UK Election Debate No. 3

BroomBurner

The final debate is due, here are some of the polls so far:

YouGov - Lab (28%), LibDem (30), Con (33), Other (9%)

Mori - Lab (30), LibDem (23), Con (36), Other (11)

ComRes - Lab (29), LibDem (26), Con (36), Other (9)

So, will Clegg bottle it? Will Brown get past BigotGate? Will Cameron do anything of any interest whatsoever?

redout

Cameron keeping his promise to never adopt the Euro.

Brown immediately refers to yesterdays bigot gaffe.

BroomBurner

It was good that Brown addressed that straight off. No doubt it will come back during the second 45 minutes, immigration is the topic du jour.

Brown and Clegg have given good answers so far. Clegg gave actual examples of what would be cut. Brown stated cuts for the public service and their pensions.

Cameron is still 75% hot air. Sorry, I can't make myself believe him.


Ooooh, good idea from Clegg there about getting all the vice chancellors together with the chancellor and working it out together. It may not work in practice, but anyone that argues against him will make themselves stand out as elitist. It's like chess playing.

redout

Clegg repeating himself about getting the chancellors together.

He only mentioned it 5mins ago!

Sweat dripping down Browns forehead.

Eliot Rosewater

You can watch it live here folks:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/liveevent/

BroomBurner

Yeah, but his rating on the Guardian worm jumped massively when he first spoke of it.

Wow, now I know why noone talks about the economy in an election. It's not out of fear, it's just out of pure boredom. Massive figures don't sit well with individuals. They only want to know how it's going to effect them.

Interesting jibe at the LibDems there from Brown re: not entering a coalition with the Cons.

redout

Canera constantly cutting to Brown shaking his head.

Not sure that will go down well with viewers.

Remember the same think happened with Bush in 2004.

Couldnt see Brown ever wanting a coalition with Cameron.

Brown hammering Cameron on children tax credits but £50,000 is well-off you ask me

BroomBurner

A lot of tit for tat there in the second question, with Clegg remaining quiet. Brown my have won that one.

Ok, Q3, banking question.

Am I the only one that doesn't believe anything DC says?

Clegg and Brown are going well so far.

Tonights buzzword - Fairness

ionapaul

I think Cameron comes across terribly (I might be negatively biased towards him though) - he doesn't seem genuine at all.

IrishTonyO

Gordon Brown definitely winning this one, Clegg hasn't a clue about banking, and Cameron too 'posh' and patronising

Dr. Baltar

YES OR NO?

ionapaul

Dr. Baltar wrote: »

YES OR NO?

Clegg was poor there I think...

redout

Brown was the clear winner on immigration.

Euro_Kraut

Think Clegg has been very good over the past 20mins. Good style, logical points and making a clear difference between him and the policies of the past.

Euro_Kraut

Browne just after saying that they have kept interest rates low over the past 10 years. Its a remarkable statement.

Has Gordon Browne been inferring with the Bank of England? Or simply talking bollocks.

Orizio

Clegg has been waffling and stuttering all debate really.

BroomBurner

Well, I missed Q4 to 6, so can't comment on those.

However, listening in now, I think this might be Brown's night. The rags won't be happy, they'll more than likely say Cameron won. At the moment, I'd reckon on:

1. Brown
2. Clegg
3. Cameron

Education question, surprised people didn't mention giving power to manage classrooms back to the teachers. Maybe it would be in bad taste after todays verdict.

efb

Thought Cameron had said that. Thought Clegg was poorer tonight.
From what I saw it would be Cameron Brown Clegg

IrishTonyO

1. Brown
2. Clegg
3. Cameron

efb

Finishing:
Cameron
Clegg
Brown

redout

Thought Brown myself tbh.

BroomBurner

End of night speeches:

Cameron - the usual vacuous nonsense (sorry, I really can not warm to him)
Clegg - Good, strong, got his points across, fairer Britain, etc.
Brown - The best closing of the three, until he smiled at the end. The man should never smile.

I'm sticking with Brown, Clegg, Cameron.

efb

I thought Brown had a poor finish and Cameron and Clegg finished well.

BroomBurner

First poll out - Sun/YouGov - Cameron wins at 41%!

Hahahaha that's hillarious.

Actually, to confound the idiocy of it, Adam the-swaying-polar-bear Boulton just attributed Cameron's win to the fact that he was standing to the right of the others.

How is that guy still employed?

efb

Adam Boulton is useless but doesn't annoy me as much as Kay Burley!!!

She screams anti-labour rhetoric at people at the post debate last week.

Jill Dando wannabe, will neverbe

BroomBurner

Kay, Adam and that Random guy with the comic-sneery eyes are horrendous. I mean, I know Sky are pretty sh*t, but come on!

Whoever does Osbourne's makeup is taking far too many tips from the Night of the Living Dead. I wonder was his disappearance during the week down to an illness? Certainly looks like it.

Second poll has Cameron on 35%, Clegg on 33% and Brown some lower number.

I really don't understand how people can think Cameron won. He focused a lot on negative and attacking the others, as opposed to being straight up with Tory policies.

efb

A ComRes poll suggests David Cameron did best, with 35% of respondents saying so, with Nick Clegg on 33% and Gordon Brown on 26%.

Euro_Kraut

efb wrote: »

A ComRes poll suggests David Cameron did best, with 35% of respondents saying so, with Nick Clegg on 33% and Gordon Brown on 26%.

Like last week instant polls really. Very similar to the actual state of the parties (when you take the 'others' out). Not surprising the Tories think that their man won, Liberals think Clegg won and Labour think Browne won. Since they support their polices in the first place they are likely to agree with what they say in a debate.

TheSpecialOne

They are Completely Biased in the UK polls.The Sun Supports Cameron and all its polls they have published have shown there man in the lead..one that had Gordon in the lead was not Published.Sky is so biased towards the conservatives its ridiculous..all to do with Good oul Rupert wanting to destroy the BBC.Also Dave will give all at sky a nice little Tax Cut.The British people are being conned its Propaganda Mr Goebbels would of been proud of.The British Economy will be screwed by the Tories they have an inept clown in The Finance Portfolio in Osbourne and he will lead them into a double dip recession...The British should know you can never trust the Tories but if they vote them in they get what they deserve a bit Like The Fianna Fail Voters here.

bob50

Tought Cameron won the immigration debate tonight

Inquitus

lol Mr Bliar being rolled out by Labour tomorrow and for the rest of the campaign........a last, very ironic, roll of the dice perhaps....

redout

Sky just said Labour are bringing back Blair on the campaign trail for 3 of the next 5 days.

Must know they are in big trouble.

bleg

I reckon Gilmore can learn a lot from Clegg's performance in this election.

nacho libre

I thought Brown clearly won. He pointed out flaws in the policies of the other two, particulary on the key issues for the electorate, and neither Clegg nor Cameron offered effective rebuttals of his criticism. His closing speech was also the best of the three.

Marshy

Clegg for me again. He's really worked the honest politics/fresh approach image very well.

Brown started well on dealing with the deficit but struggled after that. He kept repeating that nonsense about the child tax credits when the other parties clearly said it would be means-tested.

Cameron is a good speaker so I can see why sometimes people probably aren't paying attention to what he says, but I noticed particularly tonight much of what he said was vacuous. I lost count of the number of times he talked about people doing the "right thing".

Amhran Nua

nacho libre wrote: »

I thought Brown clearly won. He pointed out flaws in the policies of the other two, particulary on the key issues for the electorate, and neither Clegg nor Cameron offered effective rebuttals of his criticism. His closing speech was also the best of the three.

I think Clegg pulled it off fairly well, Brown kept talking about the children's tax credit being cut, while Clegg pointed out that wealthy people don't need that advantage. Brown is an excelent public speaker though, that weighs in his favour.

nacho libre

Amhran Nua wrote: »

I think Clegg pulled it off fairly well, Brown kept talking about the children's tax credit being cut, while Clegg pointed out that wealthy people don't need that advantage. Brown is an excelent public speaker though, that weighs in his favour.

Yes he is. To me he was more authoriative than the other two overall in the debate. I though he wiped the floor with Cameron on what was best for economic recovery by pointing out how tory policy would likely stifle rather than stimulate economic recovery.
Also i felt he undermined Clegg's Obama approach by pointing out how voting for a well-intentioned, albeit inexperienced, party would be very risky given the state of the economy.

evercloserunion

I have to be honest, I know this isn't a popular opinion but I think Brown has done excellently in the 3 debates. The whole campaign, including yesterday's "bigot" incident and his reaction to it, has really increased my respect for him as a person and a politician.

I'm not saying that as a massive UK Labour fan, at the start of the campaign I was gunning for the Lib Dems but Nick Clegg really pisses me off.

steelcityblues

When Alistair Campbell thinks Labour are done, then Labour, barring a huge upset, are done!

LordSutch

Cameron has been, & will be my natural choice, but I must say that Gordon was very good on fiscal detail last night. Cameron 4 sure came over as calm, collected & in control, but I can't help thinking that Mr Brown is possibly the man for the current uncertain economic climate!

evercloserunion

Camelot wrote: »

Cameron has been, & will be my natural choice, but I must say that Gordon was very good on fiscal detail last night. Cameron 4 sure came over as calm, collected & in control, but I can't help thinking that Mr Brown is possibly the man for the current uncertain economic climate!

Yeah, it's one thing to be good on air but entirely different to take control of an economy. Cameron is like a TV personality; Brown is a more serious person, which probably doesn't bode well for him in debates like this but that's who you want in charge of your money. If I was British I would be voting Labour I think.

And if it is a Tory-LibDem coalition, the UK may well be voting again in a few months. I can't see those two getting along, their policies are too different. LibDems would be to the left of Labour in some respects.

owenc

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

Browne just after saying that they have kept interest rates low over the past 10 years. Its a remarkable statement.

Has Gordon Browne been inferring with the Bank of England? Or simply talking bollocks.

its gordon brown! Are you trying to spell it in some irish form or something?

owenc

TheSpecialOne wrote: »

They are Completely Biased in the UK polls.The Sun Supports Cameron and all its polls they have published have shown there man in the lead..one that had Gordon in the lead was not Published.Sky is so biased towards the conservatives its ridiculous..all to do with Good oul Rupert wanting to destroy the BBC.Also Dave will give all at sky a nice little Tax Cut.The British people are being conned its Propaganda Mr Goebbels would of been proud of.The British Economy will be screwed by the Tories they have an inept clown in The Finance Portfolio in Osbourne and he will lead them into a double dip recession...The British should know you can never trust the Tories but if they vote them in they get what they deserve a bit Like The Fianna Fail Voters here.

No we wont be destroyed i think that labour are rubbish they got rid of all our gold and oil rigs, brought in all these islamic, muslims etc who try and run the country, and then they try to make us as european as they can i.e brining in all these laws from europe etc.. and why would we want to adopt the euro we are our own country!

evercloserunion

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

Browne just after saying that they have kept interest rates low over the past 10 years. Its a remarkable statement.

Has Gordon Browne been inferring with the Bank of England? Or simply talking bollocks.

Eh do you think the BOE randomly pulls numbers out of a hat to determine interest rates? They set interest rates in response to macroeconomic factors over which the government would have some control.

Amhran Nua

evercloserunion wrote: »

Cameron is like a TV personality; Brown is a more serious person, which probably doesn't bode well for him in debates like this but that's who you want in charge of your money.

Thats a gut reaction based on the tone of voice and the way he conveys himself I'd say, his public speaking ability is a tremendous asset. Doesn't mean anything beyond that he's a good public speaker though, and to be honest the little rictus-grin at the end gave me a start. Of the three Clegg made the most sense, unfortunately he was the worst speaker - if it was a debate on boards Brown would have been wiped out.

dsmythy

redout wrote: »

Sky just said Labour are bringing back Blair on the campaign trail for 3 of the next 5 days.

Must know they are in big trouble.

Is that not kinda likely to cause the opposite of what Labour are looking for?

BroomBurner

The Guardian have finally decided to get off the pot and lay their allegience to the LibDems.

While it's late in the day, I think a nod to the end of Labour under Brown in power. I'm not a big fan of newspapers backing any one party, but sometimes you need a voice when there is a myriad of negative Murdoch-run press crapping themselves at the possibility of an end to their power.

steelcityblues

Not a very radical move by the paper - for all the 'alternative' nonsense spouted, the Lib Dems are as 'safe' as any of the three - massively pro EU, massively pro immigration, soft measures on crime, etc.

Clegg, like Blair initially, is 'packaging' himself as a rebel, but that does not guarantee he will be one!

evercloserunion

BroomBurner wrote: »

The Guardian have finally decided to get off the pot and lay their allegience to the LibDems.

While it's late in the day, I think a nod to the end of Labour under Brown in power. I'm not a big fan of newspapers backing any one party, but sometimes you need a voice when there is a myriad of negative Murdoch-run press crapping themselves at the possibility of an end to their power.

Where? I had heard the Guardian had pinned their red colours to the mast.

evercloserunion

steelcityblues wrote: »

Not a very radical move by the paper - for all the 'alternative' nonsense spouted, the Lib Dems are as 'safe' as any of the three - massively pro EU, massively pro immigration, soft measures on crime, etc.

Clegg, like Blair initially, is 'packaging' himself as a rebel, but that does not guarantee he will be one!

In England being pro-EU is certainly a radical position.

BroomBurner

evercloserunion wrote: »

Where? I had heard the Guardian had pinned their red colours to the mast.

They've a very stirring editorial on their website, is due to be published tomorrow. Not sure if it will make it to the front page.

In true Guardian style, the piece manages to be both pragmatic and idealist. One of the reasons I like the paper, tbh.