Except for the distant clunking of cowbells sounding from the darkness, nothing stirs.

BBC: Legends of the Italian Dolomites

The best the supporters can say is that - autocue screens apart - the chancellor has not made any clunking mistakes.

BBC: NEWS | UK | UK Politics | In full: George Osborne speech

Or at least it was, until "the great clunking fist" showed up as Mr Blair has, only half jokingly, described the Chancellor.

BBC: [an error occurred while processing this directive]

More are sure to follow whether or not this particular, clunking neologism survives.

ECONOMIST: Science invades the humanities

Well, the rumor machine is clunking back into gear after those staggering defeats, and we've got the scoop on the juiciest stuff out there.

ENGADGET: Scraping the bottom of the endless Apple rumor barrel

Instead, it was left to a Tory backbencher to raise it by asking if Tony Blair had been speaking literally when he predicted Mr Brown's "clunking fist" as prime minister.

BBC: The Full Story: Prime Minister's questions

Yesterday's public spat between Plaid AMs Simon Thomas and Lord Elis-Thomas in the chamber over the appointment of the Counsel General was ugly, and Jocelyn Davies' stumble into Carwyn Jones' big clunking fist at FMQs even uglier.

BBC: Plaid Cymru's French Revolution

Then there is Mr Brown, the clunking brainbox impatient for his turn, who bragged as chancellor that he had commanded boom and bust to cease and was caught behind the knees as prime minister when the economy collapsed.

ECONOMIST: Andrew Rawnsley's political vivisection

Mr Dodd's clunking compromise is to place a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau inside the Fed (where it gets a chunk of the Fed's budget), make its director a presidential appointee and allow the oversight council to overrule its decisions.

ECONOMIST: The Senate bill is finally published