And the debate begins

Well satisfied

The morning after

So that was that then. How was it for you?

An estimated 9.4 million people tuned in to the first-ever live televised leaders’ debate on ITV last night, with viewing figures reaching as high as 9.9 million at one point, suggesting all this talk of apathy towards politics is – oh look, a cloud shaped like a duck!

Nick Clegg emerged almost unanimously as the winner, according to various polls and pundits, with Cameron slightly edging Brown. Some have even gone so far as to suggest there is a real prospect of a three-horse race, which leaves Labour and Tory strategists in a quandary: do they approach the Liberal Democrats as potential partners and try to woo them (most plausibly with offers of party funding reform and moves toward proportional representation) or do they put extra effort and resource into targeting LibDem voters?

Perhaps in an attempt to distract from their debate performances, the Conservatives and Labour today stepped up the celeb war with Gary Barlow of Take That fame taking to the stage at a Nantwich school to endorse the Tories’ proposals on music in schools. Labour meanwhile wheeled out Eddie Izzard who insisted the Tories are ‘talking Britain down’.


QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Long after the United States, and even after Iran, Afghanistan and Mongolia, politics in Britain is moving into the television age."

– The NY Times verdict on the debate


THE GREASY POLL
Lab 31, Con 37, LibDem 22 (YouGov)