Four words that just doomed Labour

(Note: I would have loved to post this sooner; however, other commitments precluded me from live-blogging this. A Tweet-delayed version can be found by reading my past 100 Tweets or so.)

Anyone who wanted to make a drinking game out of stuff said in Thursday's first-ever debate between the UK's major party leaders would have stumbled out of the pub, along with Labour's chances of regaining a majority of seats in Parliament, by way of these four words:

“I agree with Nick.”

On at least three occasions Gordon Brown said that very phrase when responding to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's points on elderly care, right to recall corrupt MPs, and attacking David Cameron's call to set a quota for immigration. Those four words, along with Clegg's assertive and natural performance (which many are comparing to Jack Kennedy) against the typical Labour-Conservative squabbling that's marked Westminster politics since the end of World War II, made him stand out the most in this watershed event. And opinion polls are showing it: The Times has 61% of those surveyed declaring Clegg the winner, with Cameron and Brown each only getting one in five.

This first debate took place in Manchester, long a Labour stronghold as a cog in the industrial machine that propelled Britain into the world's pre-eminent empire of the 19th and early 20th century.