So, what did you think of the first debate?

[MrsSkylerWhite]

Puerile, personally.

I didn’t watch it, I have no intention of voting for either. But I would have thought a barrister would have been great in a debate. How disappointing! This is going to be a strange election. There’s just nobody worth voting for.

Disappointing, Rishi just wouldn’t let Kier speak , constantly talking over him , poor format and interviewer was weak too . Rishi running scared I thought!

Agreed

The bits I watched were awful. Just reinforced my impressions that nobody has a clue what to do.

Two cheeks of the same arse hits the nail on the head. They're both completely useless and clueless. They're a gift to Reform. Such a shame that the Libdems aren't a viable alternative anymore after Clegg's insane coalition blunders such as tuition fees. If Libdems hadn't sold their soul like that, I feel they could well have been a contender for power/control at this election given how useless both the Tories and Labour are looking.

Don't think either of them came across well but some of that is down to terrible format.

They should be given a 2 hour debate and allowed to answer questions over say 90 seconds or 2 mins not 45 seconds, 45 seconds passes so quickly especially if someone interrupting you all the time.

I think all parties should be included as unfair to them not getting same coverage.

I notice that both the Treasury and IFS have came out this morning and basically said Rishi was lying about Labour increasing tax by £2,000. This is a tried & trusted tactic by the Tories and man masterminding their election campaign.

When you have nothing positive to say about your own record ten try and scare voters into voting for you by creating fear and telling people cannot take a chance in electing anyone else. It has worked well for Tories over the years.

Someone hit the nail on the head calling him an "Odious little cretin" during the excluded debates back during covid as he tried to weasel himself out of criticism of excluding 3 million people from covid support on spurious and illogical grounds.

I thought KS looked liked he’d lied when he was asked if he and his family use/would use private health care. I wished they'd gone a step further and asked him about dentistry.

https://www.miriamcates.org.uk/news/new-national-service

This is an interesting read. I’m certainly not laughing at it.

Starmer said he was going to cut tax breaks for private schools and put the money into state education. He said they would set up a nationalised utility company and invest in renewable energy. He said that he would tackle immigration by targeting the organised crime gangs that send innocent people over in boats. He said they would put an end to the non dom tax loophole so that the wealthy can't dodge tax (like Sunaks wife). All Sunak had was flights to Rwanda, he said virtually nothing else that wasn't blatant lying. Waiting lists for the NHS have come down (they haven't, they've increased) the economy is starting to pick up (prices are still increasing or staying high) we're going to continue to use fossil fuels while funding the huge profits of energy companies, at a cost to the environment. He's going to cut tax at the expense of the NHS, social care, welfare and public services. He's going to increase defense spending at the expense of as above. And he repeated ad nauseum that Labour were going to increase everyone's tax by £2000 claiming that an independent body had worked it out when they were in fact members of the Tory party. He did nothing to convince me that all he was offering wasn't the same disastrous government for another five years.
Starmer has some good ideas, and in my opinion will actually effect change and improve the lives of us mere mortals in the UK.

Just been following political journalists on Twitter/X (sad i know lol). However some leading ones including likes of Dan Hodges who usually is sympathetic towards the Tories posted the following

"Parties routinely weaponise and distort each others policies. It's all in the game. This is different. The Prime Minister claimed the civil service had independently costed Labour's tax plans at £2,000. That was false. It's the most blatant lie I've seen in an election campaign."

He even suggests Sunak ha broken Civil service code of ethics by repeating lie over and over again.

This is why i will not vote for Sunak or the Tories, not only have they dragged UK into gutter, they are shameless liars trying to cling onto power.

Sunak doesn't even want power for himself. He wants to win and then leave the country immediately.

Well, I agree - I wish they had spoken about dentristy and how so many people in this country don't currently have a dentist. He could have said he has had to pay for a dentist but that thousands couldn't afford that - there would be no judgement from me on that. I've always voted Labour and always used the NHS, but in the last two years I've had to use a private dentist because there is no other choice. I'm not prepared to let my teeth drop out for the sake of supporting anyone or anything.

I obviously didn’t watch the same programme as many of you. Today the Treasury has disputed Rishi’s claim about the £2000 per household. They know it’s a lie but they are banking on the less enquiring minds that rely on Tory media headlines. The £2000 will hang on the line to be caught by the many who can ill afford another Tory government but that doesn’t matter as they are too busy managing all the difficulties of life to undertake any analysis of reality.

sound bites.

pp

I felt starmer came across as out of his depth. He couldn’t answer any of the big questions, so kept trying ro answer different questions or attack/deflect, and of course sunak was never going to let him away with it, and kept stopping him and forcing the questions, with starmer having no where to run to.

the population are a lot smarter than they get credit for, and a lot of people , even the daily fail commenters 😄, were expressing frustration that starmer couldn’t and wouldn’t answer the questions. It was obvious he had no solid plan.

my opinion is that it was very damaging for labour. A huge percentage of the electorate are undecided, about 40 percent I think, and many of that 40 percent would have watched that and seen the glaring issue at play.

it doesn’t mean they will then vote Tory though, and it’s a concern how this will play out. As the likes of farage and reform are looming large.

but last night laid bare the very real issue with Labour, for anyone undecided.

the next horrific spectacle will be raynor going against farage. A pair of fools in anyone’s world. And that’s got disaster written all over it.

You must have seen a different letter than me, because in the one I saw they didn’t dispute it, it was about the source.

Hodges of all people. I mean cmon, he’s no Tory sympathiser, he’s a Labour flunky through and through and it was a dispute over source. I’m not sure it was a blatant lie, the numbers were correct, I think sunak just got the source wrong, as in a civil servant would have been asked to do it, and they then employed a third party.

the next horrific spectacle will be raynor going against farage. A pair of fools in anyone’s world. And that’s got disaster written all over it.

Scheduled for Friday night and also including Penny Mordaunt, a Green, LD, SNP, Plaid.

I can see it getting quite colourful and possibly cutting to the audience as Mordaunt holds down Farage while Raynor gives him a good pasting 😂

Sunak was pretty much as expected, but I was so disappointed by Starmer.

I thought Labour had this election in the bag, but now I'm having nightmares about about a Conservative / Reform coalition government.

I was surprised by both of them, really surprised, sunak did better than I thought, he showed he pretty much knew his stuff but has a set of balls on him, at no stage did starmer really get him on the back foot unable to answer a question, and it was a constant state of starmer unable to answer or refusing.

and starmer surprised me a lot too, I genuinely believed he would have some plans, on the key issues, be able to say this is what we will do and this is how we will pay for it, but he didn’t or didn’t wish to reveal it, it was such a bad show and so disappointing to see the truth of it,

I can absolutely see why sunak is keen to debate him and starmer doesn’t wish to, sunak clearly knows starmer has nothing. And is happy to prove it to the public.

I am quite looking forward to it as well, I think raynor is going to embarrass herself and it will be an utter spectactle, she is also likely to say stuff that starmer really doesn’t wish her to.

they know the weak points, ie she doesn’t think we should have a nuclear deterrent, which is bloody chilling, and she’s way way more left than she is pretending she is, and with a snap temper on her. Will she be able to hold it together or will they get her on the ropes.

farage I don’t agree with his policies at all, but I suspect he can hold his own, as can mourdant. Raynor I think will do a lot of shouting and talking over folks, she will try to emulate sunak but lack the ammunition or wit to do it correctly so she will just look like an angry domineering twat.

however they may all surprise me, as sunak and starmer did,

Imagine if people believe the lies about tax like they did in 1992. Imagine how the Tories will be smashed in 2029.

Considering how intelligent KS is he doesn't do himself any favours.

Labour know they will win on 4 July 2024. Hence, they don't need to say a lot.

Just had a look at their costed manifesto. It refers to 7.3 billion of self funding. However, 70% of the self funding is estimated to come from closing loopholes on non-doms and tax avoidance. Not very realistic as easy for wealthy people to leave the UK and live elsewhere.