Cameron starts to pull the Tory campaign out of the fire

The headlines will be “score draw”, but I’d say Cameron won – and comfortably. I write this as someone who could have happily have sunk a few pins into a voodoo doll of David Cameron earlier on this evening – for taking the Conservatives (and Britain) to this appalling point where he may yet lose the election. But he raised his game, substantially. At best, he spoke with passion and authenticity. This time, he looked like he was fighting for his political life, which (of course) he is. Things are looking up. Here’s my participant-by-participant verdict:

Brown


Brown was his normal automaton self. He does tend to mangle his words, and his attempts at simplification backfire. On MPs who over-claimed expenses, he said: “no punishment is too great for them”. Really? Defenestration? Hanging? “The 3,000 richest people country would get £2,000 each from an inheritance tax cut.” Except those people would be, em, dead – so the cash wouldn’t help them much.