Everyone’s a winner baby, that’s the truth (well, almost everyone)

And vote for me, too

Being on the economy, it was the debate where the Prime Minister was expecting to prove the most impressive. He gave a solid performance and won some of the questions, but he did look tired yet determined. What struck me particularly about the debate was that Brown spent as much time talking about Conservative economic policies around inheritance tax cuts, reductions in eligibility for Child Tax Credits and a public spending squeeze as he did about Labour’s own policy platform. This created a tone of negativism which made the scrap all the more bruising. But it will have done much in key marginals to hammer home Labour’s message that they have a different economic agenda and a different set of priorities to the Conservatives.

In contrast, David Cameron was perhaps less combative and played the statesman rather effectively. Of all three debates this was the one where he seemed the most comfortable and in control. To my mind, he won this particular contest on points not least because he was succinct and less repetitive in his messaging. His performance will surely have buoyed spirits at Conservative Central Office where there must have been a sense of bewilderment at how muted and staged he had come across earlier, especially in the first leadership debate.

Although last night his performance wasn’t as strong as the previous two, Nick Clegg held his own well and over the three weeks has avoided any major mistakes despite coming under sustained fire in the last two debates. The closest he came to disingenuity was when he talked about an “If ever” scenario of the Lib Dems taking the UK into the Euro, which is a substantial tonal difference from “We believe that it is in Britain’s long term interest to be part of the Euro.” And for the first half of last night he did feel very much like an also-ran contributor. But it will have no doubt kept people switching to the Lib Dems as well as joining and contributing financially, which has been a real boost to the party during this election.

But nevertheless Clegg is my winner of the series of debates. I always imagined he and his party would be boosted by the profile the platform would give him. For it to have been sustained over three weeks is the real shock. Plaid Cymru is right to be very angry about the format of these debates. My guess would be that the Prime Ministerial debates have cost them at least one seat in the election.

Yet the genie is out of the bottle. Prime Ministerial debates are here to stay. Regardless of the outcome of this election, the political contests will never be the same again.