The leaders debate was more interesting than I expected it to be. I thought that the leaders of the SNP and the Greens would perform well but, like Clegg in the 2010 debates, they benefitted from being able to express themselves fairly honestly as they're not going to be serious contenders to win a majority in May. Farage lived down to my low expectations, whether or not you believe immigration and the EU are the causes of most of the country's problems I don't believe you can run a campaign solely on things you're against. His statements on foreign HIV sufferers were both factually wrong and disgraceful scare mongering. The funny thing is I don't think his performance will have hurt his party's prospects Milliband did ok but played it safe which was probably clever as he doesn't want to frighten the floating voters with anything too idealistic. Cameron did alright too, he didn't make any gaffes and he knows any boost Nichola Sturgeon gets will be at Labour's expense. He did seem awkward without his House of Commons back up.
I think you're spot on, though I think Farage was being deliberately provocative with a statement calculated to appeal to a certain voter who holds views they might not be willing to express on camera. UKIP are a very strange party in that respects. They have worked hard to establish themselves as a kind of 'common sense, middle England, this is what everybody really thinks' party but they occasionally have these brain farts when they say something which makes them sound like the worst right wing extremists. At the moment, I'm not entirely sure their vote will hold up. I might be wrong but my instinct is that they've not really got any momentum at the moment.
Surprised you were positive about Natalie Bennett. All the papers I've read say she did the worst but my thoughts after the event was that she'd done particularly well. I noticed that the Tom Bradbury show after the debate also had a few people praising her. Makes me think it's the Australian accent working against her with the general population. Of course, that's not to deny many of the Green policies are plain bonkers but she had a kind of moral honesty about her performance.
For me, the Tory campaign has been the most negative so far, which I find surprising given they have a strong economy to work with.
The leaders debate was more interesting than I expected it to be. I thought that the leaders of the SNP and the Greens would perform well but, like Clegg in the 2010 debates, they benefitted from being able to express themselves fairly honestly as they're not going to be serious contenders to win a majority in May.
ReplyDeleteFarage lived down to my low expectations, whether or not you believe immigration and the EU are the causes of most of the country's problems I don't believe you can run a campaign solely on things you're against. His statements on foreign HIV sufferers were both factually wrong and disgraceful scare mongering. The funny thing is I don't think his performance will have hurt his party's prospects
Milliband did ok but played it safe which was probably clever as he doesn't want to frighten the floating voters with anything too idealistic.
Cameron did alright too, he didn't make any gaffes and he knows any boost Nichola Sturgeon gets will be at Labour's expense. He did seem awkward without his House of Commons back up.
I think you're spot on, though I think Farage was being deliberately provocative with a statement calculated to appeal to a certain voter who holds views they might not be willing to express on camera. UKIP are a very strange party in that respects. They have worked hard to establish themselves as a kind of 'common sense, middle England, this is what everybody really thinks' party but they occasionally have these brain farts when they say something which makes them sound like the worst right wing extremists. At the moment, I'm not entirely sure their vote will hold up. I might be wrong but my instinct is that they've not really got any momentum at the moment.
ReplyDeleteSurprised you were positive about Natalie Bennett. All the papers I've read say she did the worst but my thoughts after the event was that she'd done particularly well. I noticed that the Tom Bradbury show after the debate also had a few people praising her. Makes me think it's the Australian accent working against her with the general population. Of course, that's not to deny many of the Green policies are plain bonkers but she had a kind of moral honesty about her performance.
For me, the Tory campaign has been the most negative so far, which I find surprising given they have a strong economy to work with.