Motorway Man has watched the first ever UK televised party leaders election debate, and is proud to have witnessed history in the making. Firstly this debate happened, but secondly that the Twitter stream on #LeadersDebate was possibly the most engagement an electronic constituency has ever shown here in the UK.
So how did it go? Firstly all three leaders showed fairly good stage presence and sportsmanship. Yes, they talked over each other somewhat, but not enough to make me wince; actually it was about enough to make me believe they felt they were doing something important. They also all more-or-less stayed on topic for each question; something I wasn't necessarily expecting. Yes, we heard their tag-lines and manifesto catch-phrases jump out when the opportunities came up, but not often more than twice or so.
Individually:
Motorway Man thinks David Cameron was a bit flanked, really; he copped it from both sides more than once. He also chanced it mentioning his poor son the first time. The second time was far too often. I also became a little bored hearing about National Insurance - it's a non-story, David! But his closing speech stayed the closest to summing up his points and his party with trying to play down the other two. It was amusing how many relevant people he had recently met and talked to, however...
Motorway Man thinks Gordon Brown probably had the most dignity, but that rather fits his recent position for the country. He took a hammering quite often when it was hard to say "I will" but couldn't answer "Why didn't you yet?" He was the least animated, however; sometimes I felt that he was summing up an outgoing government rather than promoting a new one.
Motorway Man thinks Nick Clegg stole the show. Most energy, most honesty, and wasn't afraid to hit it into the other two; but not as often as he might have. His closing speech was one of the weaker ones; but he made up for that by knowing where he was in relation to the other two parties at all times. It was also funny to see him not react to the other two parties trying to "steal" him at one time or another. He also managed to achieve a Consensus answer on the final question that the other two fell in with - a brilliant strategic ending move and possibly very appropriate for how the future UK parliament might become. I think we know where he is MP of, however...
We also massively loved his casual, hands-in-pockets pose. Looked good!
The Moderator deserves a mention - I think he kept order pretty well, and wasn't afraid to talk the leaders down. Indeed Nick looked like a rebuked schoolchild at one point.
And in the end...
Motorway Man has decided: Nick Clegg performed best in the first ever UK Election TV debate. Let's see what happens next.
Motorway of the Day:
M1And now, exclusive from Motorway Man -
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