems were irresponsible and could not be trusted with power.

It was the only time the exchanges strayed into the issues that, only about a mile away in the Royal Courts of Justice, were continuing to edge towards conclusions that could still do far more damage to the government that any question time clashes.