Get the popcorn
Etchingham has the patience of a saint. I'd pay an extra £2,000 a year in tax willingly if it meant never having to hear Sunak bleat about tax cuts ever again.
Hilarious that he keeps mentioning 2000 when that's the exact amount that is claimed Brexit cost every house.
I don't get why people keep clapping for lower taxes when we can see the state of public services. Seems to be mainly older folks as well.
maybe because your taxes are being spent on ferry companies that have no boats?
Unfortunately many of the same folk are in denial about how bad public services have got in the UK.
Delighted for him. It's his own fault for bring such an evil horrible man.
I watched a video he was very good.
Why would sunak go to polls insanity
Tories worried about other forces
Labour allowed to have huge majority there turn
Uniparty like dems and rinos
Ironically he quoted Tony Blair on election night 1997 we have won too much
Ie if Tories get obliterated there can be no punch and Judy show one arse check the same etc
Finally Tories public despair Labour 4 years despair
2028 far left Centre right and far right hoover up votes Tories Labour wiped out
Clearly.
Starmer is a weaker debater than I remember. Not hopeless by any stretch but he's definitely no Tony Blair.
Its nice to see posters who's writing style is inspired by classics like Finnegan's Wake.
As I have said before I have dyslexia
Sunak clearly outperforming Starmer. It won't be enough for the tories but at least it might claw back a few seats for them.
Its all just the same old disproven stuff though.
Economy: Tory good, Labour bad.
Dropping nukes: Tory good, Labour bad.
I and most here could have easily written Sunak's tired script.
Before the return of Farage, Tories aim was to try and get 200+ MPs elected. The estimate on his intervention is put at 60 off that total. That's all Sunak is bailing out.
It's such a grim format. Each candidate has to give a fully costed, worked out plan to fix the NHS or something similar in 45 seconds with interruptions from the other one. I'd forgotten that.
That said, I think Starmer came across as being a bit better, being able to go into detail until being shut down by Julie Etchingham. It's not a thumping win but better than losing.
England seems weirdly obsessed with "questions".
Maybe I am wrong and it's the same in Ireland but it feels like UK debates and PMQs are filed with stupid "Mary from Ahascragh wants to know what colour you would paint your kitchen" kind of questions.
It is rubbish
Mostly made up stuff to try and get that 'gotcha' moment
Personally I think Sunak won that, especially on the people he needs to win over.
Sunak was clearly targeting the core vote and those who might be people who are voting Labour in polls but are still unsure where their final vote is going to be going. Whilst his rhetoric and tactics will never win over someone like me who despises the modern Conservative Party, I am seeing that it is cutting through with the people I mentioned.
He's tapping into doubts that people have about Labour who up until tonight were likely to vote Labour and I think his performance tonight would have won some of them over unfortunately. As someone with family in the UK and also work in the public sector, it's in desperate need of a change of Government, but if I was the Tories today, I'd be very happy with how the debate went and the gap narrowed today I'm afraid.
Starmer needs a better head to head debate next time around in the BBC one, for the good of the country.
I think labor 200
Tories 50
Rest etc
Starmer was poor but that is what usually happens when you say nothing of substance
Sunak was laughed at which tells you anybody could lead Labour to victory against this lot
it looked like the same old same old to me. Tories attacking labour on taxes and labour trying to drag some kind of class war in to it.
I don't think this matters that much. The thing with the Conservatives being divisive is that most people have their minds made up by now.
The only people who have serious doubts about Labour are the left who might vote Green and richer people who want lower taxes. We desperately need a change of government and, thankfully, it's going to happen. I don't think Starmer needs a better head to head debate given his lead in the polls.
You think Labour and the Tories will get less than half the seats in the Commons?
My anivetsity of my mother is today I'm sorry my gurss were wrong she dies it's emotional facts wrong
The deadline for lodging or withdrawing a nomination is 4 pm on Friday 7 June, so there is very little time left for any kind of Tory/Reform deal. Last week people were speculating about some kind of grubby deal being stitched up this week, but Farage's decision to reappoint himself as party leader and to run in Clacton pretty much puts the kibosh on that. Far from doing a deal with the Tories, he's aiming to destroy them in the hope that Reform can replace them as the dominant party on the right of UK politics.
On a separate point, because the election was called earlier than expected not all parties were as well-prepared as they might have been and the Tories, ironically, were particularly unprepared. It has been mentioned that they needed to find candidates for more than a hundred seats between the day the election was called and the day nominations close. This will almost certainly mean that they don't have time to do proper vetting of prospective candidates, and it's highly likely that they will nominate more than a few candidates who turn out to have dodgy backgrounds, a history of racist, homophobic, fascist, etc social media engagement, etc, etc. No doubt the Labour party will have a team of people at HQ dedicated to finding these things and bringing them to light.
What?
Anyway, wasn't a great watch. Didn't think neither were particularly good. Sunak is so full of **** though. At least Starmer has genuine integrity
I note Mishal Hussain is moderating the BBC debate. She's fine but i would have preffered Sophie Raworth, or not that it would ever happen Ros Atkins
The whole debate concept really does stink of an attempt at Americanisation of UK politics and presumably the Lib Dems are hopping mad they haven't been invited. Wholesale disenfranchisement and scepticism, and Starmer agreed to a kingmaker TV debate; yes realistically those were the two potential PMs but it leaves a sour taste watching our closest neighbour slowly inch itself towards the bottom.
Said it before but truly he's the Joe Biden of Labour: any other Tory government, any other circumstance and he'd be a lame duck.
I'm sorry, but i don't understand this kind of commentary about Starmer. He is a former head of DPP, Articulate, Capable and seems as honest as one can be in that line of work.
Maybe i'm missing something, but there is an easy comparison to make, Boris, Truss, Rishi, in fairness to Theresa May she seemed genuine enough, but the racist party couldn't have someone like that in charge
I never said anything about his character or articulation: and you've made my point for me. What I'm trying to say was that he's a middle-of-the-road career politician whose utter lack of charisma and magnetism would have meant, in any other cycle, he'd probably have lost an election; but being pitched against such a singularly divisive and unlikeable sitting government as this set of Tories has meant his sobriety and lack of … I dunno, X Factor has meant just presenting like an adult is an improvement. Ergo, Joe Biden.
The comparison with Biden is neither compliment nor criticism, but pure observation about his relative strengths as a political leader. Starmer's aggressively "fine", and yes the fact that on the other side of the bench are a bunch of howling ghouls who'd gut the country for wealth just makes him seem better than he is.
Like I look at Starmer and I look at Rayner and if I didn't know either way I'd have said the latter was the leader of the Labour purely by dint of her more distinct presence. If Starmer gets the UK back on its feet and arrests its horrible decline into functional destitution, then who cares how he presents - but such are modern politics.
