Our first ever Prime Miniserial TV debate is over and my instant verdict is: (1) Nick Clegg, (2) David Cameron, (3) Gordon Brown. So David Cameron effectively lost, because he should have won.

The Liberal Democrats are making a great deal of how honest, detailed and clear they are being about the needs for ‘tough choices’ in public spending. And by and large they do seem to be, but there are some areas where spin seems to have gotten the better of them.

Plan for public to take control of public services will not guarantee savings and could inflame social division, say critics – Guardian BTW – before Charles Moore bursts another blood vessel I should point out I was on BBC R4’s The World Tonight (12/04/2010) criticising the Labour Manifesto’s commitments on public sector organisations.

Today David Cameron has been saying all day that the Tories efficiency savings amount to asking the government to save ‘£1 in every £100 that it spends’ and this is obviously ‘do-able’. On one level this is true, but only:

The Election campaign was almost completely dominated by efficiency issues yesterday, as Labour tried to dis the Tories plans to pay for not raising NIC by even more “savings”. As a result, I ended up doing radio, TV, and several newspaper interviews. So what did I say? In short, don’t believe any government or opposition […]

General election 2010: the battle over the paperclip vote The Guardian – ‎5 hours ago‎ The trio have been joined by Professor Colin Talbot, the public services adviser to the Treasury select committee. It is probably tedious to get into the …

Major parties failing to spell out spending plans Public Finance – Lucy Phillips – ‎4 hours ago‎ Colin Talbot, professor of public policy and management at Manchester Business School, told Public Finance that the public sector had been left ‘guessing’. …

The World at One (BBC) 8th April 2010