The secret diary of an election photographer - First Leader Debate

And so it arrived - the most important single event of the election time (before polling day, that is).

All the instant polling showed a clear victory for Nick Clegg. As even Andrew Neill has just said on This Week, Nick Clegg gained simply by being on the stage, but gained more by looking as though he belonged there.

The day began with a visit to a primary school in Manchester with John Leach, the candidate for Withington - and a bit of a shock winner last time.

The school pupils were aged nine and ten and asked a range of interesting questions. One pupil asked whether smaller class sizes would mean he would be split away from his friends. Another asked if Nick had ever met the Queen and another asked a question in Spanish aboutn whether Nick liked football (he does, but he doesn't like Lionel Messi because he's too good!)

One amusing thing about the visit was a poster on the wall made by the pupils. It asked what mood you were in. There was a blue monster (sad), a red monster (angry) a green monster (calm) and a yellow monster (happy). This didn't escape the media attending the event.

After that, Nick went away to relax and go for a long walk to collect his thoughts and prepare for tonight's debate.

Along with about 100 other campaign workers, I watched the debate at a party hosted by Mark Hunter, the MP for Cheadle. The debate there... not surprisingly, that Nick won hands down.