Vince Cable emerged as the night’s winner. The Liberal Democrats’ deputy leader scored 36% in an online poll of viewers after the showdown on Channel 4. Darling and Osborne both scored 32%.

There were no real moments of drama and it lacked the raucous nature of PMQs so the winner was probably determined more by the average viewer’s prior voting intentions than anything said. Thinking voters will want to see more than was on display last night to make up their minds.