TV Debate - who did best?

But Edam almost half of the current cabinet (including Ed Balls and Alastair Darling,Jack Straw,Harriet Harman and Tessa Jowell)is independently educated as well,and they are disproportionately scottish as well(not anti scottish am 50% scottish myself ,its just an imbalance)

I am not worried about the education but i am worried that they hae such an urban outlook on life

Have just read Caitlin Moran's little bit in the Times on last night's show. It's fantastic - made me laugh like a drain. Mentioned that Dave looked like a waxwork and Gordon was obsessed with chefs - all round spot on. I heart Caitlin Moran. Let's have her as PM.

I thought Gordon did well last night. However, I can't take anything he says seriously because of the state the country is in.

Cameron was all about look at me, aren't I wonderful and this is my catalogue of stories. He comes across to me a bit wimpy and not really a leader. I get the feeling that he would want to do what the public want him to do rather than leading public opinion.

I really did like Clegg. I was thinking of voting for lib dems and I am feeling more certain about it now. I think some of their policies are slightly too altrustic and basically unworkable for example, the cap on bonuses in banks being £2k (which I do think is a bit unfair) but I do actually think Clegg has backbone which I like.

labour has already committed to 'savings' on waste. What the conservatives are saying is that they will save even more on top of that. I just dont think it can be done.
Yes there is waste - but having worked in the public sector if you on paper save in one area you only find that you create another cost somewhere else (and it is usually more expensive).

I like what the lib dems have been saying but always felt it was a bit of a wasted vote. However i shall be a believer now and vote for them.
If we all voted what we really believe and not tactically then we would have a fairer idea of what we really want - not just what we dont want.

Taxes are not nice but we all have to pay them - this government have been sneaky and there are a lot of hidden taxes now.

Sorry just read a few other posts, isnt it interesting/fantastic how we have different perceptions of how they came across.

I saw an interview with Nick Clegg/Jeremy Paxton in the week and was impressed, and then last night he totally undid that for me.

Yes and the china comments were incredible not sure what that will have done for international relations?!

I was considering switching to Lib Dem but wont after last night. He seems a nice guy but found that he was repetitive, all about "its ok to say these things, what about doing them" which is fine but he must have said it 10 times or so which made me feel he was desperate, had nothing else to say.

I also thought he seemed school boyish, sorry

Thought cameron was snide in parts and would not trust him.

I was quite anti labour too but though Gordon Brown was excellent, will definately consider voting him. Thought he was solid, grounded and convincing.

Nick Clegg... I want to matty him lol! Guess who is a member of the LD party??!

Tiggy - no problem with David Cameron being a toff as long as he tries to find out what life is like for the rest of us oiks. I DO have a problem with him surrounding himself with toffs - if he wins, we'll have the most important offices of state almost entirely occupied by men from two or three of the most elite public schools/Oxbridge colleges. It really will be a ruling class - drawn largely from the Bullingdon club. Can he really not find more than one state school educated person who is fit to play a part in running the country (Hague)?

Can you imagine if everyone woke up on May 6th and thought 'sod it I's going to vote Lib Dem even if they haven't got a hope in getting elected.' What do you think would happen?

Just got back from the ever more expensive weekly shop.

I find this thread really interesting the Mumsnet poll too.

Fascinated by the strong feelings on display - please don't be offended anyone its just an observation but -I don't think I'd be capable of such loyalty.

However its still far from over isn't it and I am judging them ALL on what they say and how well they plan to keep us afloat during this recession (which IS worldwide - I can't get why people seem to think its been caused through politics???)AND on what they plan to do when it has passed. The LibDems have really got some ideas I don't think they should be sidelined.

TiggyR It's really annoying when people focus on the personal lives of politicians - it should be used sparingly only to give context to their policies and nothing more.

44% of Mumsnetters are thinking of voting Liberal Democrat in the 2010 election compared to 23% 3 weeks ago (24th March)

Crikey!

Shame MN isn't representative of the whole country.

Agree too Bourboncreme. If he removes himself from the real world he's an elitist knob, and if he participates he's either a greedy knob who's taking money/benefits/school places from the poor, or he's cynically trying to make us think he's 'normal'. We all know he's not normal - he's an Old Etonian ffs. Let's get over it and move on, shall we? I don't see anyone using the argument that someone who was dragged up in a council estate by feckless illiterate parents is automatically not qualified to run the country or have any valid opinions about 'normal' families on the basis that their family isn't exactly noraml either!

Sadly I think that Nick Clegg won the debate last night. However, we are now coming out of a recession and if the Tories get elected we will go back into it. Now is not a time to change government so let's all back Labour.

I think GB should be challenged more on just why bureaucracy has exploded over the last 13 years. In fact he said last night that people would have the right to challenge their police forces for incompetency, blah blah. What does this mean? More form filling, paperwork, budgets used to hire 25 people to write pamphlets saying how wonderful and friendly the local police station is...

bourboncreme I agree - this seems like a bit of a non-issue to me!

Why shouldn't DC claim direct payments if he is entitled to them,if you are going to say that people over a certain income shouldn't claim from the state then he had better send his childtren to an independent school as otherwise he would be getting something for free ,oh and perhaps he should pay for his healthcare privately as well .A universal benefit is just that ,also if everybody else is entitled to apply to any school then why shouldn't he ,I bet Ed Balls children got into their first choice school.

NC and wife and childen go to mass every sunday by the way,she is spanish and very much a practicing Catholic

Sorry, I'd like to retract that the US can force us to use Trident - I have no evidence for this. Trident is supposedly 'operationally' independent but is made for us by the US and there's speculation that they may retain unknown operational control. It is possible but unsubstantiated!

It wasn't actually the 'keep/not keep Trident' aspect of DC's comments that had my jaw on the floor as his casual assumption that China is the new natural enemy...

No-one challenged DC's assertion last night that Trident is an independent deterrent - it si anything but. We cannot use it without permission from the US and even worse we may be forced to use it by the US even if we don't want to!

Trident is useless anyway:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/4268661/Trident-nuclear-deterre nt-completely-useless-say-retired-military-officers.html

It's not just Trident that we've wasted defence money one either. Rather than being spent on proper equipment for troops a mind-meltingly large amount of our tax cash is thrown away on ridiculous high-tech war-porn gadgets that never get used anyway.

Milly, not so simple . . . as a nuclear nation we have a seat, it doesn't matter how much we have stockpiled . . .

Without Trident we lose our seat on the UN Security Council and in losing that we lose influence on major world-wide issues.

So that's what it's all about, did wonder.
Have we really got any influence though, don't we just ask how high when America says jump.

Gladly:

The Tories plan to cut inheritance tax, benefiting only the richest 3000 estates in the country. Who will pay for this deficit in our budget? Everyone else of course.
www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/12/inheritance-tax-cameron-tory

Income tax is the fairest tax there is and yet the Tories want to cut it at a time when as a country we have serious cash flow problems. Where will the money come from? By cutting services for the poor, raising inequality levels and creating more crime.

Also, no party opposes restricting private sector pay for top earners, such as bankers, more than the Tories. And we all know who pays when they get us all into a pickle don't we? And yet they want to cut public sector pay, which is already unable to compete with the private sector.