Brown fails to get needed debate win
British PM loses final leaders' debate despite focus on economy, after "bigot" gaffe in last 24 hours.
Gordon Brown needed to win - and win big. He didn't.
The third and final leaders' debate seemed set just for him - it was on the economy. Not only did he spend 10 years as UK finance minister, he was hailed as one of the reasons the global financial crisis didn't become a depression rather than a recession.
But it had been a difficult 24 hours. He'd called a grandmother who was a life-long Labour supporter "a bigoted woman" in a private conversation which was caught by a microphone and had to make a public apology. It was the most disastrous miss-step of what is becoming a disastrous campaign.
He addressed the issue in his opening statement which he really had to do. It was just one line but it was enough.
Nick Clegg, the winner of the first two debates and leader of the Liberal Democrats, seemed to struggle to get into the debate as David Cameron slugged it out with Brown on inheritance tax for the well off and credits for those not so well off. For those who've argued these first ever televised debates in UK were more about style than substance, this was the antidote. This was heavy on policy and the politics behind it.
Nick Clegg scored points when he criticised a bank - bailed out by British taxpayers - for helping to fund a foreign takeover of a UK firm which then led to job losses. A few heads in the audience nodded in agreement.
For the third time in three debates immigration was a question from the floor. It remains a deep concern to the voters, second only to the economy - a fact the leaders appear not yet to have grasped.
And so through housing, and education and taxation we went, as the debate lost some of its fire.
The final statements gave the leaders the chance to set out their case to the millions watching at home. David Cameron insisted it was an election about values and after Labour's failures over the last 13 years, he was ready to bring something fresh to the country.
Nick Clegg talked fresh too - insisting it was time to break away from the two parties who have shared the reins of power for 65 years. And Gordon Brown ended saying the other two didn't have the experience to handle the job, to make the difficult decisions, and that threatened the economic recovery. All the appeals were impassioned and heartfelt but really, were nothing new.
The instant poll gave victory to David Cameron with 35 per cent. Gordon Brown's figures reflected his collapsing campaign. There was no breakthrough – he came third on 26 per cent. And Nick Clegg, winner of the first two debates, had to be content with a close second
These debates have changed the face of this election – of that there's no doubt. They will, I'm sure, change the face of British politics forever, but that is a post for another day.
Each party is claiming - some say spinning - that it did best. But as all the leaders remarked, it's now up to the public to decide who won when they go to the polls on May 6.
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