Election debate 8

Q8: What would you do to ensure that the children in poor areas have the same opportunities in life?

Brown: We've now got nursery education & SureStart centres, child tax credits etc. That's how. We have to have personal tuition, kids staying at school, and therefore have more social mobility. Under performing school to be taken over by a succeeding school.

Cameron: Give the head-teacher control back over their school. Discipline is key - which is not happening now. Change all th crazy rules that stop teachers searching for banned items. We want choice diversity and excellence in our schools, let's get the 'big society' in and get parents etc. Need to get the basics right.

Clegg: take 2.5 bn from savings, into improve the education system. More one to one tuition, more help for kids before aged 8 to make things better for all children. Clearly a link between poverty at home and performance in classroom - it's that link that Lib Dems want to help solve - extra money for these kids, reducing the class sizes is one way of helping that.

Comment: This is a big, big issue - and not one that any party have done particularly well tonight. Clegg's noting and focussing on the need to fix the poverty problem first. Cameron is right that there needs to be less admin because it is at a stupidly high level. Brown is right that SureStart and other such initiatives are very good. But that does not help us to work out what they will do on a full scale.