A bore draw

OK, I didn't watch it all - just the last twenty minutes - but what a banal, boring event the much vaunted clash of the chancellors turned out to be.

Apart from the fact that they spent most of the time agreeing with each other (so much for clear blue water - there isn't even a murky grey smear of difference) the only other striking thing about the event was how utterly undynamic all three were. You'd feel more energised after washing down a bottle of Valium with neat vodka than you would watching Darling, Cable and Osborne in full flow.

The format didn't much help either. In case you didn't see it, it went sort of like this.

Someone in the audience asks a pre-prepared question.
The moderator asks one of the prospective chancellors to answer the question.
The chosen chancellor says the questioner is right and they must do something about it.
The other two agree.
The moderator then asks what they would do about it.
Each prospective chancellor then answers with vague generalisations using the words "global", "fair" and "regulation" a lot without ever saying anything particularly specific.
The moderator asks for another pre-prepared question from the audience.

None of us is any the wiser.

Oh - except that I'm all the more convinced that the Boy George is completely out of his depth even in the company of such mediocrity as Darling and Cable.