TV Debate - who did best?

Swedes, great news about the school (I"m still up there on Fridays so hopefully will bump into you).

Why don't business people want Vince? Is it because he's rumbled them, by any chance?

Too choreographed...noone willing to put neck on line. What was going on with the sound quality? Looked like they were lip synching.

Thanks, Justine!

As well as the BPIX poll, a Sunday People/One Poll one also puts the Lib Dems first, on 33%.

I would much prefer a Lib Dem government to another Labour one. I'm not so keen on the mansion tax but as they will be stopping middle class tax credits, that seems fair. I'm all for paying more if it's fair. Labour just pretended to tax the rich and look after the poor.

A friend who works for the FT says Vince Cable is the man business leaders LEAST want as Chancellor of the E. I'll try and find the source of that poll. Channel 4 also did a fact check on whether Vince Cabal deserved his St Vince halo and concluded he did not. I should try and find that too. I think it was Cathy Newman who did that research.

I have never voted Lib Dem b ut this is exciting! Would be good to see the duopoly broken. Go on Nick Clegg....Lib Dems go back to your constituencies and prepare to be hung to govern

BPIX poll in tomorrow?s Mail on Sunday has topline figures of CON 31%(-7), LAB 28%(-3), LDEM 32%(+12) - putting Lib Dems in first place!

ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/2610

can't remember the question exactly, but i think the 'would' and the 'will' is a huge distinction. i would now consider voting lib dem but whether or not i will is another matter.

also DC's slip about NHS managers. having been asked a question by ... an NHS manager.

What was the mumsnet poll?..no one at mumsnet has asked me how I'll vote. Where do I click to say who I'll vote for?

Mariepuree - agree! DC complaining there were far too many people in HR and then it turning out they were nearly all trainers was ridiculous. I mean, I am all for bobbies on the beat, but it does stand to reason that some office tasks (like training and recruitment) will still have to happen.

yes, but how many would like Boden vouchers and how many Amazon .

I thought it was quite telling that the police responding to Cameron's claim about the amount of paper pushers in HR who wear the uniform. He clearly did not appreciate that the police have to recruit and train people as well as undertake other ancilliary activities that directly support the front line officers.

Nick Clegg was a revelation in that he really connected with people. Too bad some of the Lib Dem policies are ludricrous like getting rid of Trident.

Gordon Brown was jolly,informed and really likeable. I liked the fact that he remains focus on getting the economy right but he should have been more honest about his previous commitment to spending on defence.

David Cameron demonstrated what I always suspected; he has no depth of conviction to the ordinary working class person, he is superficial, completely devious and appears completely oblivious to the relationship of input to output - if he understood the latter, he would not continue with his fairy tale that it is easy to cut £6bn to reduce waste without actually understanding what that waste actually is and the impact. .

ive just found time to watch it on the net

DC was awful.

GB i actually quite liked but im not keen on his policies.

NC i thought did really well, and i like his policies.
as someone going into front line policing i would welcome more police officers on the streets, GB pledged not to cut policing but DC didnt pledge anything much

i prefer the fairer and more equal society that NC is proposing. i think if i do vote it will be lib dem for me.

but - is there two ballots we vote on? is one local and one national?

so far i dont know what the lib dems would do here locally - its a tory town council with a labour MP here at the min.

Sweeedes

I'm not sure the debate has made people change their mind so much as made people aware that other people agree with the Lib Dems too. Everyone talks about a wasted vote but liking many of their policies, that hasn't changed only the dynamics of it all; there were 3 party leaders up there and they gave the impression of all being equally viable parties.

The big thing will be if the Lib Dem's figures stand up to scruntiny in the next few weeks. And if they don't quite, how they respond to it - after all, they are estimated figures, just as they would be in a business plan. Admitting 'this might need changing' and doing it will probably win them more supporters than pushing blindly ahead with flawed figures.

I would very much like to see predicted figures being compulsory in ALL party manifestos. They are basically trying to convince us to invest in their 'business plan' for the country, and you wouldn't be expected to do that without seeing proper plans with supporting evidence.

The Deutsche Bank report says: ?If Labour were to remain in power and maintain its fiscal plans, then the possibility of a sovereign ratings downgrade by one of the main agencies cannot be ruled out.
?Even under a Conservative government there is no guarantee that the AAA rating would be maintained. We suspect the biggest risk to the UK?s rating would be in the event of a hung parliament.?

The cuts the Tories make are unfair, that is why I oppose them
They are coming for the benefits pot, their figures cannot be added up any other way...
This targets the poorest statistically
Which is not fair
IMVHO a lefty pinko liberal one obv

lol @ "sitting nicely on benefits"
Oh yes that's a charmed life indeed

Why on earth would a hung parliament cause chaos?

Have lived in a country with a hung parliament before and it went very well. The full term was served and much more cooperation than before.

As for the "recession is far more likely to worsen if Labour continue in office. I don't know why people aren't aware of this". That is an opinion, not a fact. Would be wonderful if there were such certainty. Then managing the economy and knowing who to vote for would be easy!

market and business like certainty. snoooort.

and look where GB pandering to the market has got us... you really can't have it all ways, Swedes.

Motherducky - You are a fickle thing.

I fear for the country really if 90 mins of acting makes people change their minds about who'll get their vote. Perhaps the joke about getting Rage Against the Machine to no.10 isn't as funny as I thought.

Well I've got to say that the debate certainly helped me on my way to deciding who to vote for.

I WAS very seriously considering voting tory. I, like someone else has said, was swayed in his favour somewhat by his mumsnet links - going to see riven, and the like - but found him phoney, weak and appearing to totally lack any creativity or interest in really solving problems, rather just in repeating the same old tory spiel. The idea of him being our prime-minister terrifies me tbqh.

Gordon Brown, I like, he seems much safer and I don't care if he's not beautiful, and doesn't have a beaming grin, I'm not marrying him ffs! Not quite sure that I trust his policies though...

NC however performed excellently, and his policies seemed well thought out and ingenuitive. He won me on crime and immigration, even though these weren't areas I was concerned with, and education was heading the right way too. If I voted tomorrow it would definately be Lib Dem, but I want to know more about financial support for single working parents, and families on low income.

ItalyLovingMummy - the recession is far more likely to worsen if Labour continue in office. I don't know why people aren't aware of this. The markets will get the jitters and we'll lose our AAA rating, pretty speedily. As soon as we lose our credit rating, our debt will become far more expensive to service. Our currency will devalue as sterling becomes unattractive because of its government debt. We would end up like Greece, in a Fisher debt spiral. And then you'll see what Labour have done for the country.

A hung parliament would cause chaos in the private sector (and without the private sector tax take there would be no public sector). Markets and business like certainty. And the cost to the country of lurching along with no real direction is HUGE. The country is at a standstill while we wait for the outcome of this election. To not get an outcome (a sure sign of direction) would be a disaster.