Well, that 90 minutes went quick! In case you’ve been under a rock, this evening was the first debate between the three main party leaders before the UK general election on the 6th May.
It was an interesting format; tightly controlled by Alistair Stewart with formal question-answer-rebuttal structure. At first it seemed artificial but as things heated up, it was clear it would have degenerated into argumentative scrapping otherwise, so a success there.
My first take on the candidates’ performances – very even, actually. Clegg was probably best in tune with the studio audience and the fact he had equal time and billing counts as a huge positive for the Lib Dems.
Brown came across a lot better than I expected – he was articulate and refrained from the monotonous, staccato fusillade of statistics he’s been so fond of in the past. He even managed to crack a couple of decent jokes! He still smirks horribly whenever Cameron is speaking though – not very statesmanlike.
Cameron seemed quite frustrated and wasn’t really able to bring his best performance for the debate. Not as much enthusiasm, fire and passion as he is capable of. None the less, he delivered solid answers and held his ground.
With regard to actual policies, the debate was a frustrating exercise. How can we expect to get a sensible discussion of complex issues in such a short time? This debate was focused on domestic policy so covered finance, health, policing & immigration amongst other issues. To do these subjects justice really requires debates measured in days, not hours!
I consider myself to be fairly well-up on most policy issues, but by no means an expert – but even I could tell most of this debate really was boiling the issues down to the most divisive, soundbite-worthy chunks. Is this really how politics should be? And if not, what can we do about it?
The most irritating element of the discussion for me was Brown and Cameron on government spending. There’s so little honesty around the truth of state waste and inefficiency – truly depressing.
So, in overall debate performance terms, I’d call in a score draw – probably with Clegg drawing ahead if I’m honest.
The real question, however, it what difference it’ll make to the votes?
From dipping into the furiously busy #leadersdebate stream on Twitter it didn’t seem to be changing the minds of those who are already party supporters – far from it! Indeed, it seemed to be reinforcing prejudices. Bit of a shame, that and depressing to see the negativity, sniping and bitterness being expressed.
But what about undecided voters? It will be very interesting to see how the polls go. My gut feeling is that Clegg will benefit most – we’ll see…
Overall it was quite compelling viewing and an intriguing addition to our democratic process. But I do wish we could get a more rational and less emotive discussion of the issues!
