UK election televised debate!

James wrote: Zebedee wrote: On a side note, I was rather surprised when I discovered how flawless Nick Clegg's Dutch is. Not even a slight accent. His mother is Dutch, isn't she? When did he speak Dutch, anyhow?

Yes she is, and yet Clegg managed to impress me. I thought it was in an informal interview for the Dutch news, but I'm not sure.

And the typical Tory argument that Clegg is not 'British' is utter nonsense and even racist. Like being 25% English would make a bad leader. Besides that, the British themselves are a 'bast*rd' people of Britons, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Frisians, Scandinavians, French and WALLOONS after all.


Edited by Zebedee - April 29 2010 at 20:38

By the way, Michael Howard, the previous Tory leader isn't British either.

You forgot the Gaelic btw (and Britons were Celtic)

Probably some disillusioned old voters, but I can't see the Lib Dems winning these elections just yet. My bet is on a hung parliament.

Good point. I must confess that I'm not that well informed about the British electoral system but it seems to be quite bizarre. Anyway, as a social liberal I wouldn't mind permanent Lib Dem power. 

He seemed quite relaxed when talking to her, Jim.  Obviously he wasn't though.

He also came across well and didn't alienate her (until afterwards, of course).  I just think he felt it was "a disaster", when it wasn't.  He personally wasn't expecting to speak to her and it was his advisers that threw her at him.

However, yes, you're correct, he should be able to handle these situations better.

James wrote: Besides, she's "some sort of bigot", which isn't strictly a proper bigot. And I must clarify, she's not a bigot. And there really is no conspiracy against the Working Class.  Don't be daft!  The Tories don't like them but Labour (yes, even New Labour who aren't true to Socialism) have far more empathy than the silly Tory Toffs.

Yes, off course she was hounded out of her home by the press. But she entered into a conversation with the PM in the belief that this was a conversation and it ended there. Due to the dishonesty and two-faced nature of Gordon Brown; it did not. I have no gripes with the Labour Party, the other victim of this dishonesty. But I have issues with backstabbing, two-faced individuals.   

The conspiracy against the working class (in his own world, ie the Labour Party) is an idea expressed by John Prescott * in his blog/twitter feed that same day. But it never fails to amuse me that all the parties who are set up to represent the working class, more or less have their origins among the middle classes and mostly at the universities. I am mostly referring to the extreme leftist parties here.   

* = The microphone was placed on Gordon Brown with his permission and in the understanding that all he said was the intellectual property of Sky News which they could use to their discretion. Neither the Labour Party or Gordon Brown has disputed this.   

 

James wrote: He seemed quite relaxed when talking to her, Jim.  Obviously he wasn't though. He also came across well and didn't alienate her (until afterwards, of course).  I just think he felt it was "a disaster", when it wasn't.  He personally wasn't expecting to speak to her and it was his advisers that threw her at him.

Yes, Brown's reaction to the incident was bizarre. It seemed a perfectly reasonable encounter - she asked some pointed questions and he answered them in a polite and informative way. I don't know how he could judge that  "a disaster" and as you say he came out of it rather favourably if anything. The man must be paranoid about how he's perceived.

As Jim said, Dave or Nick could have also suffered the same fate so easily.  Would you (Torodfuglestag) have therefore felt like you had been stabbed in the back by them as well?

It seems the incident hasn't affected the opinion polls to much anyhow.  Yes, he's still polling third but he the percentage hasn't dropped much.

Unfortunately it seems people are still falling for the Conservatives.

I can understand why the Lib Dems have picked up votes, due to Nick Clegg but David Cameron hasn't really been that great in the three debates (and I'm not saying that because I am biased -- Clegg won the debates and not solely on policies either).  Having said that, he's probably about even, perhaps a bit better than Brown in terms of the 3 debates (and not because I agree with the Tory policies).