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The weekend has seen the leaders question time debates.

Johnson failed to answer a question and the BBC edited later edited footage to change laughter at him to applause.

Swinson continues to prove that the Lib Dem campaign planners don't understand the electorate. They based the campaign around her and the more the public see her and the more she opens her gob she proves she's the witless headgirl who really knows fuck all.

Corbyn has now adopted a neutral 2nd referendum position. Far too late.

Jo Johnson apparently said that a good election manifesto is one people aren’t talking about 48 hrs later, and it seems that the Conservatives really have gone for that strategy.

Johnson had promised a manifesto for change yet of the three main parties it seems far from that. It avoids controversy for the most part, but also doesn't offer solutions to some of our biggest problems like social care. But with the Tories so ahead in the polls, the status quo and making sure they don't have a repeat of the 'dementia tax' car crash seems to be the order of the day. Because Brexit is going to going to provide a magic solution instead...

Meanwhile the Labour Party have gone completely the other way and really have gone for it and come up with ideas. With a mixed response from the public and press.

And I still can't tell you what is in the LD one, cos Prince Andrew...

This week should see the election come into focus as postal voting starts. As it stands its hard to bet on anything but a Tory majority.

The theory that getting older means becoming more rightwing is based on people becoming more prosperous in their 30s, 40s & 50s, hence wanting to protect their wealth

We have become more prosperous as we have got older, which I think is more due to learning to manage our money better! It hasn't made either me or DH become right wing. DH has gone from voting for Thatcher in 1979 - to becoming left wing, and I have been centre-ish and haven't really moved much, as far as I can tell.

Some people's views are fixed by life events they experienced in their formative years,
e.g. the Great Depression, council house windfalls, austerity ....
and some also develop more empathy with experience

So a significant minority have not followed the trend of becoming more rightwing as they prosper

I've stayed a centrist too, despite moving from poverty in childhood to a comfortable retirement next year
I remember where I came from and that many people are not lucky enough to escape poverty

Unfortunately the interview was a car crash. He was completely unprepared and it showed. Neil was vicious but then he always is

No way was it a 'car crash' though it certainly wasn't great, you can't prepare for that sort of interview. I also disagree that Neil was 'vicious' - he was sarky and interrupted too much but Corbs was definitely trying to escape some of the Q's and Neil was trying to stop him.

Be very surprised if it affected anyone's vote - certainly won't mine

Boomer here, and TBH, my politics hasn’t changed much, centre-left with dash of hippie capitalism
I have been leafleting for LDs, here in deep blue, tho getting less so, W Sussex. Good LD candidate, “tres sympa”. I like leafleting as it shows people there ARE choices. Last local election LDs increased their numbers. A lot are not enamoured ofTories. Labour not really a factor.
I would like to see LDs give Tories a run for their money. Leafleting is -literally- painful. Big purple bruises on my hand. Letter boxes are evil!
I am just a lowly foot soldier, but their seems to be a fairly sophisticated campaign - we are doing three tranches - the first, a general sweep, and over the next week, I am covering the same territory,but targeting certain houses, then a final effort, also targeted.
It is a challenge getting it done in late Nov - early Dec. About 5 min daylight, then cold & wet.
BJ may rue the day he called a GE if the weather effects leafleting -canvassing - voting.

You can prepare. I spent a lot of my professional life working with people to do exactly that. He was lost in the tax section when he should have known the figures, the Waspi question was entirely predictable and he kept deflecting and Jess Philips tweeted the perfect answer to the anti semitism question.

I really, really wanted him to do well but he just didn’t. Sturgeon was in a different league.

I will be sixty at Christmas, I have become progressively more left wing as I have got older the last few years especially, since austerity has really started to bite the suffering & sometimes inhumane treatment of so many vulnerable sections of our society, it makes me so fucking angry, I have never hated anyone but I am finding myself actually hating some politicians/MSM with a quite vicious ferocity.

Hence the age at which statistically a person is more likely to be Tory than Labour increased at the 2017 GE to 47

And there’s the joke that you’re more likely to have your first child around age 30, so by the time you’re 47 you’re only too happy to vote for a party that would bring back national service

I'm not sure Neil was right on the figures and it's really easy to lose your mind when you're being barracked - even if you have 'prepared'.

The WASPI issue he answered eventually, Neil accepted it then came back again with the same question!

I think Corbyn was well aware that if he tried to apologise Neil would find another way to twist it - he's already apologised numerous times, said that he hates racism and that he's put measures in place to deal with allegations. That should have been sufficient.

I get you dontcallmelen

I am 63 and for the first time in my life I will vote Labour in the GE.

I have also never hated a prime minister as much as I hate the lying, misogynist racist bastard Johnson with his dirty underhand tricks and ghastly privileged twat cronies. He is totally unfit for high office.

I am also thoroughly pissed off by most of the MSM.

If you’re the leader of a political party you have no business “losing your mind” when you’re doing one of the most important interviews of your career. You need the figures straight, you practise over and over until you’ve got it right. Fortunately Johnson is last so he’ll be the impression that sticks and I’d put money on him being far worse.

I’d rather see the party leaders being grilled by the Dragon’s Den - you really have to be on top of your figures to avoid early doors.

If you’re the leader of a political party you have no business “losing your mind” when you’re doing one of the most important interviews of your career.

Not even when you've spent a month campaigning and doing other crucial interviews? And that after at least 12 months of utter parliamentary turmoil and sleepless nights? These are humans fgs!

What if you practice something 'over and over' and it doesn't come up? The classic exam mistake. And if it does come up you get accused of being robotic.

I don't think this was a very memorable interview and I hope one day this type of adversarial ego-driven interviewer will disappear - you can get far more truth out of people by being a bit less intrusive and allowing them to speak so they might say something out of turn.

I cried my way through most of this

*ArseDarkly
*
I agree. Corbyn seems to get here there and everywhere. The man has serious energy!

I was brought up to believe in the NHS (my dad refused to do any private medicine) and in comprehensive state education (my mum only ever taught in state schools and as we were in Scotland they were all comprehensive ).

When we emigrated to NZ after 10 years in the UK although we emigrated back again after 2 years , it was because it also had an "NHS" (and also my dad wouldn't have to re-sit his specialist exams my mum put her foot down which is why we didn't go to Canada )

Essentially I was brought up to care that even though I was very middle class fortunate, not everyone is that lucky and that taxes are the just price we pay for a fairer society. I have never been upset about being a higher rate tax payer or been irritated by the amount of tax we pay - as Graham Norton put it, being able to afford your tax is a such a privileged position.

I voted Labour as soon as I turned 18, only voting Liberal/SDP on occasion when I lived in constituencies where a tactical vote had more of a chance.

I was devastated in 1992 when labour lost (and feared that Middle England would never vote Labour) and was delighted in 1997 when Labour got in. But I've not voted for them since then because I'd come round to the idea of an independent Scotland. And in many subsequent elections, the SNP were actually (according to Political Compass) more left wing than the Labour Party

I actually look forward to being able to consider voting for a rejuvenated Scottish Labour Party (no longer a "branch office" ) when Scotland does achieve its independence. But who knows? I may vote Scottish Green - and the SNP itself might still be the best alignment with my key issues.

No @ArseDarkly, not under any circumstances. Basically, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Anyway, my standards are obviously too high and we’re not going to agree.

Fortunately Johnson is last so he’ll be the impression that sticks and I’d put money on him being far worse.

Yup. Wiffle waffle piffle paffle. Get Brexit Done.

Best not choose “dither and delay, “get Brexit done”, “oven ready deal” or “unleash Britain’s potential” in a Johnson interview drinking game (although maybe getting hammered in the first 3 minutes may be no bad thing).

as Graham Norton put it, being able to afford your tax is a such a privileged position.

That's such a great quote! So true. Even if you're not in poverty you still feel that stranglehold of tax and bills and the fear of something unexpected coming up that will take you over the edge.

Neil banging on about the amount of tax paid by the top 5% shows where his priorities lie

TiddleTaddleTat
How does he do it at his age?? Surely can't all be down to Damson jam

Thank you for posting that Just. It didn't make me cry. I see so much homelessness where I live - it just feels normal now. But I'll email that to my dad and step mum (who votes Tory). Been talking to them today about homeless people - they think it's all their fault. This will help. Thank you.

Every day I wake up and it gets worse.

• A 70s throwback unicorn manifesto.
• A rabbi calling Corbyn out.
• Corbyn refusing to apologise like a recalcitrant child.
• Please make it stop.

A good piece in the Times this evening.

The claims that the party is “doing everything” it reasonably can to tackle anti-Jewish racism and that it has “investigated every single case”, are a mendacious fiction. According to the Jewish Labour Movement, there are at least 130 outstanding cases before the party, some dating back years, and thousands more have been reported but remain unresolved.

The party leadership have never understood that their failure is not just one of procedure, which can be remedied with additional staff or new processes. It is a failure to see this as a human problem rather than a political one. It is a failure of culture. It is a failure of leadership. A new poison – sanctioned from the top – has taken root in the Labour Party.

Many members of the Jewish community can hardly believe that this is the same party that they called their political home for more than a century. It can no longer claim to be the party of equality and anti-racism.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ephraim-mirvis-what-will-become-of-jews-in-britain-if-labour-forms-the-next-government-ghpsdbljk

Corbyn refusing to apologise like a recalcitrant child.