Shall we focus on what these three men have to say on policy? Or the issues? Or will we scrutinise their competency? Or the strength of their ambition?

To me – above all – the focus should be on leadership. Who do we think will be the best leader with the best team?

The UK is in quite a mess. No secret there. We can get out of its mess, but the danger is that we will slide and all the difference will rest on the brave decisions and the national mood one of these three people will create.

We have huge assets for such a small country – in land mass and population – compared to existing and emerging world powers. But we will have to play a clever game to succeed…and to continue to prosper.

So what will I be looking for as I switch on the telly tonight? The leader with some policies I’m sure to disagree with. The one to lift a country from the recession blues and give it confidence. The leader who names the beast, who doesn’t pretend that there is no mess to speak of and confronts the hard questions. The one who can attract and keep talent around him and ensure they perform at their best. The one who speaks in a way that makes you listen.

The objective seems to be how to appear to be authentic. The view is that we should accept that authentic is an illusion, but an important illusion which needs to be created. And this in the context that we are addressing an audience, whether they are customers, stakeholders or citizens, that has largely lost the ability to discern what is authentic anyway. Given that we are often presented with leaders who claim that one identity after the next is the really authentic one, it’s not surprising that we begin to lose our ability to discern the real one.

As one new authentic version appears, no-one seems to spot that its very presence puts in doubt the previous authentic version (and indeed this one too). When the leader cries, is he or she authentic? Is authenticity only revealed in the toughest of times, when a leader gets into a fight, a real scrap?

Then the other word that slips in near to authentic is “moments”, and that’s the finale. Is authenticity revealed in moments, or is it in fact unveiled over time and over a period that the moments have little impact on? Except very occasionally to dramatically destroy it in one stroke!