Despite a diem horribilis yesterday and a general consensus that he did not win either of the two TV debates already held, Labour leader Gordon Brown can take some comfort ahead of tonight’s key economy debate that he is a nose ahead of his rivals in the social media sphere.

Alterian analysed over 300,000 conversations in blogs, wikis and social networks between February 26 and April 26 and found that Brown was the candidate who received the most overall mentions and had the most positive feedback.

Though his initial strong lead on overall mentions did ebb away over the two months as LibDem leader Nick Clegg gained ground, he kept his lead in positive conversations, whereas Clegg has consistently attracted the most negative web feedback.

However, social media monitoring seems to back claims that LibDem leader Nick Clegg has a higher profile among the younger, web-savvy generation. With his own personal Twitter feed of over 29,000 followers, he gets the most mentions among micro-bloggers.

Indeed, while Brown has significantly more mentions among the over-50 silver surfers, Clegg wins hands down as the candidate most mentioned by the under-18 age group – who can’t, unfortunately for him, vote.

The report also looked at ‘theme clouds’ to see which topics were generating the most buzz. ‘Economy’ featured in all the leaders’ clouds, while Brown also had the key topic words ‘health’ and ‘war’.

Could tonight’s debate be life or death for Gordon?

Paths crunching under foot, pink-cheeked children throwing snowballs, trees glistening…..the ideal of a white Christmas is almost close enough to touch (with warm gloves) this year.

Most of us in the UK have grown up with the reality of a dull, grey, mild climate accompanying the Christmas revelry. But if some scientists are right, more of the snowy stuff at yuletide may be nigh.

It’s all to do with the Sun. Our star’s activity – reflected in solar flares and sunspots – moves in an 11 year cycle. So when the sun is at ‘solar maximum’ and most active, the intense solar wind causes the famous coloured aurora borealis.

But if you’ve been to Iceland recently hoping to catch a glimpse, you will probably have been disappointed. That’s because the sun is currently at ‘solar minimum’ – the least active time in its cycle.

What’s getting astronomers in a flap is that this solar minimum has been going on for an unusually long time.

For reasons that are poorly understood, there is some evidence that there is a strong link between global temperatures and solar activity. Simplistically, when the sun is relatively inactive, temperatures on Earth drop.

If projections are right, and the next solar cycle is also weak, then we could be looking at a stretch not seen since the ‘Dalton Minimum’ in the early nineteenth century – the same time that a certain young man named Charles Dickens was growing up.

Argentina’s cash-strapped government has just laid out a wad of crisp pesos (600 million a year – about US$155 million - to be precise) to pay for the rights to broadcast Argentine league games for nada on TV .

It’s a move that is bound to go down well in the soccer mad nation, but has been roundly criticised for being populist and a waste of state funds.

It’s very much par for the course for the anti-business, pro-big government ruling Peronist party, who have hiked export taxes and even banned the export of beef in a misguided attempt to keep food prices low in Argentina.

But is this latest move really such a bad idea? What’s $155 million compared to the largest sovereign debt default in history?

Facing a long dark winter of recession and swine flu, couldn’t the governments of the northern hemisphere take a leaf out of Argentina’s book and add a little sparkle to people’s Saturdays with some free football?

Obtaining a ticket to watch a top flight game in Europe requires a month’s salary, a place on a waiting list going back three generations, or – for a select cohort of WAGs and their offspring – a family member on the pitch. So it’s no surprise the cable and satellite TV providers who shell out for the broadcast licences have a captive audience.