I'm 10 minutes into the leaders' debate and

[Chippednailvarnish]

I think they are all a bunch of smarmy knobs?

Sturgeon is awful. Can't stand the hipocrasy of the women pretending she wants to benefit GB. Come on Nic?? Did you think we would buy that one??

Thought Leanne was good and fair

Miliband is so bad at public speaking but I think h is genuine as a person

Nicola Sturgeon was great.

I thought Nicola sturgeon was brilliant. I didn't like any of the English men.

Oh no I missed it!
Did I miss much?
Or was it just Pmq's ramped up a notch?

Farage came second in the poll? He had one argument

I was most impressed with the three women. Farage was out of his depth, Clegg looked queasy (don't think the make up person was a LibDem voter) and he sounded patronising at times, Cameron seemed a bit harassed and Miliband's staring into the camera was a subject of much hilarity to DH and me (although DH said he liked him and will probably vote Labour).

Bennett wasn't the slickest and clearly not the most comfortable public speaker but I admire her principles so I currently plan to vote Green.

If I lived in Scotland I would vote SNP and if I lived in Wales I would vote Plaid Cymru.

I thought Julie Etchingham acquitted herself well too.

no it was great, more policy was discussed as it was less of a bunfight and Nicola Sturgeon really shone as a very polished, sincere politician.

I knew a man who was disabled however his benefits pushed him £5 over the threshold for free prescriptions etc and he was on masses of medication.

I get 3-4 prescriptions a month and I, like anyone else in England not entitled to free prescriptions could do, pay little more than £100 per year for the lot because I buy a prepayment certificate, that everyone is entitled to buy.

Just to clarify, he should not have been paying £8000 per year.

Dawn, if you don't agree with independence how can you vote SNP? It's their raison d'être. The more seats they get the greater their leverage to try for another referndum on their own terms.

I can't believe the polls are saying Farage came off the best

Just proves the point that 'people' are idiots but individuals when you talk to them are brilliant.

The 3 women came off by far the best, Sturgeon and Bennett tied for me for their policies and sincerity. Was so glad that Wood got the only applause of the evening calling out Farage on his racism and homophobia.

I'm a very leftie liberal and I think the Greens and the Snp were by far the best and am never impressed with Clegg. Didn't think he was good tonight.

I normally enjoy watching Farage on these shows although I think his party is abhorrent. But I truly thought he did abysmally tonight. He very much lost me at health tourism -it did sound very one trick pony.

I wonder if his party is not doing as well as hoped so he is becoming more extreme to get the fringe vote?

After a terrible alienating introductory speech, Nicola S did brilliantly!!

I am pro UK but if I were in Scotland I'd vote for her tomorrow. Could not have said the same for Salmond

Clegg was woeful, I am SO pleased about that chin chin

Cleggy bore the tortured expression of someone taking great pains to point out how good he was at sitting on a fence. Not a comfortable place to be with his past record.

Farage's poor command of Geography north of Watford did make me splutter. I'm amazed he found his way to Salford. What a waste of an expensive education. Maybe if he'd gone to a comp, he'd know where Scotland is.

why the like for Nicola Sturgeon? She doesn't even (and won't) have a Westminster seat and all she cares about is Scotland - how can they justify free prescriptions for everyone in Scotland? No tuition fees for Scottish students?

"They" justify free prescriptions because "they" have decided to use part of the health budget for this as the NHS is devolved in Scotland and Westminster have not chosen to do this for the NHS elsewhere. Does that answer your question, honestly sick of the ant-Scottish ill informed rubbish that always creeps in.

Does she want to replicate that for the rest of us - doubt it!

Nicola Sturgeon is First Minster of Scotland. She has no control over the NHS budget for England and Wales so this is an irrelevant question.

Loved Nicola Sturgeon, shame I don't live in Scotland to vote SNP. Farage was awful...surprised he did so well in the snap polls. Thought the Tories came out of this worse off...so many anti-austerity voices made them seem out on a limb.

The last part of that sentence is the salient one. She wants, above all else, to break up the UK. Their primary motivation is not to help make things better for people......it is to establish an independent Scotland. If they truly believed in making things better for people why not do so for all people in the country rather than only some? For this reason alone I will never vote for them.

Her main aim is to make things better for people in her country, Scotland. But strong SNP representation at Westminster would also help people in the rest of the UK by providing a defence against the huge budget cuts with the Tories, Lab and the LibDems are all committed to.

I got shamefully obsessed by their mannerisms. After Miliband's mad stare I started counting for how many seconds Cameron would address the questioner before turning to camera; wondering why Bennett didn't turn to it more; why Wood used her pre-written notes more than the rest...
I was also distracted by my curry but still feel shallow.

I cant look at Nick Clegg without thinking inappropriate things.

It was interesting. I liked having the minority parties in the debate more than I expected. It was refreshing to hear people saying something different about immigration, austerity etc. Nicola Sturgeon was particularly impressive, and actually very likeable.

Farage showed his true colours - no surprises there, really. I find him intolerable, but I suppose his simplistic view of the world appeals to people who are a bit simple themselves.

I think Cameron, Clegg and Miliband all did pretty much as expected.

I thought Julie Etchingham did an excellent job running the debate, far better than other hosts have done.

Also, in my opinion, Natalie Bennett, Leanne Wood and Nicola Sturgeon acquitted themselves very well, Natalie Bennett has certainly made up for her previous disastrous perfomances on TV and radio.

Nick Clegg, for me, picked the wrong targets to attack as a part of the current government he came across as rather "not me Guv".

Ed Milliband's facial expressions were very odd and off putting, whoever told him to do that needs to think again.

I can't vote green based on their principles/plans for the laws surrounding prostitution. I think they'd be the party for me but I just can't overlook their stance

I think the Green Party will pick up votes from disaffected Liberal Democrats, the SNP and Plaid Cymru (apologies if I have spelt that wrong) will pick up votes and seats from disaffected Labour voters - I wonder what impact that will have on Labour - I don't think UKIP will be as successful as predicted, I have a feeling people say they will vote for them but when it comes to it in a General Election rather than a by-election they won't.

I don't quite see eye to eye on the prostitution thing either....but it is a minor blip in comparison to the fear-mongering of ukip, the rich get richer policies of the tories...and basically labour and lib dems too...oh and the fact I can't vote for SNP or PC.

I think you would have to be very lucky indeed to find you agreed with every detail of every single policy a party had.

And even though I don't agree on prostitution I have respect for the fact that the Green policy was thoroughly researched and much consultation with actual prostitutes took place. I can't really imagine any other party going to those lengths.

excellent post crystalcove

too many people here seem to think "huh, its all right for Scotland, they get this and that free, what about the rest of us".....they dont realise that's because the devolved parliament in Scotland decided to spend their budgets differently than the Westminster government, so instead of being pissed off at Scotland, start getting pissed off at the Westminster government and vote accordingly.