My impression of last night, conveyed in the report straight after, was that, amid a range of pretty explosive topics, it was Iraq that emerged as the liveliest, not least because it drew out very real and important differences for the first time between the two front-runners, David and Ed Miliband.
For an alternative take, I recommend Richard Darlington who — after writing for newstatesman.com — has done a guest post for Will Straw’s Left Foot Forward. He says:
At the New Statesman hustings last night, the most lively, passionate, interesting and important exchanges came during the question on immigration. The candidates could have spent the whole night debating it and the audience would have been better informed about who has what it takes to lead Labour back to government, had they . . . had the chance.
Darlington is one to watch because he is fresh from his role at the heart of Labour as special adviser to Douglas Alexander. He now heads up the Open Left programme at Demos. He will be guest-posting more for this website in future. To read his full report on last night’s debate again click here.