BBC leaders debate

[AnnieHooo]

Anyone watching?

Very little mention of local government cuts. They could have hammered Nicola on the council tax freeze and lost revenue.

Wonder if the Greens are realising that Harvie is losing them votes

Think they are too much in their bubble to realise that

The west end of Glasgow is full of bearded young men who look and think just like Harvie.

One Patrick Harvie is more than enough
Was impressed with Anas Sarwar tonight. Thought Nicola was off her game.

I thought Anas came over very well but Nicola was very poor - looked liked she wished she was anywhere but in that studio .

@ TheShadowyFeminist
Agree . Joanna Cherry has had a torrid time with no support from Sturgeon.

I’m not clear: is Lorna Slater trans?
I’d admired her as a woman who’d had a successful career in a STEM profession and then moved successfully into politics. But I think when there’s a desire to increase active female participation in politics, this is a valid question.
There was a suggestion she was, but AFAIK she has never confirmed or denied.

Anas Sarwar did surprise me, he was a wee nyaff back in the Joanne Lamont days. His exasperation with Ross was undeniably genuine.

Ross brought nothing to the table at all (except maybe coming first in the 'how many times can you say Referendum' challenge) . Slater wasn't too bad, very passionate in her climate change argument and yon lib/dem guy was insignificant, I tend to zone out when he talks.

Nicola looked a wee bit under the weather and I heard her coughing a couple of times but I think she still came out on top and was the strongest on the panel.

Usual plants in the audience, it was nice to see wee Jackie again, she must be raking it in with the amount of times she's hired to do debates.

Ross brought nothing to the table at all (except maybe coming first in the 'how many times can you say Referendum' challenge)

I actually think he was the only one that brought any challenge at all. He did ask Nicola a number of questions that had her rightfully squirming and unable to answer. Nobody else was willing to hold her to account. There was a surprising amount of back patting for her from the other candidates which I just found baffling given the state of our country - the country SHE leads.

His continual reference to independence must have been grating to pro-Indy ears but let’s not pretend this election is about anything other than Indy because that is how the SNP and greens (and now Alba) have manoeuvred it. As someone who is not in support of independence, I was left feeling my only hope is Tory. Indy aside, Labour and Lib-dem both came over very well to me and I think Anas in particular came across as very authentic. Having looked through the manifestos though, there really isn’t much differentiation...lots of nice things promised...no chat on how any of this will be paid for.

So, Indy aside, everyone is promising variations on the same stuff. Indy in the mix, and the only one who made their anti-Indy stance clear was Ross.

Argh...correction to above....

is not about anything other than Indy

And yes...manifesto is the wrong word...I was referring to this which I read before the debate on key policies

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-56510773

@Libelula21

I’m not clear: is Lorna Slater trans? I’d admired her as a woman who’d had a successful career in a STEM profession and then moved successfully into politics. But I think when there’s a desire to increase active female participation in politics, this is a valid question. There was a suggestion she was, but AFAIK she has never confirmed or denied.

I don't think she is a transwoman but is totally on board with the transwomen are women mantra. I didn't watch the debate but saw the "highlights" on the news and had never seen her before either.

Anas Sarwar is SO much more articulate and has much more oomph than Richard Leonard who was like a leaf of wet lettuce. And I think Douglas Ross suffers from following in the wake of Ruth Davidson - whatever your politics you have to recognise that she's a formidable force of nature.

Harvie and his treatment of Wightman has definitely lost them a potential list vote here - I'd like better Scottish greens focused primarily on environmental issues and not things that are not the primary reason you'd vote green.

@IridecentPearl

Anas Sarwar did surprise me, he was a wee nyaff back in the Joanne Lamont days. His exasperation with Ross was undeniably genuine.

Ross brought nothing to the table at all (except maybe coming first in the 'how many times can you say Referendum' challenge) . Slater wasn't too bad, very passionate in her climate change argument and yon lib/dem guy was insignificant, I tend to zone out when he talks.

Nicola looked a wee bit under the weather and I heard her coughing a couple of times but I think she still came out on top and was the strongest on the panel.

Usual plants in the audience, it was nice to see wee Jackie again, she must be raking it in with the amount of times she's hired to do debates.

Yep, I spotted a few plants in the audience. One has previously been in past similar audience debates. So predictable BBC🙄

Thanks Raspberry,

There was this odd article a couple of years ago: www.thenational.scot/news/17819807.lorna-slater-green-co-leader-gets-bizarre-outed-trans-threat/

One day the situation is going to arise, and the question will be posed: do TW candidates have the right to privacy about their gender journey, or does the electorate have the right to know?

thought Anas did well, but he was a bit general, basically saying things that nobody would disagree with (we must rebuild etc) but not really saying how he would do it. Nicola Sturgeon was the only one who was specific, I felt. But then maybe the rest will go into more detail once their manifestos are out.

Douglas Ross the only one who let things down - and good on Anas Sarwar in telling him to grow up. Even a question on online abuse Ross tried to turn into a referendum issue - pathetic - and to use it to ultimately attack Sarwar was even more pathetic.
The BBC did an interesting factcheck on the deabte.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50524914

Wrong link happygolurky

This is the one you want.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/56583531

Gave me a laugh at the BBC's nit picking. If you have been in Scotland for any length of time you can work out the veracity of most of this for yourself. The most obvious is the comments re child poverty in Southside. If you are a Glaswegian you don't need Anas to highlight it and it is laughable for the BBC to be downplaying it. He could have added any number of areas within a 10 mile radius and made the same claim. Even more pertinent that child education and therefore poverty and opportunities are highly segregated in Southside and much of Glasgow. Private schooling is some of the cheapest and best in the country and pretty much endemic throughout Glasgow.

thanks Sempre don't know how i managed to put wrong link .
I thought it was interesting though. Maybe some of it is arguably 'nit picking' as you say - but I think it's good that these fact check articles are becoming more common - even if only to make our politicians (of all parties) think twice before trotting out any old thing that suits their arguments in an election campaign.