David Cameron boasted of the Good Life, but it was Nick Clegg for whom the sun shone yesterday.

As London singed in temperatures of 26C the Liberal Democrat leader launched his party's manifesto in a trendy "arts space" named, perhaps appropriately enough, Testbed1.

Outside were colourful striped deckchairs and al fresco table-footballs, which prompted some to declare the area the Costa Del Battersea.

Inside, one observer described the venue as looking like the perfect place for a middle-class illegal rave.

The colour continued with strings of neon lights hanging from ceiling and the yellow, pink, blue, green, red and orange triangles that appear on the front page of the Lib Dem manifesto illuminated to a huge scale just behind the stage.

One on wall there also appeared to be, for no discernible reason (table-football perhaps?), a series of tally marks that looked as though they were showing how many points the 'red' team had scored against the 'blue' team.

Alas, there was no markings at all for a yellow team.

With the heat still punishing inside the building the cavernous space also proved to be slightly too small for the assembled crowd, with not quite enough chairs for everyone who turned up.

Only a cynic, however, would suggest that that was a deliberate move to make the crowded event looked even more crowded on television

Whisper it, but the Lib Dem launch came at the same time as that of noted attention-hogger Nigel Farage's Ukip.

Never one to to knowingly be outdone, Mr Farage had booked a hotel known for doing 'Fawlty Towers" style dinners.

Testbed1 advertises itself as a place "with no agenda", something which cannot be said of any political party.

When Mr Clegg appeared at the front of the stage he was met by a rapturous Lib Dem crowd.

He told the party faithful that they could still be in power come May , and they liked that message.

The only problem was the technical hitches.

On stage Mr Clegg was calm and positive, upbeat and authoritative.

Unfortunately, a problem with his microphone started to make it sound as if it was actually a robot speaking.

The effect was startling, almost as if the Lib Dem manifesto launch had merged into a sunny, laid-back, London-set version of Blade Runner.

BUt another microphone was found and on the mini party rally continued.

Later there were jokes that the next set of party pledges made would include policy on boosting microphone technology.

But not every Lib Dem member could have predicted five years ago that there would be quite so many smiles at their manifesto launch.