House Points: In the green room at Ask the Chancellors

My House Points column from the current Liberal Democrat News. I liveblogged the debate while I was there.

Tough at the top

They have fierce security at television studios these days. It’s not just hard to get in: I saw Lord Bragg having trouble getting a turnstile to allow him and his swipe card to leave the building. Still, he is a Labour peer and no doubt it was all for security or health and safety, so welcome to the world you made, Melv.

I was there in the green room to report Channel 4’s Ask the Chancellors on my blog. I could, of course, have done that just as well watching television at home, but you don’t get to hang out with the stars that way. Isn’t that Polly Toynbee over there? Simon Carr? Quentin Letts’ rear view?

The good news is that the general expectations before the event were fulfilled. Alistair Darling was worthy, likeable but dull. It’s hard to believe he was once Red Ally, the firebrand leader of Lothian Regional Council. Then he was so extreme that the Scottish Labour establishment sent George Galloway to reason with him.

George Osborne came over as a bright schoolboy, which must be a worry for a man of 38. Has Osborne, as William Hague did before him, reached the top too early in his career? Patience is one of the political virtues. It was noticeable that when he tried to patronise someone – it wasn’t clear whether the target was Vince Cable or the whole audience – the effect was merely ridiculous.

And then there was Vince. Before the debate began I wrote on Liberal England that he had the most to lose because his reputation stands so high. I need not have worried: he lived up to his billing. In particular, he went down the best of the three with the studio audience and showed his priceless ability to put the boot in very effectively whilst appearing to be above the fray.

Some Conservative commentators were so disappointed were with the way the evening went that they suggested that Vince had got most applause because the audience was packed with Liberal Democrats.

Not so. It was rigorously balanced. If a Tory did not turn up then a Labour and Lib Dem supporter were denied entry. I know: I talked to the people in charge of doing it.