Isabel Hardman

MPs are now in recess. Again. Cue plenty of moans about them escaping the zombie parliament and jetting off on holiday. There's not much you can do about the former, but the latter is not, as any MP will angrily remind you, quite true. If you're a type with a big majority who is a bit fonder of the Westminster game than you are of your constituents, then a holiday might be an option. But at this time of year, MPs are more likely to be found canvassing for the European and local elections, or holding extra constituency surgeries to catch up on time lost to Parliament. The Conservative whips have told MPs, via one of their many text messages that they send throughout each day, that they are expected to visit Newark three times before the by-election, and that few exemptions will be allowed.

Who gets the best deal from Pfizer's proposed takeover of AstraZeneca? On the basis of today's Business, Innovation and Skills select committee hearing with some of the key players, the answer is probably Conservative MP Brian Binley. He was very much enjoying his role in the hearing as he interrogated the boss of Pfizer, Ian Read, and his colleagues Frank D'Amelio and Jonathan Emms. Binley managed to get the best one-liners out of the session (he's got form: this is the MP who has in the past few years managed to describe his Prime Minister as a 'chambermaid' and a 'janitor'), telling the panel that they offered 'a lot of sales talk, but short on facts', and accusing Read of being a 'salesman'.

What will become of the other big coalition row that's burning away alongside free schools? David Cameron was asked today about the plans to introduce mandatory sentences for repeat knife offences, and made some very supportive noises again, which the Tories signed up to Nick de Bois' amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill think is a sign that they've made the right decision. He suggested that Nick Clegg could change his mind about it - and some have taken this as a sign that there's a compromise on the cards. The Conservatives tell me they are 'looking carefully' at de Bois' amendments, but the Lib Dems say they haven't heard of any compromise being offered and they will only accept a deal that has evidence behind it that it would cut knife crime.

Why is David Cameron so confident that he'll get what he wants from his renegotiation of Britain's relationship with Europe? Today on the Andrew Marr Show he managed to advocate Britain voting 'yes' in the 2017 referendum before he's even started changing the terms of the membership voters would be backing. His reasoning for this was firstly that 'I'm someone who has a very positive, optimistic plan for this country' (a convenient contrast with Ukip), and secondly because he has a good track record of getting what he wants in Europe.

What a funny, contradictory week it has been for Labour's campaign machine. First Ed Miliband told the Evening Standard that he had greater intellectual self-confidence than the Prime Minister - and won praise in the Spectator's leading article for being someone who does indeed have the courage of their political convictions these days. Then he seemed so confident of his policies that he chose to needle David Cameron with one of them at Prime Minister's Questions. But then he seemed to have a crisis of confidence and decided to produce a party-political broadcast that, er, didn't mention anything Labour is up to at all. When I blogged about this latest offering from Labour on Wednesday, I said it was an example of class war with wit and panache.

David Cameron may well have privately resolved that there is no cause for him to step down if Scotland votes for independence in a few months' time, as per James Chapman's scoop today. But the problem is that it is not in the Prime Minister's gift to make that decision. He may well say that he isn't going to resign, but that would have no effect on the number of letters that would be sent to 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady demanding a leadership contest. It's not as though the Tory party will reel from the shock of Scotland leaving, then wait to see what the Prime Minister says and then if he says he's staying, they all get back to their day jobs.

The debate on the Immigration Bill has just begun in the Commons. Many MPs are still trying to decide how to vote on the proposal to render foreign-born terror suspects 'stateless'. In an attempt to persuade his party to vote with the government, Lib Dem Home Office minister Norman Baker has sent out a 'dear colleague' letter to MPs, leaked to Coffee House, in which he says he has amended the legislation to the extent that there is a 'major shift' from the Home Secretary. This 'major shift' means the Home Secretary must believe the suspect being deprived of their citizenship will be able to secure alternative citizenship from another country, and that the process can be examined by an independent reviewer.

Well, the Ukip constituency association in Newark has certainly considered Nigel Farage's musings on the success of appointing an unknown local candidate in a pivotal by-election… and completely ignored it. They've picked Roger Helmer, who, as Seb says, is not known for his mollifying centre-ground views. His selection as the party's candidate for the Newark by-election is a gift for CCHQ, which now needs a teaspoon rather than a spade to dig out awkward comments the MEP has made. Perhaps it also suggests that Ukip have decided there's not much hope of winning so why bother to field a good candidate who the party's opponents would lay into. Or perhaps that's reading too much into it: decisions that look baffling from the outside tend to be down to complex internal party politics.