Contestants prepare for historic TV debate

The election campaign goes into a brief lull today as the three men who would be prime minister prepare for tonight's historic leaders' debate.

Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have been busy testing themselves against colleagues and officials in advance of the broadcast, which looks set to be watched by tens of millions of people.
Polls indicate half the electorate will watch the debate – around the same number that turn out to vote.


Mr Brown did manage to fit in a trip to the marginal Bolton West constituency today, in which he admitted slight nerves and insisted he was "looking forward to it".
Mr Clegg stands to gain the most from the occasion as Britain's third party basks in the fact its leader will stand side-by-side with his two opponents.
"The nerves are there," he told reporters earlier while campaigning in Manchester city centre today.

Mr Cameron has arguably the most to lose as the front runner, but Tory officials are hoping his personable character will shine through on screen compared to that of Mr Brown. He spent the day in Halifax, West Yorkshire, with his wife.
Various social media tools are gearing up to calculate the results of the debate.


A Twitter tool created by political aggregator Tweetminster will track posts by 5,000 designated Twitter users and judge their sentiment on a scale of one to five, thereby providing a real-time assessment of each leader's performance.
Meanwhile, a Facebook tool will invite the sites millions of users to provide instant snapshots of the country's reaction to the debate.

An audience reaction tool branded 'the worm' will track the impressions of a panel picked by ITV News, which is hosting the first debate, on the subject of domestic affairs.
A second debate, on foreign affairs, will take place on Sky next week, while a third and final debate on the economy will take place the week after that on the BBC.
The live debate is the first of its kind on British television, despite being a key part of election campaigns in most other developed countries.
Analysts and pundits will be watching events closely to see its affect on the 2010 general election.

politics.co.uk will be tracking the build up throughout the day and providing minute-by-minute commentary of the debate itself.


( source:By politics.co.uk staff)
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