I have voted twice before, both times for Liberal Democrats - partly on single issues (university tuition fees (I was 18 and in uni the first time) and the war). Though I'm not much of a Nick Clegg fan, and though I think he focuses too much on very narrow issues such as Trident or smaller class sizes without really being brave enough to hammer home liberalism as a political philosophy, the debate has only confirmed to me that I will vote Lib Dem again.
Particularly having watched Question Time tonight I am utterly horrified at the Conservative proposal that we should all be able to run our own schools, hospitals, and even elect certain people within the police force. Education, surely, is about giving young people the chance, whatever their backgrounds, to learn about the world beyond their own communities - other religions, other times and places, the natural world, literatures, and so on. I am deeply concerned that this policy will mean that education narrowly benefits local businesses and their narrow employment needs, or will serve the interests of the pushiest parents. Justice is not a matter for election, as Shami Chakrabarti pointed out. Poorer communities will have less skilled or expert people to run these schools, and the upshot is that the Conservatives hope to exploit the goodwill of volunteers to make its cuts. For me that's the end of any slim chance they had of me voting for them. I thought Cameron was cold, cynical and smug.
Brown did okay in my book, but what can he say? The times are against him, and whatever he does he can't hope to win public favour at this late stage. Clegg did best not because he was the most relaxed, but because the Lib Dems are the only ones with any degree of honesty about the cuts and where they're going to come from, so he was better able to answer questions directly. And the other leaders' determination to ignore him actually made him stand out.