This was hardly a vintage debate even if it is increasingly clear that these men have little regard for one another and that both Cameron and, especially, Brown are irritated by Nick Clegg’s stickability.
This was actually Clegg’s weakest performance. After a good start and the best of the opening statements, Clegg’s performance was less focused, less detailed, less persuasive any time he moved away from the Lib Dems’ flagship proposal to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000. That may not matter much since this policy has the great advantage of being popular and easy to understand. Elsewhere, Clegg retreated to a cheap populism on bankers bonuses and the like that didn’t persuade me of his seriousness even if I suspect it probably pleased many viewers. On the other hand he scored well when pointing out the madness of a tax credit system that hands money to the wealthy. It’s a shame, mind you, that he didn’t point out that his policy on illegal immigrants is more or less the same as Ronald Reagan’s.
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