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

I shall await your report with interest, young Swedes...

(pray explain the GS thing - in what way is it baloney? Must catch you for a drink and fill you in on v. entertaining scandal re. my old boss and a proper police fraud investigation and everything... it is rather satisfying when an enemy gets their comeuppance!)

BOGIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that was a dare! lol

hilarious, twinker. i hope you and your fantastically funny pals are ptsl.

i take it you'll not be voting, then?

I absolutely will!

18 year old son is disgusted to live in a Tory safe seat on his first opportunity to vote. I suppose that's as it should be. I would be kind of appalled if he was a young Tory.

"poll results are horribly incomplete. ... Can we please have all the results?"

It would make sense for a separate Topic area to be created that only MNHQ could post in, so the announcements of polls and their results could be posted in one place.

I saw Justine's posts in a couple of other threads (by which time MNHQ had closed the poll) so just got a message as if there was a technical problem with the poll site (didn't just give the results like polls on most forums).

Edam - Yes, let's get together v soon. Will email you once they all go back to school. DS3 got into R nursery btw and we should hear about DD for school next week. So we'll be seeing you at the school gate.

I have not read the entire thread but will say this from the first few bits.

Everyone employed by the Govt. is probably cacking their pants as we will not need as many advisers/social workers.......or Consultants.

So many of you will be out of a job and stop advising people to act on the party rule.

Yayyyyyyy!

At the risk of being called odd - I am fascinated by the different interpretations, not least how the polls are all over the place. I'd always just assumed that polls were well - accurate as far as they went. Its a whole new world to me. I've been checking out the BBC.

This will be my 8th General Election.

Voted for the first time ever(Lib Dem in 1979, when Maggie got in) and I had to justify debate my voting opinions as part of my A level exams, as part of my oral exam. In French.

We were so engaged with politics back then.

I think giving 16 year olds the vote is great.

I'm still a 'floating' voter at the moment, but I'm starting to think GillieBollie has made a very good point. We certainly don't want things to get worse recession-wise and my other fear with a Tory government is a rise in crime rates. I understand that many people in this country are cheesed off with the benefits culture, but at the end of the day if these people have their benefits stopped are they likely to start commiting crimes, which I have been told happened under the last Tory government? NC put me off Lib Dem with all the Trident stuff. Can anyone tell me some good reasons to vote for Tory? I think I am veering towards Labour.

Italy,

Like you I can't see any good reasons to vote Conservative yet but I do feel disappointed about that. I still don't really get what they are saying about a lot of things especially schools I don't see how we can solve the problems ourselves. I hadn't considered the crime rates but you make a good point.

I am trying to keep an open mind. I too find myself veering leftish this morning but as I live in a 'fairly' safe Conservative seat I don't know that it makes any difference. I found out the previous results and am now considering a tactical vote.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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. .

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.