You can’t knock that Tony Blair.

Whatever you thought of the man. Whether he always bugged the hell out of you, whether he just started to bug you after that invasion stuff, if you finally lost it when he became a cheerleader for Pope Benedict the Nasty or whether you remain a devoted follower, Mr Blair was prepared to make the call, take the flak and go with his instincts.

Mr Blair’s instincts were that nothing good would come of the notion of Prime Ministerial debates. He understood very well that his lead in 1997 was unassailable and that meant he had nothing to gain. He understood perfectly well that the main winner from a debate was likely to be the party with the least exposure before hand. He understood that to allow a three-way contest was potentially disastrous and in every case he pulled it.

Both Mr Cameron and Mr Brown in different ways have got it wrong over TV debates and conceded or championed the cause for all the wrong reasons. Tonight’s spectacle provided an illusion of democratic choice. It was not a Prime Ministerial debate. It was a debate between a Prime Minister, a person who would like to be Prime Minister and a person who isn’t, barring a rapid change to the constitutional position that nobody has yet mentioned, going to be Prime Minister after the next election. Holding the debate enabled the one with no chance of achieving the office to stand in the middle (figuratively speaking) and say ‘a plague on both your houses’ with no chance of being held accountable.

For David Cameron taking the same position as Tony Blair was the easiest way out. “I’d love too, but we just couldn’t agree the rules.” He had a lot to lose – his opinion poll lead mostly – so why put it at risk? Now he leaves himself with much more to do when he didn’t need to take the risk.

For Gordon Brown, however, the mistake was greater and very probably terminal. He must have known, or someone close enough to him to tell him must have known that he couldn’t win against two younger, slimmer, newer and, call me superficial, but considerably better looking, 100% less Scottish rivals. This is a man who honestly expects us to believe that he sits in front of the TV on a Saturday night watching “Britain’s Got Talent”. As if.

Even if Mr Brown did, in fact, watch such things and still failed to absorb the Zeitgeist surely three years of bitter experience that TV doesn’t really work for him might perhaps have taught him a lesson that nothing good would come of this kind of thing. And to fail to predict that the Liberals would benefit from these things is to flay in the face of all the evidence from previous elections where Liberal support has risen during the campaign for the simple reason that they get equal exposure.

Regardless of the spectacle and the X-Factor like response of the electorate to Master Clegg and all his works, sitting through the debate was perhaps worth it just for the absurd sight of the three stooges in the ‘Spin Room’ each claiming that their man ‘won’. William ‘Pop Boy’ Hague was funniest by far. Bouncing around claiming that Cameron had won by a mile, allowing Paddy Pantsdown to appear self effacing while being utterly smug about Master Clegg’s A* recital from Romeo and Juliet. Alan ‘sack the prof’ Johnson was off the hook too, saying he thought his man had done well but not over selling it. Mind you, it’s a poisoned chalice – you can’t expect them to say that their guy was rubbish, even if he was.

Will this have any lasting effect and will it affect the outcome? At the time I write this I really don’t know – watching it I saw something different to the public. David Cameron looked ill at ease, Gordon Brown looked tired and Nick Clegg looked like the Head Boy as usual. We’ll know by the weekend. In the meantime, that’s another bit of our culture Americanised.

And think on this: even on the X-Factor it’s Alternative Vote – sort of!