It’s the stuff of nightmares for David Cameron and Nick Clegg. The parliamentary business for this week reads like a Stephen King novel for the Prime Minister and his deputy, writes John Hipwood.

The House of Commons will spend three more days debating the European Union Reform Bill, while the House of Lords will spend two days, and probably two nights, on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill.

Add to this the fact that Mr Cameron has to find himself a new Communications Director following the resignation of Andy Coulson because like so many of his predecessors, he was unable to do his job properly because he had become the story.

Mr Cameron and George Osborne’s efforts to hang on to Mr Coulson indicate the value they attached to his cool, professional approach.

Mr Coulson brought the unflappability of a newspaper editor and an instinct for what the public wanted to hear and see, or not to hear and see, from their politicians.

The men and women on the Bilston omnibus did not want to hear that the Prime Minister had hired a personal photographer at their expense, or see him sunning himself, Blair-style, in the Far East over Christmas while their standard of living was being squeezed and their bus was late or cancelled because of snow and ice.

So, in another difficult week for Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg when Tory Euro-sceptics will be on the attack and Labour peers will try to block their constitutional changes, the Government will miss the guidance of Andy Coulson.

Nevertheless, the impact of this resignation will be here today, gone tomorrow. Much is made of the fact that Mr Coulson spent his early years on an Essex council estate.

Another man raised on a council estate also disappeared from the top of UK politics last Friday, Alan Johnson, and he is a much greater loss to Ed Miliband than Andy Coulson is to the Prime Minister.

Although he never looked comfortable in his role as shadow chancellor, it would be difficult to find anyone at Westminster who didn’t like the former postie, turned union leader, turned cabinet minister.

It’s true that we don’t HAVE to like our politicians, but sometimes it helps to be dealing with someone who has a ready smile, can talk about things other than politics and has a natural affinity with people who are facing tough times but who want to help themselves to improve their lives.

All of which brings us to the man appointed by the Labour leader to succeed Mr Johnson, Ed Balls.

The tough-talking, tough tackling striker in the parliamentary football team, comes from a middle class background and has a mixture of the Labour Party, economics and Norwich City FC runnng through his veins.

He joined the Labour Party at the age of 16 and thinks he, rather than Alistair Darling, should have been Gordon Brown’s Chancellor, and that he should have been appointed shadow chancellor last October.

He wasn’t slow in swinging into action. Writing on his personal blog yesterday, Mr Balls said: “The lesson of history is that good economics is good politics. But when Chancellors put political ideology or expediency before economic logic, the country pays a heavy price.

“This Tory Chancellor and this Tory-led government are repeating the mistakes of the 1930s and 1980s, but they just keep ploughing on.

“It is not too late to change course. It is not too late for an alternative. And if they do not provide it to the British people, Ed Miliband and I will.”

Chancellor Osborne will try to respond with a critique of Mr Balls’s record and remind everyone of his new opponent’s closeness to Gordon Brown, as Mr Clegg did yesterday.

“Who was in charge of the City when they were gorging themselves on bonuses and lending irresponsibly? Whoe allowed the housing market to let rip, becoming a casino and pushing thousands and thousands of British families into debt? Who was whispering in Gordon Brown’s ear budget after budget, creating the huge financial deficit? “The answer to all these questions is Ed Balls,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Balls will be ready for this attack and will bludgeon his way through it, hoping the public will want to hear about the future rather than the past.

There is no question that the new shadow chancellor will feed the nightmares of Mr Cameron, Mr Osborne and Mr Clegg, but he might also cause a few sleepless nights for Mr Miliband.

Mr Balls has not always seen eye to eye with Mr Miliband despite the time they spent together in the Treasury. How long before he becomes a bigger beast in the political jungle than the man who has appointed him to his fourth favourite job behind being Prime Minister, Labour leader and Chancellor?

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As the House of Lords heads for further all-night sittings, more electricity will be needed to lift the darkness. Lucky then that two bright lights will be lit tomorrow when Rachael Heyhoe-Flint and Dame Joan Bakewell take their seats in the second chamber.