I've deliberately written this without looking at any of the other blog comments, so apologies if I end up repeating anything!

I've just finished watching the Question Time leadership debate. I have mixed feelings about it - Nick got off to a very shaky start under some heavily personal questioning, while Chris was confidently plugging away and seemed to be enjoy it more.

Then it all changed after the half-hour mark - Nick gave a superbly passionate answer talking about his anger at the 14 year difference in life expectancy between the richest and poorest wards in Sheffield. From then on, he seemed to "switch on" - talking with passion and conviction, giving human examples, and generally had people in the audience nodding along.

I ended up coming away with the impression that Nick shaded it - as I'm told did the journalists on Question Time Extra, although I haven't yet managed to watch it myself! That said, Chris Huhne is doing very well and certainly improved on his performance a year and a half ago. He is certainly exceeding many people's expectations at the moment.

I'm not really sure though whether this debate will have influenced people one way or another - partly because it was very even and there were bits for supporters of both candidates to pick out. We shall see though.

One thing that's made this leadership election so nerve-wracking so far is that members are hard to pin down in any national polling. Not only does no-one know how close it is, no-one even knows who's in the lead!

I suppose we will find out in a month's time...