Thursday nights will never be the same. Three weeks, three Leaders’ Debates, three teams of 63336 researchers providing analysis and statistics that we then compile into our Alternative Reports. This week’s focus was on the economy, and it was quite a dour debate – only four jokes were attempted and leaders’ laughs were scarce on the ground.
Here’s an extract of some questions and answers from the third Alternative Report on the Leaders’ Debates. You can also read the reports from week one and week two.
Q. Who used the oddest word?
A. The oddest words to crop up were pot plants, paper clips & shadows – all from Clegg. Cameron referred to “frightening people” 3 times. Brown said “we are desperate”.
Q. Which party leader was the biggest smiler in the third leaders’ debate?
A. Gordon Brown smiled the most in this debate – 10 times. He has a nice smile when he remembers he’s got one. Clegg got 6 in. Cameron didn’t smile at all.
Q. Who showed the biggest change in the 3 leaders’ debates?
A. David Cameron showed the most volatility, with a 5% swing from ‘We’ to ‘I’ in the second debate & a massive 9% swing back to ‘We’ in the final debate.
Q. Who got blamed the most?
A. Unsurprisingly Gordon Brown was blamed the most, 24 times by Clegg and 16 times by Cameron. The question causing the most arguments was Radley Russell’s about immigration.
