ITV Crowns Clegg Champion
ITV held, tonight, one of the most remarkable moments in political history – the UK’s first prime ministerial television debate. Lasting 90 minutes, and with over 70 rules, the first debate over domestic affairs allowed the three major parties, Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, the chance to air their policies, answering questions chosen by the audience and viewers e-mails.
There is no doubt that this debate has overshadowed the manifesto launches earlier this week, with a lot of hype and excitement about what t expect – a chance for Nick Clegg to become well known amongst the general public, a place where David Cameron had potentially a lot to lose and whether Gordon Brown would be able to give punchy answers to put his policies across within the one minute answer limit.
The key first differential was kicked up over an argument on a cap on immigration; David Cameron sparked the dispute by stating immigration was far too high. This is certainly questionable, as net migration has been falling in Britain for the past decade. His claim of immigration causing pressures on housing, is actually the cause of white Britons living in homes with a household, on average, of two or less (more of this in ‘There is NO Immigration Problem’. Gordon Brown solidly responded, questioning the validity of Cameron’s statement and stating there need not be as high a cap on immigration that the Conservatives suggest there needs to be. With the disagreement building, Nick Clegg stopped the dispute between them, emphasizing these constant arguments between Labour and Conservatives was where government was going wrong; the bickering between the two stops real change being passed through parliament. Clegg clearly made sure that he individualized himself, and his party, in order to assert his point that the Liberal Democrats were the better alternative to the red-blue, blue-red mentality of the voter.
The expenses scandal was one of the most sought after topics to be discussed in the debate, to which there is no doubt Clegg outdid both the other candidates on this issue. Following the poll taken, shown on ITV Newsnight straight after, Clegg’s repeated battering of the other two parties for not excepting his proposals to make law of being able to sack your MP and cleaning up party funding, allowed him to take a clear lead. More interestingly, Brown consistently stated he agreed with Clegg on his policies – some form of hidden sought after coalition by Labour, if there was a hung parliament. Shaking his head furiously and demanding why they had not pursued with the policy, Clegg was never going to accept this agreement, allowing some distance to form between the Liberal Democrats and Labour.
Again Clegg separated himself, while Brown and Cameron fought over how to improve our education system, aiming to try and blend the two parties together; of course leaving the Liberal Democrats as the only other alternative to the ‘Labservatives’ which have dominated politics since the Second World War.
With the words ‘economic crisis’ mentioned, Brown was given the opportunity to explain his justifiable reasoning for not cutting spending this year like the Tories proposed; in fact today, over 50 economists warned that the Conservatives cut plan of £6 billion out of the economy would risk the UK falling back into a recession. Cameron stated they needed to cut the waste out of politics, for example, unneeded quangos. Clegg quickly responded, referring to this waste as ‘mythical’. He went on to fully outline his costing of the huge tax reform the Liberal Democrats propose reacting to Cameron’s questioning, and finished with an attack on the renewal costs of the nuclear Trident system, which will cost up to £100 billion. Conservatives and Labour, both have clear black holes in their expenses, which was criticised by Clegg, but the nuclear question bought about another argument.
The Liberal Democrats were the only major party on the stage which supported the scrappage of our nuclear system. Both Cameron and Brown believed it was important to use it as a deterrent in an ever changing world with threats from Iran and Asia, most notably North Korea.
However, the only policy where full consensus was found amongst the three major parties was on the last question put forward about a fairer pension’s scheme. It allowed for a calm finish after the conflict occurring throughout the debate.
Overall, no party leader made any obvious and horrible mistakes. The debate allowed Gordon Brown to properly put his economic point across, being on the attack for the entire programme. David Cameron, possibly the candidate which had the most expectations to live up to, was a very credible performer, but it is Nick Clegg, as the poll on Newsnight showed immediately afterwards, who proved to be the most popular candidate of the night. Hopefully the mystery surrounding who the Liberal Democrat leader actually is has fully been removed. There is no doubt that he will be looked at even more intently to achieve the same standard he reached tonight, with the Sky debate next Thursday on ‘Foreign Affairs’.
