I only heard the second half of the debate last night and then highlights from the first half. It was definitely more even than the first one. I did find it interesting that both Brown and especially Cameron responded to Clegg's success last week by trying to become more like him, trying to steal his stance as the outsider, and a number of occasions actually stealing or echoing his lines.
Brown came across better on the whole and tried sticking to his points. Clegg stcuk to his guns under more pressure, even where his policies (Europe, immigration) were the least popular and Cameron will have done enough to encourage his own supporters if not persuade too many others. I did find it rather hard to stomach when he tried to criticise the others for spreading fear when that seems to be all thev tories have done all week.
However, the main problem seems to be that none of them are really gripping us as prospective PMs. We want to vote for None of the Above. But how could that happen? Here's two rather fanciful suggestions:
1. The Lib-Dems only agree to support Labour if they ditch Brown. Brown stands down and Darling or Milliband takes over. Not sure its an improvement. Of course, a similar thing could happen with the tories, but I struggle to see anybody on their front bench who would take over.
2. Caroline Lucas wins Brighton Pavilion for the Greens, joins a Lib-Lab coalition and emerges as a surprising compromise candidate after negotiations are unable to break the Brown-Clegg deadlock.
Ok - thats probably wishful thinking, if not outright dreaming, but don't smash my illusions just yet.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
i option number 2 is fantasy land - but i think option number 1 is a distinct possibility. if labour do badly in terms of votes ... i think lib dems would be silly to support brown - so i think they could form a coallition with a different leader. like you i am not sure it would make much difference.
Of course option 2 is fantasy, but I think it serves to how unappetising the current menu is. There was interesting follow up to to the YOuGov survey on Sunday on how delighted or dismayed people would be with different outcomes of the election. All outcomes have over 20% more people dismayed than delighted except a Lib-Dem majority coalition which had only 11% more dismayed than delighted. Which means whatever we get, the majority aren't going to like it at all.
Post a Comment