Cartoon hat-tip: Iain Dale

Who, just one week ago, would ever have guessed that American-style debates would have any serious impact on Westminster politics? The Lib Dem Surge has been the supreme vindication of all those illiberal protestors out doomsaying when Nick Griffin took his seat on Question Time last year – proffering that political debate is not a vehicle for policy dissemination or dynamic statistical analysis (save that for think tank reports); that all it would take is one affable populist amongst the wonks to serve as a lightning rod to swing the “they’re all the same” apathetic and the even-more-disenchanted-than-usual to whatever cause was on offer. The protestors may have looked the fool when Griffin told us how “creepy” gay people kissing in public are, but Nick Clegg’s snappy “the more they argue with each other, the more they sound the same” was all it took to create the biggest single week gain for a political party on record and thereby to throw the political system into disarray.

With that it became a three party race for the centre ground of British politics, and hence for the election, with as few as 4 points separating the Tories from Labour today - and with the Lib Dems finding themselves closer to the former than the latter. As a result, the First Past the Post electoral system has been vindicated and in the same stroke rendered absurd.

Vindicated because it has managed to force triangulation, throw a smaller party into the mix and flex its oft downplayed responsiveness to changes in public mood. As much as we may lament the indistinguishability of our parties and politicians, this political proximity is the cost of competition for a middle ground supported by broad consensus. At its best, this process leads to the articulation of multiple centre grounds - a pre-emptive answer to the question of where the Yellow Surge leaves Red Toryism.

But First Past the Post has also appeared absurd as electoral reformers transliterating these polling figures have shown that this outcome would result at the election would amount to only 100 seats for the Lib Dems and a Labour “win.” David Cameron has therefore told voters that a vote for the Lib Dems is a vote for Labour. Hardly a vote of confidence in the system of representation that he defends. Equally, Labour has been accused of covertly campaigning for the Lib Dems. Bizarrely, all of this ballot box arbitrage is likely to give the electorate exactly what they now claim to want: a hung parliament. Which is essentially the solution offered by PR.