Labour reaction to last night’s debate

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Here are the assessments of some of the leading Labour people in the blogosphere on last night’s debate.

I thought Nick Clegg was both the net winner and the best performer on the night. He was clear and principled, and as had the advantage of being able – and keen – to attack both his opponents.

Gordon Brown was strong throughout, particularly during the middle third, during which David Cameron was at his weakest. Some of Gordon’s attack lines were over-prepared and forced – on Ashcroft’s posters for example – and his constant refrain, “I agree with Nick”, as an attempt both to appeal to the Lib Dem leader – and voters – and to show David Cameron as the odd man out, was too calculated and too frequent. But this was a strong showing from Brown. I also think he’ll improve throughout the debates, and end out the clear winner in the economic debate in two weeks’ time.

I do think David Cameron was the weakest performer in the first debate. Although his closing statement was defiant, it was also exceptionally-well scripted and rehearsed. It was the part he couldn’t fail to deliver well, and was the only moment of the debate he was in complete control.

Tom Harris wrote:

“I thought the whole thing was pretty dull, frankly. Certainly there was nothing there that could possibly have justified the amount of journalists’ excitement on show afterwards. Let’s face it folks: very few were watching the debate in order to be better informed about the issues – they were watching it in the hope that one of the leaders was going to implode live on stage. It didn’t happen.”

Will Straw tweeted:

John Prescott Vlogged:

“It was an interesting debate, people gave answers. I’ll be interested to see if the public want to watch the second and third. But I’m pleasesd that it was a serious discission. You’ve got to say Labour wins. It showed a man of substance, who talks about promises; Gordon is a man of delivery.”

Sally Bercow tweeted, half way through the debate:

Alastair Campbell blogged:

“Of the three men up there, only two can be Prime Minister after May 6. And of those two, GB beat DC hands down. Gordon won the debate on substance. Cameron was the runaway winner on shallowness. He seemed to get shallower the longer it went on. Beneath the veneer there was more veneer. Penetrate the generalities and there were more generalities.

GB was strong, authoritative, energetic, policy and substance focused, but also with occasional nice light touches. He was the only one who led the audience to break the rule on clapping. Cameron had a nicely written opening statement which he delivered perfectly well. But once they got into exchanges on policy, he seemed unsure of himself…

The spin room afterwards reflected the general feeling I think. Vince Cable smiling. Alan Johnson spelling out the consequences of Cameron’s failure to match Labour on police spending. Peter Mandelson enjoying winding up George Osborne who, a bit like Cameron earlier, looked like he would rather be anywhere else. Every campaign has an ‘oh shit’ moment. George looked like he had just had his.”

Anthony Painter writes:

“David Cameron failed in a monumental way last night. This debate was about him in the main – he is the front-runner yet people still have significant doubts about him. He came across as insubstantial, evasive, and remarkably nestled in the old politics. His team will be watching the opinion polls over the next few days with a sense of severe trepidation…Gordon Brown had a weak opening, reasonable middle, and mediocre finish. Why, why, why was it not drilled into him that he had to address the viewing millions rather than the few dozen people in the studio????!!!??? That should have been practiced 1,000 times. His big triumph was knocking David Cameron off his game early on – that was a negative tactic that didn’t necessarily benefit him but really succored Cameron. Nick Clegg was the ultimate beneficiary. However, overall Brown didn’t gain and he didn’t lose. Given that he needs a game-changing moment that is not good enough.”

Ellie Gellard tweetd, variously:

Cameron’s minority bingo is excruciating.

Formidable performance from Gordon. Prime Ministerial.

Gordon gets out and meets his public. Clegg and Cameron stay back. They know who the REAL leader is.

That final tweet was a reference to an interesting interlude right at the end, as Gordon Brown went to shake hands with the audience, and David Cameron was seen to yank Nick Clegg back onto the stage, before they, too, both went to press the flesh. Video courtesy of Political Scrapbook:

And image: Meg Pickard: