Anyone else going off Clegg?

[dinosaurinmybelly]

I thought he was very cocky last night, interrupting the others several times to slag off their debating style rather than their policies. It was probably justified in one instance, but certainly not the 4 or so times that he did it - in fact it was annoying that he interrupted what was good quality debate at times.

I'm starting to worry about exactly how much he would listen to the public if he were elected. I didn't like his comment that he was a negotiator "on behalf of all of us" in his early career. How much do we know about this guy? Who would be his key advisors if he were to govern, and how much would he actually listen to them? I love the idea of electoral reform and a fresh new government, but is this really the time to be electing someone with less experience, who is pro-Europe, sketchy on defence, and populist on the economy?

I lived for most of my life in a Lib Dem assured seat. They have such a stronghold in most of Devon that I have seen the way they behave, and it is not nice. I suppose any party which has a strong majority anywhere will have a tendency to arrogance and underhand behaviour, however these lot in devon were underhand, ruthless and ineffective. I voted tory (against my better judgement) last time in order to get them out (not a chance in hell of labour getting in in N Devon) with no luck.

Thankfuly they have no chance of getting in where I live now.

Two of William Hague's finest performances in Parliament

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyASWt1Pwmw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzshQ8u91nI

I love the way he makes even the Labour politicians laugh as he speaks

Hmm. Thing about Hague is everyone says how intelligent and deep he is, but I always think well if was intelligent then he'd have held back from being Tory leader for another ten years or so instead of grabbing the baseball cap and telling everyone he had 'common sense'

it rather undermined this view of him.

however, it may just have been youthful folly I suppose

He can tell jokes though!

Well anyway it is all academic until we have an elected head of State (plans revolution).

I think it must have been youthful folly. However I have read that he was the only one who was able to keep the tories from completely imploding. As it was he did perform well in the HoC against Blair. i think he was torpedoes from underneath, especially by Cranborne in the house of Lords.

He is one of the few tory MPs I have respect for, tbh.

I think Clegg had the furthest to fall. He didn't nail it last night and agree felt a bit scripted.

I didn't think either of the other two did either though. Definitely not Cameron - he STILL does that shifty eyed, scared thing when the other two talk directly to him.

DC has been clearer in other interviews about what he means by "doing the wrong thing". He is actually addressing one of my concerns on this point, and that is that I grew up in an area where it was considered foolish to work hard and save for the future, because if you did that and had money in the bank, or owned your own home, you would not be eligible for various government benefits. Even now - there is a hesitance to take out a personal pension in case it interferes with your state benefits or provision of care when you are older.

Also NC and GB - we can't solve the problem of children from poorer families performing less well in school by just throwing money at the situation, we do need to encourage more social responsibility, and give people the confidence that they can achieve their aspirations through hard work rather than finding loopholes in an inefficient benefit system. There are so many instances where the system is so stretched by benefit fraud, that it doesn't have the resources to help people who really need it.

I haven't decided who to vote for, but it seems that DC is the only candidate who is addressing this issue of social responsibility in his manifesto.

I do think GB performed well last night, and I have to keep reminding myself that yes his party was in power for 13 years, but he himself has only been in charge for around 2 years and some good things have happened during those 2 years. He's also had a lot to cope with (terror attacks, flooding, credit crisis) in that short time.

I personally do not think that these debates have added anything worthwhile to the campaign in any way.

It is just lightweight fluff and something else for the media to get their teeth stuck into, and to tell us who 'won' the debate.

It is utterly meaningless.

That's true GetO - also the party wasn't exactly over-running with talent either

Oh I mean that's true re Hague.

Well. I don't know. I think they have ignited something, and they have caught people's interest and engaged them. That's not a bad thing - nor is the upswing in people registering to vote etc.

I think it's broadly been a good thing.

The format was a bit ugh by last night though. Mostly because they ALL kept saying the same thing, such broad brushstrokes - not sure how you'd change that.

I was hoping for a lot more debate on the economy, but the questions moved off public finances too fast and on to more general stuff. And yes, what's the point in having the same question in all three debates?

GetOrf I'm from a similar area: Somerset, DH's home town borders with Devon

But we like LD- Dh thinks best thing that happened to his home town (to be fair Chard not exactly most exciitng place on planet pmsl)

Isn't it odd how people have such different interpretations?

I was disappointed that there was no question on the economic situation in Greece and the rest of the Eurozone. It is the big economic story of the moment.

Well Dino I dojn't work and Dh doesn't full time, not becuase of intent (I am a carer and he is self employed / retraining post redundancy) but tbh we feel totally lumped in with those who choose a benefits lifestyle and that's really annoying and actually hurtful when you worked for as long as was possible

Mind I'd be happy as punch is soemone in a job centre could offer me a job I could take up- they won't becuase carers don't get job centre support and nobody would want to employ me but hey there you go

To be honest Sancti the party may be different in different areas iyswim.

Your local party/council members and MP may well be a lot more effective than the N Devon ones.

But frankly I don't think the local LDs ever got over the reeling shock of disposing the long standing tories in the mid 80s, it has been the same MP since and he is worse than useless. They seem to stand for teh worst kind of small minded, NIMBY narrow views which is holding the area back in my view.

The area needs another shake up - I can't imagine the tories will get in there (and personally I don't really want them to as it is a risk to labour on a parliamentary level) but the area is just stagnating under LD control.

I live in a LD seat too.

i think this is perhaps why I don't have the 'oh the arrogance of Nick Clegg!' problem because I'm very used to the idea of LD v Con - it's not a new thing for me.

Yes, I'd have preferred them to stay longer on the economy too.

SanctiMonayArse you are exactly the sort of person that should be voting for DC in that case. He is reaching out to people like you who have worked hard, but because the system is so flawed and manipulated, the help is not there when you need it...

I am delighted now that I live in a Tory/Labour marginal.

It seems that after living for most of my life in a LD stronghold I can actually vote for my party of choice (labour) and the vote actually counts for something.

Yes GetO. DH labour voter, drives him wild when either side tell him it's a wasted vote - 'it'll be counted won't it?' he says, all huffy.

getorf - how will you feel next week when you are living in a tory seat? I can't see any labour/con marginals going to the labour party in this election.

Longfingernails, I enjoyed that So how do we start the revolution to get Hague in.

If we want to remain relevant in the global pecking order, we have to cultivate a more aspirational society. I agree with dc re. the big society in principle. How do we do it though?

Dinosaur I am not voting for DC because I do not have a new right ideology.

There's an old Mumsnet thing (MP IIRC) that stands true as ever to me:

We all want to help those who have fallen on rough times (mostly anyway) but if:

A) you are willing to risk some fraudaulent claims rather than risk hardship to someone really needy, then vote Left
B) If frraudulent claims upset you so much you would rather someone in need struggles rather than 'waste' monmsy then vote right

Both are valid viewpoints I guess, in themselves, but I am firmly A.

Oh and I am a massive believer in PR (and as I now live in wales have direct experince of the benefits of a decent AM) so really, Cons. not an option for me.

I can do shallow, I can say that I don't like to look at DC becuase he looks like my ExF, but really I've been politically inclined for ever now and have very firm beliefs that are well established, regularly reviewed and well informed.

but thanks anyway for the advice.

I voted for labour in 1997 (it was my first time voting) as I couldn't bear the thought of not doing so, and hated people saying it was a wasted vote. But since then I voted Tory just to try and get the lib dems out, however Labour was pretty safe then.

Snowlady - gawd knows. I think it will be pretty close. It is marginal, but not tightly, and I hope that labour prevails. He is a very good local MP actually.