IT’S THE Holy Grail of UK election coverage: whispered of, speculated about, but never actually achieved.

But today, the prospect of the first ever live leaders’ debate during a general election has moved a step closer, with none other than Peter Mandelson telling The Evening Standard:

I don’t think Gordon would have a problem with that. While Cameron is good with words, he doesn’t have the ideas or policies to back them. I think people would see through the smile. The more the public sees of them, the more they’d realise that Gordon is the man with the substance.

Generally, the Leader of the Opposition’s challenge to the Prime Minister to a US-style televised debate is a much-loved and quaint tradition of British electoral politics. And traditionally, the PM turns down the request, as John Major did in 1992. But five years later, it was Major who turned the tables on Tony Blair, by challenging the Leader of the Opposition to such a debate, which Blair declined.

It would certainly make good television this time round, but there’s one possible fly in the ointment: Nick Clegg. A two-way debate could indeed be a thrilling spectacle as the two party leaders battle across the rostrums, each pressing the case for his party in a career-defining confrontation. What a pity, then, to have to interrupt the flow of debate by turning with a resigned sigh every few minutes to Nick as he wrings his hands in pious anguish and prepares to lambast the leaders of the main parties with accusations of playing “Punch and Judy politics” and suchlike.

No, by all means let Nick have a separate debate with Harriet and Hague or whoever — televise it, even. But let’s not ruin a perfectly good fight between the two biggest boys in the playground by allowing the president of the sixth form debating society to get in the way. He’d only get his dinner money stolen anyway.