Blair is looking even more orange than usual, and rather thin around the face. Maybe it is the bright red “A future fair for all” Labour wallpaper behind him. Rhetorically he hasn’t changed much: still lots of pregnant pauses and persuasive hand movements.

There is still a whiff of the preacher: “Although the sea is still rough the storm has subsided….at the moment of peril the world acted, Britain acted.”

I think we might be about to get the crucial Brown-is-amazing job reference: Isn’t that the reason Blair has broken off from his globetrotting to make the speech?

Okay, here it is: “It required leadership and Gordon Brown supplied it.”

Job done.

btw, Blair has just described “change” as the most vacuous political slogan ever; surely he must have used it in 1997. Surely?

The main argument is quite compelling, however. Blair claims the Tories have made a mistake by tacking right on Europe, left on law & order and “buffeted this way and that” on the economy. Expect to hear more of this during the election campaign.

11.55am

He’s still going, with a list of achievements under Labour, including devolution, flexible working and the minimum wage. It would be impressive if we hadn’t heard it from Brown himself during the Labour conference. Blair has also just mentioned how Basra is now a better place; risky territory, surely?

9pm (JP) Scheduled against Eastenders and Coronation Street, this was always going to be a warm-up to the main event; the leaders’ debates. But instructive nevertheless. A big thanks here to Ian Mulheirn from the Social Market Foundation for providing intellectual ballast. (He moved house only yesterday and may have some apologies to make when he arrives home. Heroic).

8.58pm (AB) It’s all over. A lively if completely unenlightening debate. Who would have thought there was an election on? In picking a winner, it is always worth remembering that it is not relative performance that is important. It’s about what the public thought of you before the debate — and whether that changes. Darling made no big mistakes. There were a couple of decent gags and some flashes of passion, which may have surprised some viewers. Osborne stood his ground and certainly looked calm. The negative side was that he made little of the National Insurance announcement and sometimes looked like he was being ganged up on. Cable threw and landed the most punches. But the fact the other two didnt even bother to discuss Lib Dem policy was telling.

8.55pm (AB) Some thoughts from Chris Cook, a star FT leader writer:

Vince is winning, so far, cementing his place as the cabbie’s favourite politician. Smashed MPs and bankers in his intro minute, and clobbered Osborne over the (beserk-in-a-recession) IHT cut.

8.53pm (JP). They are wrapping up. Darling boasts (sotto voce) about having made the right calls. Job opportunities are the main thing, he says. Vince says “who can you trust?”. Labour led Britain into “this mess” and wasted money on over-centralised public services, argues Cable. He doesn’t like the Tories either. “Now they want another chance to get their noses in the trough and reward their rich backers.” St Vince isn’t being so saintly right now. Don’t hold back chap. Last but not least, Osborne is summing up. He points out, rightly, that Labour has been in power for 13 years. “They took one of the strongest economies in Europe and now we have one of the weakest.” It’s a powerful argument. You only have one chance to get Labour out, he says.