The First Election Debate Was Actually Worth Watching

The first of the three election debates by the leaders of the main parties in this election was in some ways fairly predictable. Gordon Brown tried to appear to be the experienced statesman saying better the devil you know than to take the risk of a new boy in No10. Cameron was suggesting that the Labour government is tired and has lost it’s way and Nick Clegg was saying a plague on both your houses, you’ve both been playing musical chairs for the last 60 years or so and look where it has got us.

With an electorate who have become totally disillusioned with the old ways Nick Clegg was given an opportunity to show what he has to offer and get equal billing to the other two leaders before a major audience and he was up to his task as the polls seem to be showing he was the winner in this debate.

The biggest lesson I learned from this debate was that it is possible for debates to take place without a lot of childish behaviour that we see every week at prime ministers question time. The fact that people appear to have sat and watched 90 minutes of political debate becaue points are being discussed rather than just attempting to shout each other down.

The TV pundits seem to be saying that Nick Clegg won the debate though they are not thinking it will change anything but I wonder if the public might respond to Nick Cleggs confident performance rather more than they expect. Watch this space.