The Leaders' debate

Like 9.4m other people, I sat down on Thursday evening to watch what was billed as an 'historic' first and 'defining' moment by an excited British media - the first debate between the leaders of Britain's three leading political parties as part of the Election campaign.

What happened over the course of 90 minutes of sometimes interesting, often not, debate was either 'truly remarkable' or 'as expected' depending on which source you read. What happened was that the vast majority of 9.4m people sat up and took notice of a bloke called Nick Clegg, probably for the first time.

If you believe one side, then such was the opportunity for a man who normally struggles to get remotely near the front pages, that all he had to do was turn up. If you believe the other, then this was proof that here was a man and a party whose moment has arrived.

Except it hasn't, despite some truly intriguing polls which place Clegg's a stones throw from the lead in the race for No 10. Instead, his party will end up with 100 seats at best. A meagre return for their efforts.

The reason it hasn't is that Britain's seemingly simple electoral system is actually anything but. On paper, it's easy - 650 people who each poll the most votes in their constituencies elected to Parliament. And in practice, that's the case. The problem for the Lib Dems arises because their vote is so evenly spread across the UK. They don't have the industrial north as a heartland, and they don't have the prosperous south as one either.

Instead, they have to scrap and scrape for every single seat, often enduring the frustration of finishing second and walking away with nothing. Small wonder then, that they want electoral reform which would recognise their share of the overall national vote.

So no, the Lib Dems aren't going to be huge winners in this election, despite all their best efforts (and the lamentable efforts of the other two parties). Who are going to be winners though are all the people who despair at the death of politics as a topic of choice amongst the wider electorate.

Walking into the office on Friday morning, it was fantastic to see so many different people talking about the events of the night before. And that's something that carried into this weekend as well as I travelled up to Leicester.

Granted, the people in my office probably don't represent a full cross-section of society. But at least it's a start. Politics just might be becoming something that matters to people again.