who's gonna watch the leaders TV debate tonight then?

[mrsbaldwin]

Me!!!

lol, swedes, you are a card.

Gordon is Gordon. Trouble for Daive is that before the debate Cleggie was Cameron-lite, now Cameron is Clegg-lite, if he is lucky....twas how I see it.

But Murdoch will not panic and change sides will he

Clegg offered to represent passion and youth and hope. Gordon played the experienced incumbent if slightly dull. ANd Cameron was left looking for a role.

I think defectors to Lib Dem are far more likely FROM Labour than FROM Conservative.

Yes, I suspect the Lib-Dems will gain from the fields of disaffected Labour, rather than potential Conservative.

Off-topic, but is funny seeing Purnell next to Portillo. Hadn't thought of the analogy before. Though Purnell is ... smaller.

Andrfe Neil's theory is that Cameron is better debater than that but was told not to do public school bully boy per PMQ time

Good point about swing to LibDems might make hung parliament less likely.
Am thinking the general desire to interpret Clegg so positively speaks loudly of desire for alternative.

(Listened on radio. He came across OK on radio but not so amazing as the coverage seems to suggest.)

I agree Swedes, I would imagine that discontented Tories will go to UKIP whereas ex Labour voters like me are going to the Lib Dems. There will also be people who traditionally voted Tory but switched to "New Labour" under Blair who will go back to Tory, now they are no longer seen as the nasty party.

yes but some of those who voted for Blair and initially switched to Cameron might have a look at Clegg. And the undecideds who were ex-Blairites but can't bring themselves to vote Tory might firm up for Cleggie?

SO not as simple as that with so many undecideds

But would the ex Blairites who could not bring themselves to vote tory not be ex labour voters ( unless it was a first vote) or ex LIB DEM voters.

I am not sure if the Lib Dem vote went down in 1997 or not.

Remember the turnout dropped at last election so depends on where/what your bench mark is.

We shouldn't overstate the impact of one TV debate 3 weeks before the elction not watched by Sun readers though

.. but it was Clegg's night

.. and anything that rattles Cameron is good for Brown.

But DC should still win in the end

Yes, I think it is a good point not to overstate the impact of the debates.

I would be very interested what the impact of the three debates will be here, Labour are in fourth place here. It is between Lib Dems and Tory and quite close.

oooo am abroad (stuck here prob due to volcanic ash) and missed it and please please can someone sensible give me a summary and did cleggy do well (hopeful emoticon)?

I also think the Tories will win even though I don't want them to. I doubt the change of goverment will have much impact on my life personally but I worry about those without my advantages.

I think Clegg did very well, it was quite amusing watching Brown trying to ride on his coat tails which seemed to really annoy Clegg.

My take was that Cameron did not do well, Brown did better than I expected and Clegg did very well. Admittedly though he had the least to lose.

It was suggested on This Week that Cameron had been advised to be less combative.

wastwinsetandpearls - like you,I will do better under Tories and I even like DC a bit but I do think that the Tories are about preserving advantage of those in a good position and they fail the sniff test i,e, can't hold my nose and vote for them

Sophabe- my summary as above is : Gordon was Gordon. Trouble for Daive is that before the debate Cleggie was Cameron-lite, now Cameron is Clegg-lite, if he is lucky....twas how I see it.

Fallen Madonna
'Are the issues talked about in this debate really irrelevant to Wales, as the Plaid Cymru leader just said? The economy, health... '

Well the economy, defence and immigration are not devolved so any policy promulgated in those areas will apply in Wales and Scotland too. Policing, health and education ARE devolved powers so anything said to do with them is irrelevant in Wales (and Scotland).

I just wanted to say that it didn't confirm my prejudices at all. I was expecting DC to do well and trounce GB. I was also expecting GB to appear less smug confidant. I had no idea what Clegg looked like and tbh was half expecting him to be a bit batty.

Of course a debate is only one interesting episode in this whole campaign, but I do now feel frustrated at our bonkers electoral system that even if one party does now get up a head of steam for a good reason, actually whether they get seats and influence comes down to things like splitting votes and geography. I recently heard an analysis how how big the challenge is for the Tories and was surprised that to actually win the seats for a majority they need some sort of huge swing for a similar sort of reason. I know no system can be perfect, but the one we have at times seems daft.

By the way, if DC was briefed to be less combative then this might have worked to his favour, had he actually had some substance to fill the void, rather than all these I went to X and spoke to Y anecdotes. Granted, though that the latter may appeal more to the masses.

According to the Newsnight poll whenever DC went on the attack his ratings did dip so he may have done the right thing. But I agree he was all anecdotes and fluff.

The debate has actually confirmed me in my wish for PR. For the reasons Brollyflower points out. The debate went well for Clegg - but even if that means an increased vote for Liberals it will translate into Labour or Conservative seats, rather than Liberal seats. That seems wrong to me.

(And I'm not a Conservative or Liberal voter.)

It would be horribly ironic if an increase in popularity for the Liberals actually ended up meaning even less of a chance of PR.

''Are the issues talked about in this debate really irrelevant to Wales, as the Plaid Cymru leader just said? The economy, health...

Well yes we arew devovled on soem things but even that isn't clear cut- student fiance is more complex than that for example, and a great many peopel I know hop mover the border either to work or even educate so even things decolced can be relevant iyswim

TBH, here in Bristol commuter belt S E Wales, what happens in England is as important as many of the Wlesh strategies over things like Wlesh medium in a way that wouldn't be the case furtehr in.