TV Debate - who did best?

I think the great thing about this debate is it has really brought politics into peoples' homes and I think it has really given them a clearer understanding of what party represents what. Usually the election campaigns fall on deaf ears as you catch snippets on the radio and tv. I think this leads to voter apathy, (compounded by the expenses row). BUT I feel it is SOOOOO important to vote, that even if you are not impressed with any of the main three, vote Green or something, cos if nothing else, we all need a planet! The most depressing thing voters can do is not turn up.

Who did the best? I think overall, Clegg, but yes, he is too polished and cheesy for my liking, but he is in a position to talk frankly as it is not so likely the lib dems would win, although I rather hope they do.

DC was just shown up to be the lightweight he really is - no substance. He spent most of the night looking like he was working out a complicated sum...

I totally PMSL @ DC and the 40-year-old "black man" who had been in the navy for 30 years. His whole appearance kind of came across a bit like "I'm down with everyone, even the foreigns and the poors!" So smug and self-congratulatory, and very much centred around who HE had met, HIS kids, HIS mother etc etc. I worry about his world view TBH, not to mention what the Tories will do with our fragile economy.

Clegg did come across very well, but had the least to lose. I voted Lib Dem last time round. I'd like to vote again this time round, but I'm so fearful of the Conservatives getting in that I'll probably vote Labour. Best outcome for me would be Labour coming out top in a hung parliament and forming a coalition government with Lib Dems.

Yes bourboncreme - but you trust any of the others more - I susupect not - lesser of the evils??

Integrity?GB is only interested on one thing..being PM..and he doesn't care what he has to do or what lies he has to tell to stay there ,he has lied repeatedly during his tenure as Chancellor and Pm and i wouldn't trust him as far as i could throw him

I was paying close attention to body language, tells you quite alot - DC was scratching his nose quite a bit, that usually means insincerity or lieing! GB came across quite well I thought, better than I thought he would. NC said some good things, but still thought he was a bit cheesy.

DC reminds me of Val Doonican in his jumpers bit too smooth.

where's the option for I didn't bother to watch it as the words they mouth don't matter? What matters is who controls their strings. I've watched on iplayer just to enter the prize draw .

Anyone asking an income question should be aware that some of us refuse to give accurate information.

Nick Clegg came over well, better than expected but my expectations were very low. Brown looked like the experienced elder statesman with a couple of kids after his job, but the refusal to let others speak was offputting. DC didn't impress me but he never has. Couldn't arrange a typist for his mumsnet session, can't fill in forms, not suitable to run a country. Problem the Conservatives have is that they are the party of greed and selfishness and they don't really have people who would make a good leader.

Molesworth-ROFL at that photo!

GB may not have the best manners, but what he has is integrity, a quality DC seems to be severly lacking in. Did he really say, 'I was talking to a black man the other day'

Just having read some of the other posts - I would say I also thought the ancedotes from Cameron were very annoying - all that arselicking about the NHS and great state school etc. Very irritating.

Plus the use of names and asking were people were in audience by Clegg and Cameron was annoying and came across as very very false. As if they give a toss who asked the question. Least GB appeared genuine.

alicatte - like this you mean?

Also, DC has no top lip whatsoever. There is an old saying 'never trust a man witout a top lip'

Well, that isn't an old saying but it should be!

Why is Mr Cameron appearing with lots of 'old' celebrities? He's with someone from Take That today (is that the one Robbie Williams was in?)

If anyone from Conservative HQ is listening - What is your rationale for this please? Why don't you stop him, it's so 'Grazia,Heat etc.' It certainly makes me worry he's part of a self regarding celebrity culture which is completely divorced from reality (going to Eton is not a reason to disregard somebody as out of touch - but this is)

This is a real world election and I don't think I am alone in this view.

DC came across like a celebrity courting Hello Magazine, whereas GB seemed like a real person who actually thinks and cares about the world and the people in it.

Love the idea of DC looking like a knitting pattern,you're right all he needs is one of my gandmothers arron jumpers and he'd be there

LOL at Molesworth. NC came across as wanting to work together which always will come across as 'grown up' but what would happen if the lib dems really won?

I felt sorry for both DC and GB. GB cos he's not a natural TV presenter and DC cos he has to stand by all the announced cuts they have said they will make immediately without spending anytime checking that the cuts will not ending up costing more money in the end.

Next time I hope they ask some questions that ask for practical promises to cut red tape in business and free up very small employers (less than 5 employees) from political correctness. A carpentry business should be able to advertise a job for a a physically fit person as long as they would advertise other jobs such as an office job under current equal opportunity e.g.to include people with disabilities & health problems.

I cringed at DC proudly proclaiming he 'was takling to a black man the other day'

I also winced at DC's end summing up speach 'If you work hard, we're behind you'

I worry what DC's definition of 'working hard' actually is, I have a funny feeling he feels those who earns ££££££££ work hard and the rest of us don't.

rofl @ miggsie insect worship

I found GBs constant smirking and shaking his head whilst the others were speaking extemely bad mannered and offensive and as for his comments about neither of them knowing what it was like to be PM because they hadn't done the job and he had ,ridiculous.I hadn't done my job before I took it on but I know I am good at it.Frankly he has made such a mess of it I would think he should be ashamed .Also hated the way he kept hectoring the others and banging on about the"global"recession,just to make sure we didn't blame him.

I can't stand all this rubbish about "taking money out of the economy"He is taking the money away from me becasue I am going to be paying more tax,therefore I will spend less but he will then go and waste it some more on a "contemplation room in the dept of Families"WTF.How can reducing the money in peoples pay packets be taking money aout of the econmy?What he means is taking it out of the public sector,a give away when he said that the private sector cannot get us out of recession;presumably he thinks he can spend his way out then go at the next election in 2015 with an even bigger deficit.

We can't protect police and schools etc because we are broke we can't afford it ,very sad ,very painful,very unfair ...but true.

Cameron had the most to lose and therefore was predictably the most nervous,he needs to improve for the next one or he will have blown it.Agree he needs to shut up about childen in state schools,GBs son is in a state school but he didn't bang on about it because he takes it as read that he will be .

Nick Clegg,very impressive but who would be in his cabinet,Sarah Teather ,Vince Cable and David Laws would have to split all the jobs between them.

So on balance Nick Clegg won the battle but the war is still wide open.

ROFL @ DC looking 'waxworkian' I saw him trying to frown but it wasn't really happening, was it?

Actually in the moments when DC wasn't speaking he seemed to turn into a 1950s knitting pattern model with his 'gaze into the middle distance' stance which looked like it had been rehearsed ("don't hunch over the podium, Dave, no DON'T LOOK DOWN AT ANY TIME UNLESS YOU ARE WRITING NOTES! Look up and out into the bright blue future like a ship's captain, Dave" etc etc).

Agree with the general consensus that NC 'won', GB exceeded expectations and DC underperformed.

I thought GB's strategy of repeatedly challenging DC on education and police spending was very effective in exposing DC's lack of substance. DC just looked like he didn't know the answer. He often looked confused and - as someone else said further up the thread - like he was hearing some policies for the first time.

I'm a fed-up Labour supporter living in a Tory stronghold thinking of voting Lib Dem as a tactical vote and a protest about the Brown years of Labour government.

I was completely put off voting Lib Dem by watching Nick Clegg last night. Answers were often repetitive and empty (admittedly I didn't watch the whole debate so maybe I missed him dazzling) and I found myself thinking that I wouldn't be able to vote Lib Dem after all.

Was surprised that David Cameron didn't come across better. He looked nervous, and although his speech was the most eloquent and fluent, he didn't end up saying very much contentwise.

Gordon Brown did OK after a stumbling start when he seemed fixated on getting in an anecdote about a chef he had met (what was all that about?). Yes, the gurning smile is rather alarming, but his inability to be smooth does mean he has to come out with some content!

having had time to reflect I felt DC ended very well, after all the cringe worthy and pretty creepy main performance he managed to make the best closing statement

I think NC did best because he was the great unknown but was confident and did not really stumble much apart from when discussing Trident

and GB was far better than expected so he gets point for that

I wonder if the Tories will manage to loose this election for having chosen this leader, but I guess he appeals to their core voters

I agree DC did seem much more nervous than I thought he would, and GB came across better than I thought he would. I think DC will make huge cuts across the public sector, and overhaul the benefits system, and I am in agreement with that so long as he cuts the right things, and doesn't just transfer people from jobs to the dole queue, but I think it's quite a difficult argument to sell. WE know we need tough love, but it's like he's a dentist who's trying not to tell us that actually, yes, this will hurt, alot, but if we don't do it you'll be in worse pain in the long run!

Gordon seemed to spend the whole time telling us enthusuastically about all the plans he's got to make certain catastrophes better, without actually acknowledging that those catastrophes were caused by the Labour government in the first place.

GB was the best - knew his stuff and clever the way he tried to align himself with Clegg and isolate DC.

I think NC did well and liked the honesty of his policies about spending cuts.

DC lacked any substance. He tried to avoid questions and was wishy washy on policies. This idea that we can solve all the problems but just cutting some waste.

P.S.

DEFINITELY agree about the botox.....DC looked positively waxworkian, and like he'd been St.Tropezed. Even the curmudgeonly old Scot looked like a baby's bottom.