The economic representatives of six of the UK's major parties, including current Chancellor of the Exchequer, /u/mg9500 of the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats' Shadow Chancellor, /u/demon4372 clashed in the debate on Thursday over a wide range of issues including housing, devolution and the performance of the economy.

With less than two days until polls close for the 4th general election, the Chancellor and Shadow Chancellor, as well as the Conservatives' /u/IntellectualPolitics, Labour's /u/Djenial, Pirates' /u/AlmightyWibble and the Radical Socialist Party's /u/colossalteuthid, also debated several other major issues.

The debate was hosted by the veteran political broadcaster /u/HaveADream, with /u/thechattyshow and /u/zoto888 standing in as temporary replacements.

With an average audience of just 20 viewers, the debate was surprisingly not as popular with viewers as it was anticipated to be, with some panelists departing part way through. Nevertheless, the debate generated a swathe of controversy with viewers, with some angry viewers taking to Skype to voice their criticisms of the Conservative Party's /u/IntellectualPolitics stance on Northern Ireland and devolution to the regions of the UK.

In the debate, /u/IntellectualPolitics comments was highly controversial, by saying that he “personally opposes the existence of the Good Friday Agreement”, adding that the government “should never have negotiated with terrorists”. /u/IntellectualPolitics declined to apologise for that comment. Furthermore, the Conservative politician heavily criticised fellow panelist /u/demon4372, claiming that he is “ an ideological extremist that divides the Liberal Democrat leadership.” /u/demon4372 responded, saying that IP’s comments were “hilarious”.

The Conservative Party subsequently released a statement about /u/IntellectualPolitics views: "The Conservative Party are fully committed to upholding the Good Friday Agreement, as we believe it is absolutely vital to the peace process in Northern Ireland."

Two snap polls, commissioned by /u/HaveADream, were conducted immediately after the debate and concluded that viewers were decisive in their opinion about who lost the debate, while the winner had a much tighter victory.

The first poll put the Liberal Democrats' /u/demon4372 ahead with 33% - just six percentage points above the second closest, /u/colossalteuthid of the newly formed Radical Socialist Party. /u/AlmightyWibble of the Pirates was a close third, while the Conservatives and Labour trailed behind their economic counterparts. The current Chancellor, /u/mg9500 received just 1 vote in the poll.

In the second poll, the viewers were much more decisive in who they believed lost the debate. In a huge blow for the Conservative Party, a staggering 61% believed that it was a car crash for /u/IntellectualPolitics, after his severely unpopular comments about Northern Ireland. Despite emerging as a clear winner of the debate, the Liberal Democrats’ /u/demon4372 was also joint second to have lost the debate, with 17% believing that both him and the current chancellor, /u/mg9500 performed poorly.

Labour’s /u/Djenial was surprisingly quiet throughout the debate. UKIP sent no spokesperson to the debate, despite causing the debate to be postponed by over half an hour due to UKIP’s failure to find a spokesperson in time. Meanwhile, regional parties declared it “undemocratic” that they were not included in the debate even though both Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru were initially included in the original line-up.

Overall, /u/Djenial’s mediocre appearance in the debate could mean that the “Labour surge” that has been shown in recent opinion polls might prove to be false, however the startling performance of the Liberal Democrats in this debate could well mean that they could be holding the keys to Number 10, perhaps in a Liberal Democrat-led coalition, as /u/demon4372 proved to be the most capable potential Chancellor.