Historic, it keeps being banded about but was the leaders debate really historic? My instant reaction was that it was just what our politicians do week in week out: it’s just that nobody tunes in normally. I actually think the quality of the debaters was much better than in the US debates because of this. I feel, however, that the level of gravitas was stunted by the set - my previous post about the debate being like a National Lottery Saturday night gameshow proved prophetic. 

Clegg was the clear winner but I thought Brown was better than Cameron. Around the middle, I think on policing, Cameron got very flustered and came off worst. Debates will only solidify peoples present views, it won’t necessarily change them. So it’s no surprise that Cameron has polled than better Brown. Clegg had no reputation to go on so he’s obviously won the most. 

I was deeply disappointed that there were no questions on Scotland or Wales. The debate was nearly wholly concerned with devolved issues so ITV should have went out of their way to ask a question on Scotland or Wales. I think a question on constitutional reform (especially the Calman Commission in Scotland and a possible referendum in Wales on further devolution) should have been asked. I feel disenfranchised. Worse, I feel voters in Scotland are being deliberately misled and confused, not just because the SNP weren’t included but because it wasn’t made clear that most of the debate didn’t apply to Scotland. Even the policies of the “three main parties” are different in devolved areas in Scotland. ITV failed tonight to correct this mistake, lets hope Sky doesn’t do so next week.