It threatened to be the UK equivalent of a “stairheid rammy”, but in truth the only TV debate where all seven main party leaders will go head-to-head held it together pretty well.
The two-hour event was as lively as the format would allow without spiralling out of control as every politician and their dog who wants to have an influence on the UK Government had their say.
Nick Clegg was the first to get antsy, having a dig at his former boss David Cameron in a bid to distance himself from all the decisions he has signed off as the Deputy Prime Minister over the past five years.
It was Nicola Sturgeon and Nigel Farage who started the royal rumbling, though, but only one of them actually managed to seem like a decent human being at the end of it.
The First Minister threatened to get a wee bit too shouty as she kept interrupting and talking over the top of her opponents before settling down to put in a pretty impressive performance.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=J7nNReBhAcA%3Frel%3D0
Indeed, the SNP said they gained 1,200 members during the course of the debate, which probably says it all about their leader’s performance.
However, there was an open goal for both the Conservatives and Labour when she used the phrase: “I agree with Ed.” In a rare slip, it was an echo of Gordon Brown’s 2010 car crash.
She also led the tri-party alliance with the Greens and Plaid Cymru as she set the agenda for the “progressive alliance” pushing and probing on economics and immigration in particular.
She also drew the first laugh of the evening by quipping “I’m not defending them,” when questioned on Labour’s record on NHS reform.
That didn’t stop her completely contradicting her Health Secretary, though.
As things got heated, Ms Sturgeon proclaimed that SNP MPs would vote against any privatisation of the health service in England.
That goes against the Nationalists’ general rule of not voting on anything that doesn’t impact on the Budget north of the border, which it seems Shona Robison was reasonably following on Thursday afternoon when she was asked about the issue.
The Dundee City East MSP said: “Obviously, we don’t think the NHS in England is going in the right direction with the involvement of the private sector and so on. But that’s up to them if they want to structure the NHS in that way as long as the impact of that doesn’t affect public spending.”
Perhaps best to brief one of your closest allies in the government before making up policy on live telly.
But that was not the worst thing to be brought up about the health service far from it. Nigel Farage fairly upped the ante there.
“They’re all the same,” was his refrain about the other leaders on the panel, but it also seemed to apply to his views about anyone not white and born in the UK.
So when he decided to attack people with HIV, it led to gasps of shock and horror among the studio audience and those watching on from the sidelines.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2m9S1PCiuEs%3Frel%3D0
One can only assume, as per his sculpted public image, he’d decided to have a few pints before the debate as he lost the plot to just shout and heckle without much purpose on several occasions.
Back to the NHS, Natalie Bennett made sure we knew exactly where people “might need help” as she returned to the refrain again and again. Alas, she probably needed help just getting through the debate.
Meanwhile, Leanne Wood was rather redundant. On stage as, according to the latest polls, the leader of the fourth-largest party in Wales, there seemed little point in her being present with the much more impressive Sturgeon making all the same points far more effectively.
The real star of the show was Julie Etchingham in the chair. Without the need for any macho shouting over the top of the politicians, she kept them broadly in line and shut down nonsense before it had the chance to really get started.
That’s not to say the politicians didn’t try. Oh, they really wanted to heckle and harry each other and Farage, Sturgeon and Clegg in particular all gave it a good go.
Miliband made one vain effort with Cameron, but only the Prime Minister didn’t bother to get involved in the shouting matches. In fact, he even dealt rather well with the one member of the audience who threatened to make things go off-piste as she heckled about the armed forces.
Did this tell us anything? In all honesty, not really.
However, Sturgeon and Clegg can look at this as a success while Cameron and Miliband should be happy they both managed to look prime ministerial.
This was fun, and towards the end quite engaging, but this scrapping won’t decide the election.