Verdict so far: who’s coming out on top?
We have had four out of the five questions.
Everything has calmed down a bit now. The big question with this debate was whether it was a terrible idea for Ed Miliband to take on the ‘challengers’ alone or was it a mistake from the Prime Minister not to take part in an event it’s ministers are describing as having an important role in democracy.
It could have gone wrong but so far the format, strongly controlled by David Dimbleby, has allowed Ed Miliband to keep calm. Meanwhile Nigel Farage, with politics so diametrically opposed to some of the other leaders, has taken the heat off.
The debate has had a very in depth discussion of housing, defence and now immigration and it seems like David Cameron and Nick Clegg could be regretting not being involved.
Although as I said before, with seven people on the stage it could be a very different debate if they were.