Election debate: Rochdale or recession?

Tonight's TV debate (29 April), the last of three, will be dominated by the R word; recession. But many watching will be itching to hear about the other R word; Rochdale.

This could be the do or die moment for Gordon Brown.

As he stands on the stage for 90 minutes he'll want viewers and voters to think about recovering from the recession and forget the disaster that happened on the streets of Rochdale.

The economy is the focus of the last debate and is the central issue in this election.

Britain is only just recovering from the credit crunch and the squeeze which followed.

All politicians agree that if the new government doesn't get it right there's a risk that the UK will go back into another recession.

Gordon Brown thinks things are still too fragile to start cutting back, to start dealing with that vast deficit which has to be paid back.

He thinks he is the man with the experience and the wisdom to steer the economy to a better place.

He thinks he is the man voters can trust most to get it right.

Bigot blunder

But what about Rochdale? Did it show that he is two-faced? Did it show that he is out of touch on immigration? It's a key issue which is wrapped up with the economy. The prime minister has a mammoth task.

The other two leaders will avoid mentioning what happened in Rochdale once the cameras roll in Birmingham.

They don't need to add to what has already been a calamity for the prime minister.

David Dimbleby is hosting the final of the three live TV election debates

But each will want to take advantage of what's happened.

The Conservative leader David Cameron may try to assume the prime ministerial role.

He was more authoritative in last week's debate. He looked at you down the camera more. He needs to shine this time.

But don't expect a change in tactics because of what happened in Rochdale.

He'll focus on tackling government waste, stopping the planned national insurance rise which he's called "the tax on jobs".

For the Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg it's more of the same.

He made a staggering breakthrough in the first debate. The second one showed the support hadn't gone away.

He has to repeat, repeat, repeat and hope that voters really are convinced by his message of real change.

If he can do that and get the votes on election day that the opinion polls suggest are out there for him, then it will be the TV debates that did it.

It's all about the R words; Gordon Brown needs to REPAIR and REBUILD after ROCHDALE, David Cameron will focus on what he think is the only way of avoiding another RECESSION and Nick Clegg will aim to REPEAT his performance from the previous two debates.