UK General Election

21

Saw most of that election debate tonight on ITV (after guiding TFK to another memorable victory).

Clegg won it by a street. Quite a good speaker and won most of the main points. But importantly got visibility and profile for himself and that will see the Lib Dem stock rising hugely.

Not much between the other two. Cameron shading the instant polls but heā€™d have expected to win and he didnā€™t put any daylight between himself and Brown anyway. Itā€™s always easier being the opposition leader in these debates (particularly in recessions) but he really didnā€™t press home any advantage and his polish just looked like form over substance.

22

Have the media decided who won yet?

23

I watched about a minute of it and had to switch channels before dying violently of sheer boredom.

Cleggs wife is a sort though.

24

Libdemlabcon. Muddilyididdly squat shite.

25

Clegg was clear winner all right. Backed him in running at 7/4 which was pleasing. Brown can be reasonably happy that Cameron didnā€™t perform as well as expected. His smiling and forced lines were bit much though he didnā€™t perform as badly as some/most expected and was much harder for him obviously.

26

Second debate in progress on Sky News. Brown looks like a waxwork.

27

Brown is doing way better than expected. Fancied him to perform well tonight but in running favourite at the moment now which is some achievement giving his terrible popularity ratings.
UTV about to start Irish debate.

28

The waxwork of Brown well ahead so far for me. Clegg losing momentum big time. Cameron vacuous.

29

Cameron the winner according to sky. With the obsession with winning and losing is there any analysis of the actual policies these people are proposing?

30

Cameron the winner according to the Sun poll you mean. Anybody who watched it through with any kind of objective opinion would have given it to Brown.

31

The Times, Guardian, and Telegraph polls all have Clegg well ahead.

32

Some vandalised Tory posters:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs452.snc3/25882_117204628297153_117203521630597_284394_484353_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs452.snc3/25882_117204464963836_117203521630597_284373_616977_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs472.ash1/25882_117204458297170_117203521630597_284371_6035040_n.jpg

33

ITV poll gave it to clegg, I thought clegg won it but waht do I know, times poll gave it to Clegg too

34

http://moneymad.org/david_cameron_poster_hung.jpg

35

This election is shaping up to be a mirror image of '92.

36

tell us more sid, are you predicting a shock labour win??

37

Yeah I think itā€™ll get very close as the election approaches and Labour could just sneak it in a hung parliament.

38

The Guardian I think has a full history of polls leading up to elections (and the election results themselves) going all the way back to the early eighties. Fascinating stuff. Nearly every election though has seen a big jump from the polls when the results themselves came in. The '92 election is the best example of this, huge swing to the Tories when the votes were actually cast.

39

A curious decision to omit Jim Allister from the Northern Ireland leaders debate last night. Frankly its despipcable how the representative of a third of Unionist opinion is denied airtime while IRA/Sinn Fein are given carte blanche to propagate their propaganda.

40

There is a strong correlation between winning and losing and policies though. Three hours discussion of policies attracting large television audiences so while personality plays a part so too do policies. If it were all about personality think Cameron would be doing better (not that I like him).

Anyone else think Boulton was a shite presenter by the way?