It's amazing what a decent TV performance can do for you isn't it?

After his heroics in the historic leaders' debate on Thursday night, Nick Clegg has seen his party shoot up the polls conducted by pretty much every major newspaper.

The good thing about the TV debates for the long-suffering Lib Dem supporters is that it gave the party equal billing with the big guns from Labour and The Conservatives.

My worry for them though is that they lack the numbers to maintain such a push.

I am sure that come this Thursday, Gordon Brown and David Cameron will be a little better versed in the art of TV debating and that Clegg may not get star billing second time around.

What this weekend has proved, though, is that people are looking for an alternative and that the Lib Dems seem to have got themselves into a position to provide that.

As I said last week, their manifesto looked sensible and achieveable and that seems to have been vindicated when put under scrutiny by the political commentators.

The latest polls appear to show that we are heading for a hung parliament and while there are obvious disadvantages to that - market confidence could suffer - the idea of having all three parties working on solutions (an idea mooted by Clegg last Thursday) does appear appealing on the surface.

Whitehall officials have been working for months on plans for a hung parliament so I see no reason why it cannot work, but only in the short term.

Brown is quick to say the campaign is whide open while Cameron is quoted this morning as saying that if people vote for the Lib Dems they will be stuck with Labour.

For me however, its still far to early to predict how this election will pan out.

This Thursday's televised debate is merely round two and viewers, I am sure, will see a completely different game.