Twitter fans unimpressed by TV debate ploys

They may have been virtual, but scores of viewers on social networking site Twitter groaned as Gordon Brown announced "I'm your man", writes Dan Wainwright.

Despite the party leaders wanting to be listened to for their policies rather than judged on body language there were plenty of remarks that David Cameron was following Nick Clegg's lead from last week and staring down the camera lens.

Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell cried foul within four minutes, bemoaning the decision to cut away to other angles showing the audience while Gordon Brown was talking and not while Cameron and Clegg were.

Later he accused Sky of having James Murdoch in the control room for cutting to a shot of a man yawning while Gordon Brown was talking.

Twitter user Peter Jackson, from Kingswinford, said: "They make me laugh, all looking at each other, making eye contact."

He was also one of many who felt Brown's joke about Clegg and Cameron being like little boys "squabbling at bath time" sounded rehearsed.

David Cameron's latest gaffe was picked up immediately. His comment about being "blown away" when he went to Afghanistan drew plenty of derogatory comments.

Chris Addison, the stand up comedian and star of The Thick of It said: ""I have been to Afghanistan a few times. Every time you're blown away." Nice phrasing, Dave."

Later the star of films like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Simon Pegg, mocked the Tory leader for promising an 84-year-old woman that something would be done in 2016 – the rather cruel implication presumably being that that might be a little late for her.

Nick Clegg's denial that action did not need to be taken about nuclear threats, such as Iran, prompted calls for him to "get real" from Wolverhampton tweeter Anthony Ellis, who uses the site to promote his comic books blog.

Les Jones, the Tory deputy leader of Dudley Council, said: "Brown is telling us his Government is doing everything right, so why is the only consensus that he has to go."

There was praise and condemnation in equal measure for Clegg's use of the word "nutters" to describe the right wing grouping of parties in the European Parliament.

Twitter users were also making light of the allegations surrounding Nick Clegg's expenses that appeared in the press yesterday morning.

Using the search term #Nickcleggsfault they listed various things that could be blamed on the Lib Dem leader – from the recession to the escape of the Daleks in last week's Doctor Who.

By Daniel Wainwright