Election 2010: The mood on the campaign trail

BBC correspondents who are with the three leaders on every twist and turn of the campaign trail assess the mood at the start of week three, following a tumultuous weekend of polling.

BY MIKE SERGEANT WITH NICK CLEGG

At the beginning of last week, there were spare seats on the Lib Dem battle bus - now it's rammed.

Nick Clegg grabs a snack on board the campaign train

The audience members at Nick Clegg's campaign events wait in hushed and eager anticipation for the man himself to arrive. The Liberal Democrats are being told by party managers to "keep their feet on the ground" but their grins have been getting wider by the day.

"The first debate put a rocket under the whole political system" said one very senior member of the party. On the one hand there is suddenly the sense that anything is possible in this election. In an era of X-factor style politics, public opinion can swing dramatically and, for the Lib Dems, change seems credible.

But Nick Clegg's strategists know that such a sudden surge of support for their leader can disappear just as fast. Their challenge is to try to lock-in some of the gains. Advisers say they don't want to talk about the first debate any more. They believe it has given the Lib Dems "a right to be heard". Nothing more.

Press officers try to squash any suggestion that the Lib Dems are celebrating opinion polls. They say they want to spend this week talking about the recession, and showcasing other policies. A higher profile for their leader, they argue, simply gives them the platform they've been lacking in the past.

They also worry that expectations are now being set sky-high. On any given day that makes it harder for Clegg to be judged to have performed well. As for election strategy, party officials claim that "nothing has changed". They are still principally fighting to fend off the Tories in the South, and make gains from Labour in the North of England.

And, with the other parties concentrating fire-power on them, the Lib Dems know that things are about to get much tougher.

BY CAROLE WALKER WITH DAVID CAMERON

David Cameron managed to avoid uttering Nick Clegg's name at a campaign visit dominated by questions about the surge in popularity of the Liberal Democrat leader.

Feeling the heat? David Cameron on at stop in south London

At a business centre in south London Mr Cameron admitted something big had happened to this election. But he put it down to the fact that people are crying out for change and grabbing anything new to get it.

The Conservatives do have a problem. Their strategist had planned to present his contest as a choice for voters between five more years under Gordon Brown or change and a fresh approach from David Cameron. They had not seriously contemplated the prospect of Nick Clegg seizing that mantle of change.

The Tory leader has refrained from going on to the offensive against Mr Clegg, fearing that would simply reinforce the notion that he is the opponent to beat. Mr Cameron says that instead he will redouble his efforts to accentuate the positive.

But aides and colleagues have been trying to force greater scrutiny of Lib Dem polices, so the shadow foreign secretary William Hague has been talking about the party's support for joining the euro when the time is right and the Tory press team are drawing attention to Lib Dem immigration policies.

The Tory leader's answer to all the questions about the new political challenge is to stress the need for strong decisive leadership, rather than fudge, negotiation and uncertainty. His message is that a Conservative government would deliver real change whilst a hung parliament resulting in some form of coalition would fail to get things done.

The trouble is that the polls appear to suggest that voters do not necessarily fear a hung parliament, if that would give Nick Clegg a greater say in running the country.

David Cameron knows there is a huge amount riding on the next two televised debates. Many believe that his performance in the first debate was marred by too much advice, too much coaching, and too much pressure. But there will be plenty more of all that as he approaches the next one this Thursday.

He's insisting there will be no change in tactics and he will set out to convince us all that he'd make a better prime minister than Gordon Brown.

But Mr Cameron knows he cannot afford to give Nick Clegg a free ride and allow him to build yet more momentum as polling day looms.

BY IAIN WATSON WITH GORDON BROWN

The prime minister on Monday delivered a well-rehearsed line about the Liberal Democrats. He wished Nick Clegg well as he himself knew all about short-lived political honeymoons.

BBC's Iain Watson working at one of Gordon Brown's events

But of course Gordon Brown chose not to capitalise on his in 2007 by calling an early election. Now conventional political wisdom has been turned on its head and weeks before the real election, not the one that never was, some polls suggest the Lib Dems are ahead of Labour.

The prime minister's initial response was simply not to mention Nick Clegg at all - rather like a child closing their eyes to make bad things go away.

But by Monday morning Gordon Brown did attack Lib Dem policies on tax credits - where Nick Clegg's party would restrict the assistance currently given to the better off - and on the child trust fund, which the Lib Dems would abolish. But he refused to criticise Nick Clegg personally and that wasn't simply because he was being gentlemanly, it was a deliberate tactic.

Labour strategists say their current position is "neither to hug nor crush" the Lib Dems. Being nasty to Nick Clegg might put off Lib Dem voters who could be persuaded to vote Labour tactically in some seats to keep the Conservatives out.

So Labour will both thumb their noses at some Lib Dem policies and extend the hand of friendship to Lib Dem supporters.

So we have heard a policy attack, but soon we will hear more from Labour about the agenda they say they share with the Lib Dems on constitutional reform. The prime minister's advisers currently believe the way the Lib Dems have risen without trace poses more problems for the Conservatives but if Labour remains in third place for any sustained length of time then they may be tempted to be a little more negative.

Briefing journalists en route to a campaign visit in the West Midlands, Gordon Brown expressed his hope that voters would decide the election on the basis of "policy not personality" - implicitly recognising he cannot win on the latter.

He said that we had heard a lot about who people are this election, not what they stand for. His advisers say that Nick Clegg has caught the anti-politics mood but Labour know their best chance of staying in power is if voters return to the traditional way of doing things and judge who might be best for the economy, rather than who looks best in a series of television debates.