Leader's Debate The de-brief

“You can’t airbrush your policies as you do you posters”. I wonder who came up with that one. Perhaps is was Gordon himself as he cracked into his soft boiled egg and soldiers the day before. Perhaps he ran it by someone: “Hey, Sarah, check this one out…” guffaw, guffaw.

The Leaders' Debate saw a lighter side to Mr Brown. And a tighter side to Mr Cameron as he twisted and writhed his way through questions most thought he’s sail through. But the winner of the night? The other guy, what’s his name again? Our new hero, Mr Clegg. My other half came in halfway through the debate – “who’s that guy?” he asked. No, he hasn’t got the most memorable of faces. But how he stood up to Brown and Cameron was one of the most glorious moments in modern British politics that I can remember.

“Mr Clegg will agree with me on this…” gloated Brown to Cameron. To which the Yellow’s Leader retorted “the more they attack each other, the more they sound the same” - POW. “We will stop putting money into the development of unnecessary trident missiles” – BIFF. Then he proposed a 10% tax on all bank profits – WHAM. Game, set and match.

Brown’s trump card remained the economic recovery – which he promised us lies entirely in implementing a job’s tax. Cameron claimed this is the very tax which will bring the economy back to its knees. Brown wants ID cards, ‘personal promises’ for NHS delivery and an elected and much reduced House of Lords (a few intakes of breaths from ze’ upper classes).

Cameron stuck to the Tory thirst for world domination, believing we need to continue funding trident missile development (in case we need it, you know, “in case of China”) but lots of money for the NHS. At the expense of other services perhaps. But if you ‘work hard’ and save £8k on retirement, you won’t have to pay for care in your old age. He didn't mention what happens if you’ve ‘worked hard’ bringing up children, ‘worked hard’ for charity or ‘worked hard’ and simply not been able to save up such a nest egg due to soaring taxes…

While Clegg chillaxed on the back of his heels with his hands thrust deep into his pockets, Brown smirked and gurned and Cameron fidgeted and looked uncomfortable. For a man with nothing to loose, Clegg stuck himself outside and beyond the Reds and Blues; better education (although my mother the Educational Psychologist claims smaller classes and one-on-one tuition only works for specific age groups – she’s vowed to write to him to let him know), more transparent policing, a peace-friendly foreign policy and above all ‘fairness’.

Thanks Nick. We think you did marvellously. As did the St Ives and Isles of Scilly constituency who were voting in their droves for their Blue man prior to last night but this morning nudged the Yellows into the lead. It’s going to be a terrific race to the finish, but one thing’s clear – a Lib Dem vote’s no longer a ‘wasted vote’.