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The morning after

Betsan Powys | 11:41 UK time, Friday, 16 April 2010

I walked up the street last night, peering through windows, listening to the debate in Manchester on the pocket radio.

What did I hear?

"I agree with Nick". "Nick agrees with me". I couldn't see Mr Clegg's face at that moment and couldn't tell how he was taking such love-bombing. I needn't have worried. Back home in 5 minutes in front of the telly and the phrase was used again, again and again.

Which enterprising company will be the first to produce the T-shirt? On the front: I agree with Nick. On the back? And Nick agrees with me. All sizes, two colours: red and blue.

The viewing figures in Wales? The average audience was 450,000 viewers with the audience peaking at 468,000. One word: wow - not quite the tv equivalent of weighing the votes but more than Eastenders and Emmerdale got and the same as that other Manchester hit, Coronation Street. It is the most watched programme this week though - and just maybe Plaid can take some comfort from this one statistic - proportionately fewer people watched in Wales than in England. The same goes for Scotland. 38% of the televsion audience in England were watching; the figure in Wales and in Scotland was 34%. Out of interest it was lowest of all in Northern Ireland where 26% watched.

A ComRes poll just out for ITV has support for the Lib Dems going up by 14% to 35%. It could be a short-lived spike of course. If it's not it could mean bad news for Plaid in Ceredigion where the bookies had them as 8-11 favourites; bad news for the Conservatives in Mid Wales, bad news for Labour in Swansea West and Newport East. The odds on the mother of all hung parliaments must be stacking up nicely.

This morning it's the Welsh Tories' turn to launch their manifesto in the Nova in Prestatyn. Mr Cameron will probably give the Bodyz Gym and Neptune Pool a miss after last night's work-out and stick to the stage in the Starlight Suite.

Roger Williams, Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Wales - who's made an appearance in a press release if not at his own party's own manifesto launch -
has gone on the attack already.

"They talk about offering change, but everyone knows that the red-blue stitch-up will continue if the Conservatives get in.

UPDATE

Ah - polls.

It's now been made clear that the ComRes poll for ITV on voting intentions was carried out amongst people who watched last night's debate, NOT the electorate as a whole.

Still a good story but clearly, not the same story.

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