Michael Crick: It could be the womens’ night

Michael Crick has this take on the possible winners and losers later:

Tonight’s debate may be two hours long, but with ad breaks, interventions by and reactions from the audience, each leader will be lucky to get more then ten minutes on screen. My hunch is that the winner won’t be any of the big names, but one or two of the more obscure leaders – Leanne Wood, the leader of Plaid Cymru or Natalie Bennett, the Green leader.

In a way Natalie Bennett can’t lose. After her disastrous media performance with Andrew Neil and Nick Ferrari she is bound to well prepared tonight, and be in a good position to surprise people.

The other thing that both Natalie Bennett and Leanne Wood have going for them is their radical views – Leanne Wood is a republican and both are likely to take a strong position against further austerity.

Indeed, this could be a very good election for women. Not only are three of the seven party leaders are female but also analysing the lists of candidates women are doing extremely well among those who are likely to become MPs. this is partly because Labour and Conservatives have deliberately taken measures to get more more women candidates even the Liberal Democrats are doing a lot better with women’s representation. Of the eleven Lib Dem MPs that are retiring six have been replaced by women candidates.