The morning after
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.
I'm Betsan Powys, BBC Wales' political editor. I'll be blogging the inside track on 
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~49~RS~)
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your figures are also incorrect, they were the unweighted figs, correct figs are
tory 35%
lab 28%
lib 24%
and yes it was a poll of 4000 preselected people who where going to watch the debate so is not representative of the population as a whole.
but it weighted and unweighted figs do seem to show that many disaffected lab voters who were reluctantly prepared to vote lab ( as opposed to abstaining as in the EU elections) were prepared to switch to libs.
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It is a concern to me Betsan, that a senior BBC journalist should take pleasure in a party not being able to win a seat, because it was refused entry to a leader's debate. I have no issue with a party progressing because their leader performs well against his opposition but of course, that was not the situation with Plaid, was it?
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#2.
Ian - this is what I wrote:
"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".
If you read anything other than a statement of fact there, I certainly don't.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp2mxuL5I5w
Re 2.
I don't wish to be cruel, but those whose first language is Welsh, have every right to feel a sense of pride whilst living in their local habitat.
But it doesn't travel, does it?
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Betsan,
The Conservatives and Labour had the opportunity to debate and that's fair enough. In the next 2 debates, it could swing in different directions, depending on numerous factors and they could well regain the impetus. However, Plaid Cymru do not have the luxury of having any influence on this situation and so the context of how this affects our support is different.
Your employer has made an executive decision to join with the other TV networks and deny a voice to my party, on the biggest set of media events affecting the election in Wales. The fact that your employer is a public service broadcaster is a very significant factor and one that very much rubs salt into the wounds of Plaid supporters and elected representatives alike.
The BBC has chosen to move away from objectivity in Wales and so if any BBC journalist endeavours to project the position of Plaid as equivalent to the other parties in relation to these debates, then I shall challenge it.
I recognise that this was not a decision made in Wales and it could be argued that due to devolution, such a situation was inevitable. The problem for Plaid though is that at the very time that this decision has been made, the Welsh media has never been weaker or under so much threat. Digital TV now ensures that a huge proportion of Welsh people do not even watch Welsh news and newspaper sales in Wales are falling through the floor. The only shining light is the BBC and now they have turned on Plaid, but as you stated 'wow', more than Eastenders or Emmerdale.'
The Welsh versions that you will no doubt plug will not only attract just a fraction of the audience from Wales that watch the UK versions, but will not have any post-media analysis that anyone in Wales will take note of, other than politicos like ourselves. Plaid saw this coming and have transferred what resources we have into local campaigning, on the understanding that in a UK election we will never again have parity within Wales. In reality, we never really had it but these debates will always be detrimental to our ability to expand our influence for Wales, in London.
If we get our facts wrong, get our numbers wrong, have no answers or just have a bad day then fair enough - slag us off. You have to accept that you are not perfect and learn from it.
However, when you do all you can, get excluded and suffer without the ability to do anything about it, please do not expect us to be happy about it. Believe me, we are not.
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Re 4
You're off on one again, Jac! And still not making very much sense. That was a pretty good and very sensible contribution from Adam Price. I'm sure it would have quite a lot of support from the English!
But what it had to do with Welsh speaking people, is quite beyond me - but, as usual, you seem to have found some kind of weird connection.
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Re 5
I share your anger ian, but what else can we expect from the British establishment? When they sense that their very existence is increasingly under threat, there is nothing they won't try. This decision was made in London. Of course.
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I read at #7 ...
... they sense that their very existence is increasingly under threat, ...
... and realised the Nat's amongst us must have travelled to Delphi so that the sybil would fall into a trance and make a prophesy in their favour, were they Intoxicated by the seers vapours, did the vapours affect their judgement.
I might recommend the "Prisoners Dilemma", it provides an explanation as to why our tame Nationalist contributors are flogging the dead horse of separatism ...
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Thing is foo, Plaid want separation from England, because they consider themselves to be a uniquely different race with a totally different and ancient language.
That's fair enough and I totally agree, Ieaun Wyn Jones, is nothing like me good self and other folk whose first language is English with English genes in their heritage.
But that difference could work to Ieaun's dis-advantage? With his clumsy English he might look stupid in comparison to Alex Salmon, Nick Clegg and David Cameron, and even Gordon Brown?
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