I was enervated by the 90-minute live TV Election Debate tonight – it is the first time my interest in the UK General Election has been raised to this level. And the reason? Well, leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg gave a blistering performance: friendly, knowledgeable, straight-talking and warm in comparison to the slight over-rehearsed wooden performance of David Cameron and the frankly dithering tone of Gordon Brown. I finally caught sight of what three-party politics could look like. And I think it might actually work.
The debate was all a little bit Harry Potter with Ron (Brown) and Hermione (Cameron) bickering about who had the better magic manifesto while the audience was busy listening to Harry’s (Clegg) dream of a better future after he’d seen off Voldemort (Budget Deficit) by scrapping Trident. Well, OK, the analogy is a little contrived….but…you get the idea.
Even though the other two parties had the thicker manifestos, Clegg managed to bury some great ideas in mind. He lamented the ‘conveyor belt’ of crime and described prisons as ‘over-crowded colleges of crime’. He talking about ‘regionalising immigration’ to where its most needed rather than introducing a blanket cap and he was the only one to mention the need for creativity and freedom in education. It got so bad, that at one point Brown and Cameron were both agreeing with Nick Clegg to such a degree that he retorted “The more they (Brown & Cameron) attack each other, the more they sound the same”! Great Stuff!
Cameron had the better physical position (being in the middle) which he squandered taking cheap shots at the Department of Children, Schools and Families calling it the ‘Department of Curtains and Soft Furnishings’ and talking about their prayer and massage rooms, bleating on about how Labour has had thirteen years to fix things and proposing reform and less bureaucracy at every turn. Cameron’s only real strength was the suggestion of a Fundamental Defence Review when it came to the funding of our Armed Forces and the war in Afghanistan.
I am suddenly looking forward to the next two televised debates!
22 days to the election
If I were voting today, it would still definitely be the Liberal Democrats – Ace performance by their Leader tonight. History has already been made as we are now talking about three real leaders in the context of the UK General Election.