The party leaders have been reflecting on the challenges facing them ahead of tonight’s TV debates. Nigel Farage said this morning that he wished there weren’t so many of them taking part, something the audience may also feel by the end of tonight’s two-hour extravaganza. But the Ukip leader is probably peeved by the sheer number of party leaders because it makes it more difficult for him to appear to be the only exciting force disrupting British politics. His advantage is that he’s the only one on the Right.
John Cleese or not, Nick Clegg does have one of the biggest challenges of any of the leaders participating. He needs to work out how to make his mark, now as a figure of government surrounded by new insurgents. I understand that Clegg’s main aim is to get voters thinking about who they would want influencing the Prime Minister. This will mean painting deals with other parties such as the SNP as dangerous. And therefore Clegg will not be joining the gang-up-on-Cameron push from the other party leaders that those around the Prime Minister fear. He will have to attack all the other leaders – though he doesn’t plan to lay off Cameron. A lot of people watching will still think Clegg is in some way Cameron’s poodle, so the Lib Dem leader will be rather keen to dispel that impression.
Both Clegg and Farage, who have debated one another, find themselves in a position they haven’t been in before, which is that they will not get the outsider status automatically any more. Clegg has grown used to this, but Farage must know that tonight’s debate will not be as easy for him as it would if Ukip were the fourth and final party to be included in the line-up.
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