Mandelson’s weapon of choice – a stick of rock

We wandered down the motorway from Manchester this morning to Blackpool, to test the voters’ mood and the appetite for debates.

There are key marginals round these parts which is why Peter Mandelson’s here too, handing out sticks of rock with “A Future Fair for All” written through the middle and dancing in the Ball Room.

He’s saying that Gordon Brown thinks David Cameron is “glib” and “trivial” but will be careful to hide that in the debates.

He told me his boy is “match fit” and he, Peter, won’t be biting his nails on the ringside tonight.

All that fun apart, here’s a day the innovation of the TV debates have yanked to their own self-promotional purposes.

They had better prove useful for the access and debate they are losing us.