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It’s been a peculiar week in Westminster. As the House returned from conference recess, there was a feeling that a hurricane had shifted the sands beneath the political establishment in their absence. Whilst the leaders’ speeches at party conference were largely aimed at shoring up their traditional heartlands with well-trodden and rehearsed rhetoric (Labour focused on the NHS, the Tories went big on income tax) there was a sense that back in the House, all is not as it once was.

Taking shelter from the political storm, the first UKIP cuckoo in the parliamentary nest is ruffling feathers, with the promise of more upset to come – Conservative MPs have been ordered up to Rochester ahead of the impending by-election to try to halt Nigel Farage’s seemingly unstoppable rolling stone. For his part, Cameron has been doing the rounds this week trying to persuade his party that he’s prepared to take a harder line on Europe and immigration, in an effort to ward off trouble from the worried blues on the right.

The spectre of Scotland has continued this week to cause quiet discomfort in the Palace of Westminster, with debates on the extent of further Scottish devolution, and English votes for English laws (now with the Twitter-friendly acronym #EVEL) pressing on. Having so narrowly escaped independence, Westminster must now start to frame, with the new Scottish First Minister-in waiting Nicola Sturgeon, a post-referendum deal that will see Scotland if not completely detached from the rest of the UK, then certainly at arm’s length.

All the parties seem to have been unsteady under the weight of the last few days – the Conservatives have been battling stories about the party leadership now believing that the sweeping NHS reforms were ‘the biggest mistake they ever made’; Labour is continuing to battle internally about what a post-Miliband world could look like, and the Lib Dems, still bleary-eyed from last week’s conference, are continuing to woo and repel both other parties in equal measure, keen to remain in a position to be kingmakers in a new parliament, but equally determined to put clear blue water between themselves and their political opponents (and will have to govern whilst tangled up in blue for the next seven months at least).

The cosy three-party political pecking order, propped up until now by a dearth of serious political competitors, is to be wheeled out on stage once more for the “leaders’” TV debates ahead of the election. The wrangling over who participates in which debate, and with who else, has been an interesting side-show this week and throws into stark relief that the political landscape has convulsed since this time five years ago. It’s never gonna be the same again - there’s almost certainly no chance the debates will take the 3-3-3 format of 2010. What comes out the other side of weeks of political wrangling looks likely to be closer to a 2-3-5 set-up, or something akin to a football starting formation.

The months in the run up to any general election are always characterised by uncertainty, speculation and political sleight of hand. But this seems to be different. There seems to be a genuine sense of surprise and insecurity amongst all the parties (though perhaps less so in the case of the UKippers) as they try to find their feet now they’ve said a restless farewell to the old world order.