Bollitics: VT General Election Poll #5 - Leaders Debate Two

[Milfner]

Lib Dem, Labour crossing my mind though.

[TheWalletInspector]

where he blew it towards the end is he went back on negative politics again

What have the Tory's been doing all week then, Tony?

[chrisp65]

got home from work to find out that earlier today we had received a house call from the tories

oh dear, they obviously didn't realise that my part time local government working aggressively left wing missus was home alone - but at least they now know where to go to party when Thatcher finally dies.

the debate looks to have been a pretty close affair, which is probably the best result Labour could have dreamed of for the last 12 months. Interesting that the tory threat of meltdown if there is a hung parliament doesn't appear to have caught the public imagination. Libs must be dead chuffed with appearing to be in with a shout of having some power. If they can get to be kingmakers and tie down a decent deal on changing the way our first past the post system is set up then they really could be about to change the left right red blue landscape. Doubtless every paper tomorrow will be claiming their boy won it (whichever one of the three they support).

Having previously helped out with local Labour campaigning in the 80's (in a very small and insignificant way) I still couldn't bring myself to vote Labour at present and probably not for a good long time into the future. Probably still Plaid for me (which will be a wasted vote here but hey ho, moral high ground and all that). Plaid's poster boy on Question Time at the moment, this could change me to a spoilt ballot!

[tonyh29]

the BBC live tracker was interesting .. they showed Brown speaking on Immigration and the red line was going up and up and the second Brown said where I disagree with Nick the red line dropped faster than a speeding bullet

What have the Tory's been doing all week then, Tony?

I was talking specifically about the election debate and how the leaders performed tonight (imo )rather than parties in general over the past weeks /months /years

however it is noticeable that whenever Cameron talks about the current government the talk always seems to revert to "What the tories did before" .. it's sorta like MON saying we didn't beat Sunderland at home the other week beacuse Ron Atkinson got his team selection wrong away to tranmere in the league cup

[Demitri_C]

i think cameron and clegg did ok. brown was awful. labour really need to get rid of him

[tonyh29]

but at least they now know where to go to party when Thatcher finally dies.

sad really.. but I think it reflects more on the people that post this sort of thing though tbh ..not saying people have to be hypocrites and mourn her but they could at least have the dignity to say nothing

[brommy]

i think cameron and clegg did ok. brown was awful. labour really need to get rid of him

:shock:

I saw it the other way!

I thought Brown did better than his party is currently showing in the polls and Cameron did worse than his party is currently doing.

Knowing that the Lib Dems will not win the majority of seats in this election, I was really looking to Cameron to step up to the plate. He's had two of the three big opportunities to impress a large audience of the UK public and failed twice. Maybe it will be third time lucky for him.

[RunRickyRun]

I think Clegg will be most pleased with the outcome as he has come away from this debate relatively unscathed.

His views on trident, immigration and support for Europe were all areas he was vulnerable on and both Brown and Cameron failed to land a knockout blow.

I think he'll go on to clean up again in the third debate

[briggaman]

Cameron is a plank, that is all.....

My vote is still Lib Dem.

[brommy]

but at least they now know where to go to party when Thatcher finally dies.

sad really.. but I think it reflects more on the people that post this sort of thing though tbh ..not saying people have to be hypocrites and mourn her but they could at least have the dignity to say nothing

Difficult call. I've lived through quite a few PMs and experienced many reactions to them from family, friends and work colleagues. Reactions have ranged from the apathetic feelings towards Major to the "I really can't stand that man" feelings towards Blair. I've never, and hope I won't again, heard such hatred towards a PM, expressed by such as cross-section of people, as that shown to Margret Thatcher.

[Grant(aka_eddy)]

Only caught the last half hour (and seen the reporting on the rest) but Cameron managed to break a record for the most words spoken without saying anything. Brown was quiet and Cleggy seemed to be attacking both in turn pretty aggressively without any meaningful response.

Cleggy is cleaning the floor with them IMO as a floating voter. I've said it before but I still don't get why so many people vote on outdated political allegiances.

[tonyh29]

Difficult call.

indeed ..i mean i can see why people could feel that way ..would just like to think they wouldn't actually go on the street throwing parties

[tonyh29]

I've said it before but I still don't get why so many people vote on outdated political allegiances.

maybe they aren't ?

the sky vote thingy seemed to show most VT people agreed with the poliices that related to the party they happened to support .. of course some of them may well have known the policy they were picking and which party it related to ..

[brommy]

Difficult call.

indeed ..i mean i can see why people could feel that way ..would just like to think they wouldn't actually go on the street throwing parties

Fair comment. I can only assume the party comment was written in jest. There is a long way between someone uttering "Good riddance" and using her death as an excuse for celebration. For me the latter would make the participants as bad as the woman PM;hardly the moral high ground or correct thing to do.

[markavfc40]

Difficult call.

indeed ..i mean i can see why people could feel that way ..would just like to think they wouldn't actually go on the street throwing parties

I doubt very much people will be going around throwing parties. I dare say that many will just be relieved that the **** bitch finally got her just deserts.

[Chindie]

They do say that Thatchers headstone will be a urinal.

[chrisp65]

but at least they now know where to go to party when Thatcher finally dies.

sad really.. but I think it reflects more on the people that post this sort of thing though tbh ..not saying people have to be hypocrites and mourn her but they could at least have the dignity to say nothing

Difficult call. I've lived through quite a few PMs and experienced many reactions to them from family, friends and work colleagues. Reactions have ranged from the apathetic feelings towards Major to the "I really can't stand that man" feelings towards Blair. I've never, and hope I won't again, heard such hatred towards a PM, expressed by such as cross-section of people, as that shown to Margret Thatcher.

It wasn't meant to goad or upset anyone (believe it or not), I was simply trying in a flippant and evidently tasteless way to encapsulate my wife's views. She didn't post it up, I did. But I do believe it is a view held by a significant number of people around me. Not the majority, not millions, but a large number. This may be because I live in a relatively poor town that used to have a thriving dock reliant on coal and manufacturing export. It also had a significant chemical industries sector, a massive timber yard, flour mill, two hospitals etc etc.. By the end of the Thatcher era all these were closed, shrunk, disappearing and the redundant workers told they were worthless spongers. And she took the milk off my brother. I'm not saying she was personally responsible for the structural changes that had to be made, I'm just saying she didn't have to enjoy it.

It will be interesting to see if there are still people 30 years from now that utterly hate Gordon Brown or Tony Blair and would let it influence their voting in a year 2040 election. I personally would certainly find it nigh on impossible to consider voting Labour until they clearly said that following George Bush into Iraq without a plan was a bit of a **** up and they'd do it differently next time. I'm not sure people will have a 30 year hate for any of the current breed of politico.

[TheDon]

Not watched the debate yet as some tossers in the pub decided the liverpool game was more important.

maybe they aren't ?

the sky vote thingy seemed to show most VT people agreed with the poliices that related to the party they happened to support .. of course some of them may well have known the policy they were picking and which party it related to ..

Yeah, the Sky vote thing just showed me that despite not particularly wanting to vote labour, I'm probably going to have to because I strongly disagree with most of the policies of the other parties.

It's just the concern of will they actually deliver on the pledges.

[Awol]

Yeah, the Sky vote thing just showed me that despite not particularly wanting to vote labour, I'm probably going to have to because I strongly disagree with most of the policies of the other parties.

It's just the concern of will they actually deliver on the pledges.

So the concern is will the new guys deliver on their pledges, against the proven record of Labour failing to deliver on their pledges.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

[TheDon]

Well, I don't want the tories or lib dems to deliver on theirs. Quotas on immigration, scrapping trident, having to pay £8k to secure old age care, massive hatchett "savings" on police defence and education, all things I disagree with. So I guess I should really vote for one of them, because we all know as soon as they get in office they'll throw out the manifesto and do whatever anyway.

If labour hadn't had 13 years of mediocrity I'd vote for them without a second thought. That they have makes me question if I'm a fool to do so, but, I'll probably vote for them anyway, as the other two choices aren't at all appealing to me.