Delayed reaction to last week’s debate

So, I should have written about this a while ago, but I've been busy doing a few things - my birthday for one, cycling nearly 70km the day after, going to London yesterday etc etc. This won't be a long post though.

Last week's debate was the first of three, and focused on domestic issues. This week's will focus on foreign affairs, and is on a Sky channel. I believe said channel is accessible via Freeview, but it should - hopefully - be aired on the BBC late at night, which was the case with last week's, which aired at 11:30pm of the same evening. As a result, it'll be on the iPlayer later on. I'll link it on here and Twitter after the fact.

How do I think the debate went? Well, it was interesting, and I'm glad it took place. I hope we see it in future elections. The clear winner was Clegg - most people are agreed on that. However, he won't be able to rely on the 'I'm the outsider' rhetoric in tomorrow's debate and next week's.

Of the other two, Brown definitely seemed in the stronger position. I've heard a few commentators say that Clegg won on style, Brown on substance, and Cameron lost all round. I'd agree with that except in that Clegg had some good substance to his arguments too.

In my view, Cameron seriously underperformed except for the last two questions - which, lets face it, is the best time to perform better as that helps with the lasting impression. He couldn't answer questions posed to him, such as on education funding, and he even had an expression of confusion on his face a few times - I don't want a Prime Minister who is confused easily, I want one who knows what he is doing. He simply looked out of his depth, which surprised me.

The opinion polls put Cameron above Brown though, which reinforces what I've thought for some time - even if Brown is actually a clever man, who is on top of the situation and could be the right person to deal with it, his lack of charisma - including such things as forced smiles to try and fix that but make it worse - means that he is a liability for his party as a whole.

I'm looking forward to this week's debate. I'll try and get some proper analysis up sooner after the event - probably not immediately as I have no way of watching it live.