Election TV debate

Wish I had listened to my hi-fi/music.

Swap the vowels in the leaders' names: Neck Clogg, Garden Brewn, Diva Co-moron.

I'm with Lontano, and I didn't think Clogg's performance was as dramatically superior to the others as the polls (as presented on Question Time) seem to suggest. He wrote down the names of the people who asked the questions (apart from the tricky foreign one obviously). Big deal. But Dave did look out of his depth.

I listened on the radio and thought Clegg shaded it. My low expectations of Brown were confirmed by his performance.

Alistair Stewart's contribution made me realise just how deft the Dimblebys are, and how much I take them for granted. Or speaker John Bercow for that matter.

Chris

Nick Clegg is the new kid in town, it will be interesting to see how his ratings fare as he faces greater scrutiny over the next three weeks.

Cameron - not great, not disastrous.

Brown was both desperate; aligning himself with Clegg, and smug; self-congratulatory smiles/chuckles - even outdid Alastair Stewart.

Cheers,
OW

I switched off after an hour.

I thought Clegg started well and seemed personable, he was clear and enthusiastic but I thought as time went on he seemed rather repetitive. At least he stayed out of the bickering.

Brown looked dreadfully nervous and was pretty clunky throughout, he seemed to want to make it a personal battle with DC rather than really engaging the audience.

DC seemed more relaxed but I thought he looked more slippery and superficial as the time went on. He seemed very well trained to slip in key phrases which irritated me. I switched off after he'd mentioned sending his kids to a state school for the seventeenth time.

In all it was fairly interesting up to a point but I'd much prefer to have seen a more fluid format, perhaps like Question Time or with more audience interaction. Maybe just unleash Paxman!

I wonder if it will make much difference to the election. Perhaps it will make people think the election is more about electing a PM than a local MP?

Bruce

quote:

I switched off after an hour.

You missed the best bit - the song and dance routine that they finished with.

There were a few times Brown said I agree with Nick and seemed to be on the way to declaring the lib-lab pact for the next government - it took DC a while to see this, but he then started to say I agree with Nick too.

At least all I agreed I should be looked after in my dotage and won't have to sell the hi-fi to fund the care home.

I liked the ideas about halving the house of lords, making it elected people only, reducing the number of MPs, making MPs salary non-pensionable and taxing the greedy bankers who have caused the current problems. Not keen on wasting even more money on education or Trident missiles though.

The Brown/Clegg cosying up was interesting. I listen to PMQ's fairly often and Brown is pretty unpleasant and patronising to Clegg most of the time.


Bruce

I watched the Granada Brideshead Revisited, and consider the time better spent.

I watched & it seems my impressions are summarised by all other posters ..... Boring boring boring & the program failed to deliver.
It was nothing more than a string of predictable sound bites, additionally spoiled by the very poor MC Alistair Stewart.
Now this morning they have all forgotten the election & are arguing over who won the debate.

My impressions .........
Brown confirmed he is out of his comfort zone trying to appear human, that he does try to get his point over by domination (bullying), he gives the impression that he has his sound bites & cannot stray too far from them. It was same old same old.
Cameron was like a rabbit in headlights, he had a golden chance to show he is a leader & he missed it by a country mile. He allowed the Alistair Stewart & Brown to shut him up & not finish his point a number of times. He was challenged a number of times & either did not answer or changed the subject. Same old same old (again)
Clegg had nothing to loose as I don't think even he believes they have a chance of winning the election. But he came over as the most professional orator, he made his points with fact & numbers - unlike the other two - held & controlled his debate.

My summary is Clegg is a clear winner
Brown lost a little, but nothing more than we already expected
Cameron just failed to deliver on the night

Clegg is a serious contender & has moved the election result closer to a hung parliament.
Conservative vote will feel let down & will tend to shift to UKIP or Lib Dem depending on voters centre right or far right spectrum. But I think the move away from Conservative could be quite significant after last night.
Centre/left Labour vote will move to Lib Dem, the mainstream & left wing Labour vote won't change as they haven't got an alternative.
The most likely result is a Labour/Lib Dem coalition

Cameron claims to have spoken to a 40 year old black man from Plymouth who had served in the navy for 30 years. How does that work then?

Clegg is a serious contender

He hasn't got a snowball in hell's chance. He wouldn't even if the other 2 didn't turn up the remaining debates.
The whole debate averaged less viewing figures than Dr. Who according to the BBC.

I found the format didn't really work. Cameron played by the rules and suffered for it. The others, Brown in particular, kept talking long after the baton had been passed to one of the others.

Brown looked washed out. Cameron had everything to lose. Clegg in contrast knew he had nothing to lose and did well.

I expected more from Cameron, and was impressed by Clegg. Brown just confirmed the suspicion that he is a charmless bully. However, despite the obvious nerves, only one man looked like a possible statesman up on the podium. And he was standing in the middle...

Clegg, by a country mile.

Brown seemed a tad grumpy, Cameron just seemed rude - very little eye contacr made when talking to Brown / Clegg.

Those two had everything to lose: Clegg could only benefit. The Liberals have had their best Election broadcast ever; Clegg has now been shown as an equal in the eyes of Joe Public by being given equal billing.

I thought Clegg was excellent, although, having nothing to lose, he did have an easier task than the other two. Great performance.

Cameron did look nervous. He did try not to get involved with bickering with Brown too much, but I feel he underperformed.

Brown gave the usual cocky-Blair-nothing is wrong-moving forward-isn't everything rosy-Labour spiel.

Alastair Stewart is tacky, always has been, just like the awful ITV News at Ten.

All three used the "I met a brave 22 yr old man with no limbs whom lives on £1 a day. I want to help that man".

Cameron failed to shine, possibly because he was scared of dropping a clanger and Brown was the same buffoon he always is. Apologies in advance to his supporters (if there are any) but his smug face irritates the hell out of me.
The winner, by popular choice, was Clegg, who himself was made to look an idiot by a certain Mr. Paxman a few nights ago.

Regards,
Steve.

Interesting that most of the commentary has been about impressions rather than the substance (or what there was of it) of their arguments. So here I go to add more...

Cameron's stylus seemed stuck on "jobs tax" and I thought he was evasive whenever it came to answering a straight challenge. Also, his expression when the others were talking was often a cross between bewildered and having a nasty smell under his nose. Repetitive mentions of his children in the context of NHS and schools were manipulative rather than relevant to the questions.

Brown's smirk destroyed the goodwill his apparent command of facts should have generated. The scripted jokes were forced in the extreme. The good points he made just didn't register in comparison.

Clegg was so far ahead on presentation it wasn't funny, including when the others spoke, and he made very good points about crime prevention and Trident. Of the three, he appeared the only one trying to sustain a reasoned argument. But why did he stick to an obviously preared script for his closing remarks? By showing himself unable to summarise the "debate" he missed an open goal. Luckily for him so did Brown and Cameron.

Why didn't we get more robust challenges? Was it just the format and the rules? Or are Brown and Cameron both incapable of rising above the inanity of PMQs?

My vote doesn't count - I live in a very, very safe seat. For that reason amongst others I'd like to see significant electoral reform, so let's hope that nobody gets an overall majority.

All IMHO, of course.

quote:

Originally posted by dn1:
My vote doesn't count - I live in a very, very safe seat.

Same here. In fact it would be nice to have two candidates......

My seat is very safe. But BigH47 has an interesting seat. Labour had a majority of 37 votes there in the last election.

I have to choose between Bercow and UKIP. Hmmmmm

Nick Clegg is my MP. I thought he did well last night.
I don't share the widespread contempt for Brown, but he sure isn't built for telly.
Cameron is a slimy con-artist. I would rather die than vote Tory.

A toss-up between Labor and Lib-Dem for me, on the 6th.

drood, your above post is uncannily similar to my own position, the only difference being Nick Clegg was my MP.

Overall, I'm amazed at the almost unanimous verdict on last night's opener. Having had it spoon-fed back to me by The Guardian's spin on it today, all the "I agree with Nick" lines now seem more obvious, and I think all three seemed over-rehearsed and laid it on a bit thick with their encounters with real people nonsense, Cameron especially.

Next week's should be interesting, if only to see how much Cameron and Brown change their approach. I hope I'm not left squirming as they perhaps begin to court a more confident Clegg even more.

quote:

Originally posted by droodzilla:

...

A toss-up between Labor and Lib-Dem for me, on the 6th.

Double-headed Lib-Lab pact coin?

Chief Chirpa - hopefully the Liberal Democrats' policies/Mr Clegg will be examined, and the time limit adhered to.

Cheers,
OW

This election campaign is hopefully going to generate a higher turnout than recently.

It is pleasing that things are being somewhat opened up, though none of the three leaders is being very candid about the cuts in public spending that are inevitable after the election is over, and a new administration is established.

The markets will press the "£" down if real cutting is not done to head this off, and great pain will result, whichever party forms, or combination of parties form, the new government.

ATB from George

PS: I was rather against the idea of a "tele" debate, but it has loosened things up, and that is good IMV.

Cameron - busted flush or what?
Utterly useless tonight.

Seemed inconclusive to me.

Neither Mr Brown, nor Mr Cameron did anything anything well [and some of it very badly], and Mr Clegg has nothing to loose given that the first past the post system will deny him a fair crack of the whip in any case, though I hope he controls the "balance of power."

This is the most exciting election since 1979, and I hope for a decisive result - based on a huge turnout.

Personally I hope for a hung result. That would serve the dishonest dullard Mr Brown right, as well as proving that the public is not convinced by a half-baked PR man! Mrs Thatcher would have strolled this election, because, like her or not, she was a politician of conviction, and people believed in that election after election.

ATB from George.