TV Debate - who did best?

[JustineMumsnet]

So there you have it. History in the making; the UK's first live Leaders' election debate. Who do you think did best? Has it confirmed/ clarified your choice or even changed your mind?

Let us know your thoughts in our third election poll and you could win £50 in Boden or Amazon vouchers.

Thanks,
MNHQ

FFS

poor show from Fatty Barlow

sorry http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7597261/General-Election-2010-Gary-Barlow-unveiled-as- David-Cameron-backer.html

Was GB chewing gum, he seemed to have a problem with his jaw which was very offputting?

NC was the only one who came across with any authenticity whatsoever last night. The only one who seemed like a real person, rather than a mechanical politi-bot. Aside from that his policies were the only ones not rooted in fear (DC) or fantasy (GB).

GB did much better than I expected but ultimately we can't believe someone's promises when they've had 13 years to implement them and done nothing. And what was with the pink tie? Are they worried red would clash with his ears?

DC proved himself to be a truly vile individual last night and looking at his punchable face was almost more than I could bear on top of morning sickness. Him and his reverse Robin Hood steal-from-the-poor-to-give-the-rich Eton cronies prey on people's fears and bring out the worst side of humanity.

I think it's unfair to criticise DC for taking advantage of the parental 'choice' over schools, rather than accepting where he's allocated on geography alone. That so-called 'choice' is part of labour's policy on education, is it not? The fact that the a large proportion of parents cannot get their children into the school of their first choice due to massive over-subscription, and ultimately some admissions criteria need to be applied, leaving many people disappointed, is neither here nor there really, is it? We still all try our luck regardless, so why shouldn't he? What's he supposed to do - send his child to a crap inner city dump with 'challenges' just to make the rest of us feel better? Of course if he'd been PM for the last ten years then that's exactly what he should do, but if Tony Blair didn't chance it, I can't see DC volunteering.

Cleggie - fab
Gordy - pretty impressive, close second
Dave - meh

Oh and Amazon over Boden please

'Him and his reverse Robin Hood stealing from the poor to give to the rich Eton cronies pray on people's fears and bring out the worst side of humanity.'

Could you qualify/explain please. Have I missed something?

All the feedback says that Nick Clegg appealed to most people last night. Small class sizes are a wonderful dream. How many people think the country could ever afford it? How many more of his policies would be equally unrealistic.
Labour got us into the terrible financial situation we're in now. I believe the conservatives would do the best job of managing us back to stability.
The best thing I heard last night was from Nick Clegg. I love the idea that issues such as care for the elderly, pensions, education, the NHS etc, should be considered by the parliament as a whole and not along party lines. Recommendations would then be voted on by the country by way of a referendum.

sorry ninna but with all the conservatives proposed cuts we are likely to go into a double dip recession if not a depression, the only way for us to get out of this mess is to continue supporting the public services

hybred, if we keep on spending, as Labour propose, we are going to get ourselves into even more debt and have to make bigger cuts further down the line to pay for it.

Where is the harm in cutting back on the quangos and government departments that have wasted so much money over the last 13 years.

If Labour were that keen to cut out waste they would have done it already.

And has anyone commented on DC's desire to keep Trident just in case those pesky Chinese people attack us? WHAT was going on there???

As far as I am concerned, I shall vote LibDem as I always do. They are the only party with an open commitment to the maintenance and restoration of civil liberties in this country which have been eroded under both Labour and Conservative administrations, and about which both the other parties' manifestos are lamentably silent.

Sorry, but as a military wife I believe Trident IS needed, as well as the aircraft carriers etc.

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

In an ideal world no one would have nuclear weapons, but nuclear technology is out in the open - you can't make anyone forget how to build a warhead.

If anyone wants to read more into the Trident debate there is an interesting thread here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/politics/943852-You-say-disarmament-I-say-renewal?pagingOff=1

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.

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.

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

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.

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...

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!

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

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

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...

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.

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!

First results from 3rd election poll

73% thought Nick Clegg performed the best

62% say they are now more likely to vote for the Liberal Democrats

43% say they are now less likely to vote for David Cameron whilst only 9% said they were more likely to vote for him

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