General Election 2015

[silkyman]

dave all over every one of them here

Ed be as well give it up now

He's done fuck all but talk about the past.

 

[smat]

can I vote for the welsh one

 

[Spear]

getting embarrassing for Ed now, he wont want to watch a rerun of this

 

[Modernist]

getting embarrassing for Ed now, he wont want to watch a rerun of this

Trolling again spear.

 

[Pyeman]

Right, I need someone who actually understands economics to explain something to me.

I heard numerous times tonight that our debt has doubled over the last 5 years, yet we also keep being told that our deficit has been reduced.

Am I right in thinking that our deficit has only reduced because we've borrowed more money? In which case, surely the deficit being reduced isn't that great an achievement?

I'm sure I've probably over-simplified things, so feel free to enlighten me.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

The deficit is the difference between government spending and government revenues. So if you borrow more but spend less the deficit comes down.

I think.

 

[The Southbank]

BALD BRUMMIES!

 

[Spear]

These are the most searched for questions on Google through the debate in order of popularity:

• What is austerity?
• What does austerity mean?
• Who is winning the leaders debate?
• What is the Barnett formula?
• Where is Natalie Bennett from?
• What is a PFI hospital?
• What is a bureaucrat?
• Who should I vote for?
• How tall is David Cameron?
• What is the deficit?
• What is the bedroom tax?

 

[Pyeman]

The deficit is the difference between government spending and government revenues. So if you borrow more but spend less the deficit comes down.

I think.

Thanks. I was going to say that borrowing more but spending less seems pointless; after all, why borrow money if you have no intention of spending it.

Then I realised that borrowing without spending seems to be a 'quick fix' to artificially lower the deficit, without actually addressing any of the economic issues that we face.

 

[Spear]

70 Labour MPs employ people on zero hour contracts

YCNMIU

 

[GodsGift]

Sturgeon was the best performer while both Miliband and Cameron did very little to make much difference to the polls in either direction. Cameron seemed quite happy just sitting on the end and saying very little.

I thought Clegg was doing fairly well until he collapsed on tuition fees.

 

[Mustard]

terrified of all of these HIV positive commies coming into Britain

 

[Gilly?]

If Nick Clegg could sit on the fence any more he'd become so wooden that he'd float in a flood.

 

[Gladders]

Early YouGov poll after debate

Nicola Sturgeon 28%
Nigel Farage 20%
David Cameron 18%
Ed Miliband 15%
Nick Clegg 10%
Natalie Bennett 5%
Leanne Wood 4%

 

[White Army]

If we can take one thing from tonight, its that more women should be dominating politics. The three clear winners in my opinion were the SNP, plaid Cymru and the green party, the rest were just interested in one one-upmanship.

Its a real shame that Caroline Lucas isnt the head of Green Party. Natalie Bennett says the right things, but is awkward and far from charismatic.

 

[Modernist]

A few polls released the Comres seems to be closer to the right score i think.

ComRes
Cameron 21%
Miliband 21%
Farage 21%
Sturgeon 20%
Clegg 9%
Bennett 5%
Wood 2%

 

[Leewilson]

Much the same really. Farage divides opinion. Milliband/Cameron did their usual thing. Clegg speaks very well and his position between both major parties allows for him to take the good elements of both and seem logical. Sturgeon has a law background so I'm not surprised she came across well.

By the time voting comes around, nobody will remember this. Largely uneventful compared to the 2010 one which was more groundbreaking and tighter as it was more back and forth between 3 of them.

 

[Techno Natch]

Bennett is no where near strong enough sadly. Wood was excellent in my opinion but obviously not that relevant to the majority of people.

 

[Gladders]

Another poll (ICM)

Miliband: 25%
Cameron: 24%
Farage: 19%
Sturgeon: 17%
Clegg: 9%
Bennett: 3%
Wood: 2%

 

[Pyeman]

Not surprised that Nicola Sturgeon came out of the debate at the top of the polls, I was impressed by her more so than any of the others. She looked composed and spoke insightfully across the range of issues. I wasn't aware she was a lawyer, but it certainly doesn't surprise me given tonight's performance.

I thought Miliband was marginally better than Cameron, but nothing that will make any significant difference come polling day.

Farage is a broken record that I have no interest in listening to. Bennett was a bit of a non-entity, nothing too damaging for her party but I can't really remember anything she said throughout the debate. I think Clegg's evening was always going to be tough; his opening speech was incredibly defensive and things didn't really get any better for him.

As for Leanne Wood, I think she got better as the debate wore on. However, if truth be told, I think I was less interested in what she had to say because I didn't see it as being as relevant to me personally.

 

[Nath]

Sturgeon came across the best and was very articulate. She spoke well on every issue brought up. Cameron seemed like he couldn't be arsed the whole time. Obviously not his forte. Miliband had some good moments, althought he did seem a bit desperate at times. Farage was unsurprisingly contradictory and made some bizarre points.

https://twitter.com/bbcrealitycheck/status/582505219017302016

Good account relating to tonights topics.

 

[Murphy]

Just watched it and agree that Sturgeon performed very well. Thought Farage did ok, and although his party is primarily concerned with the EU, I thought he missed a big chance to appeal to a wider range of people tonight - still some of his arguments still came across as strong, although I cringed in my seat a bit when he had a 'playful' shout near the start. Also, Miliband's look down the camera routine, what was that about? Although having said that he came across as quite genuine, I've warmed to him a lot in the last couple of months but whether that would convince me anymore to vote Labour I don't really know. As I've said before with Clegg, I want to like him and the lib Dems, as I feel a though they're the party that has the biggest potential to represent my sort of age group, but no one will ever forget what happened in 2010 with THAT broken promise which has more or less done them in this time around. I sort of want to like the Greens as well, but sometimes it just seems like a pipe dream with some of the stuff they say.

I liked Julie Etchingham anyway. Thought she did a decent job of keeping them in order without making her the central figure, which is what a host of these debates should aim to do.

 

[Pliny Harris]

Starting to feel very encouraged over the possibility a potential Labour/SNP coalition. Less than perfect but realistic. SNP would be that part of Labour's conscience lost with their distancing away from union influence and left-wingers. We wouldn't quite get the Keynesianism put forward so articulately by Sturgeon tonight, but it's still the best case scenario as I see it.

S/O to Farage who appeared to take the Ukips back to that more innocent time a few years ago when they were a small band of privet hedge perverts. Blabbering/shouty, rude, nervous and showed them up as a one-issue joke party. I thought Farage would simply carry on his schtick of slotting easy, populist opinions past the squabbling main parties, but Miliband's finally helping his party stand out while Cameron's doing the obfuscated Mr Steady stuff that scared right-wingers adore. Back to the panel shows with Farage as that's his level. Clegg was like a ghostly visitation from the past but less memorable, though he did one or two decent combative moves. It's quite sad how much the Lib Dems have lost the plot, been unable to distinguish themselves and how there isn't a foreseeable way of them recovering. Natalie Bennett came up with a few powerful points and also played to her strengths, but still seems lightweight and the lack of costing in the Green Party's policies is a shame. Leanne Wood acquitted herself very well but the night was Sturgeon's if anyone's. The SNP really have it going on right now it's crackers.

 

[Super_horns]

Farage is a broken record .

Does he actually have any worthwhile policies or ideas apart from just kicking out anyone who isn't British and of any use and getting out of the EU?

Seems like more of a "man of the people" who says what some want to hear rather than somebody really trying to be PM (which I know he has said won't happy)

None of the others are perfect or it seems popular but least they try to think about the many other issues around.

Is the issue they talk the talk but do very little in reality to live up to their promises?

 

[Alty]

If we can take one thing from tonight, its that more women should be dominating politics. The three clear winners in my opinion were the SNP, plaid Cymru and the green party, the rest were just interested in one one-upmanship.

Its a real shame that Caroline Lucas isnt the head of Green Party. Natalie Bennett says the right things, but is awkward and far from charismatic.

Are you having a laugh? Sturgeon was strong, the best performer of all 7, but Bennett was a bit ineffectual and Wood was absolutely terrible.

Does he actually have any worthwhile policies or ideas apart from just kicking out anyone who isn't British and of any use and getting out of the EU?

Seems like more of a "man of the people" who says what some want to hear rather than somebody really trying to be PM (which I know he has said won't happy)

None of the others are perfect or it seems popular but least they try to think about the many other issues around.

Is the issue they talk the talk but do very little in reality to live up to their promises?

Kicking out anyone who isn't British? Where the fuck have you plucked that from?

I assume you didn't watch the debate because he laid out a load of policy ideas.

 

[Alty]

I was a bit disappointed by Miliband, I have to say. He did better the other night with Paxo.

As things stand I'm still of a mind to vote Labour but I'm not unswayable.

 

[Pyeman]

Does he actually have any worthwhile policies or ideas apart from just kicking out anyone who isn't British and of any use and getting out of the EU?

In a word, no. But then I don't think UKIP have ever really claimed to have a wide range of policies. They were born out of concern over one particular issue and their policies reflect that.

Whereas most leaders are aiming to become PM, Farage's aim is purely to achieve stricter controls on immigration and to leave the EU. If UKIP can apply enough pressure to get one of the other main parties to do that, they wouldn't really care about losing in the election.

Is the issue they talk the talk but do very little in reality to live up to their promises?

To be fair, politicians are often stuck between a rock and a hard place. When in opposition you have to make bold statements of intent to attract people's votes. This inevitably means that when you're in power, some of those intentions won't turn out as you intended. Then all the new opposition have to do is point out all your broken promises and suddenly you've become a liar that cannot be trusted.

The thing I find frustrating about it all is that conviction in your own policy isn't perceived as being enough to win an election. Hence we get so much bickering and so much one-upmanship between politicians. Nicola Sturgeon was the most impressive last night because she spoke confidently and intelligently about her values and her policies. Although admittedly, there were times that even she engaged in the on-stage mud slinging.

Politics should be about parties giving honest accounts of their policies, and people having the opportunity to make a truly informed decision about how they wish to vote. Instead, what we actually have is a system where character sabotage, statistical manipulation and media spin are all used as tools to confuse and dissuade voters from one path or another, and real politics never even gets a look in.


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[Pyeman]

Kicking out anyone who isn't British? Where the fuck have you plucked that from?

I assume you didn't watch the debate because he laid out a load of policy ideas.

Whilst there were a number of policies, they were all centred around the same issue (no real surprise).

For me, they key point is that Super Horns asked if UKIP had any worthwhile policies. Last night, every time Farage spoke I found myself cringing more and more.


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[.V.]

An average of the polls from last night have Cameron at 22%, Miliband at 21.5%, Farrage at 21%, and Sturgeon at 20%. The Tory press however, would have you believe that Cameron crushed Milliband. What a bunch of disingenuous c***!

 

[Spear]

Cameron did crush Ed though