As I said in my preview to last night’s debate, this pretty much came down to Miliband v Sturgeon with some background fuzz. Wood made a valiant start, not even mentioning Wales once in her introduction. However, she just couldn’t help herself and soon enough had a sort of Cymru related tourettes condition throughout most of the latter half of the programme – Wales-diddy-Wales-diddy-Wales. Bennett did her usual student politics shtick – the Greens need to think about a new leader post-election. Farage did exactly what I expected, although I didn’t see him turning on the audience like that coming. Isn’t he supposed to be “the man of the people”? I suppose only certain people, and anyone who would show up in a BBC studio audience is probably not considered real enough in the human stakes. A few of them probably don’t even hold contempt for Romania in their hearts, cor blimey.
So who got the better of who in the Labour v SNP battle royale? Sturgeon got some got some good shots in – the bit about whether Ed would let a Tory government in to spite the SNP almost certainly worked for its intended audience. But I think in the end, Ed slightly edged it. He wanted to seem prime ministerial, above the fray, to try and place Sturgeon in amongst the group of one issue wonders and rank outsiders that cluttered the stage to his left, and I think he at least partially managed to put that image into people’s minds. Of course, the ill advised Sturgeon-Wood-Bennett group hug that occurred immediately after the debate was almost certainly helpful in this regard.
An ITV poll taken afterwards had Miliband winning it on 35%, with Sturgeon in second on 31% and Farage in third on 27% (a foreshadow of how it’s going to go for him in South Thanet in a few weeks’ time?). For Miliband to come out on top with the public, given he was the only one on stage that actually has a chance of running the country and thus can’t make random promises to people about the utopia that will be created when he’s prime minister, that’s very good going. I’ll say it again: Miliband has been miles and miles better than I thought he would be in this election campaign. And here he is, twenty days out and not only have the Tories not pulled away in the polls, but YouGov has them tied with the Tories after a week of Labour being slightly ahead. There’s still time for it all to go wrong for him, but it’s his to lose now.
One final note: Cameron refused to take part in this debate and asked the broadcasters not to invite Clegg, which they then went ahead complied with. So Clegg did not refuse to take part as some of the media are suggesting, but was never invited. Hate him for whatever you want, but getting the facts straight, particularly at a time such as this, is all important.
Even though Miiband did well, on balance I don’t think the Tories will be too unhappy.
Farage underperformed, and 68% of Scots thought Sturgeon won.
The UKIP –> Con returners (or not) will decide who is PM. If it’s Ed, then the SNP/Labour battle will decide how much authority he has.
Good to see you acknowledge that all but Miliband could say whatever they wanted without the fear that they might have to put money where mouth is. Yes, the girls did try to gang-up. Miliband right to tell Sturgeon that the gap between them too wide to form coalition.
Good review, although I think you are underestimating the British public if you think it’s Miliband’s to lose. The spat between him and Sturgeon at the end may have been bravado, and that remains to be seen. But how many of the Electorate really want to risk the SNP being able to call the shots with their bizarre policies and intention to leave the Union? I’m afraid it’s still Conservatives all the way for me, and I hope common sense prevails on May 7th.
Although Nigel acted weird, the UKIP’s stance on immigrants and EU do make some sense. If the immigrant population is well above the acceptable rate a cap has to be placed now or in few years time. Staying in the EU or not is really something that the people of UK should decide. But with what UKIP had to say about it the vision provides some vision for a sustainable social issue-solver when it comes to social services.
No single question on NHS is bad organizing of BBC and may be it shows what BBC’s position on this election too.
SNP is strong and if Labour has to cut a deal with SNP, it won’t be easy for Ed in the Office for sure. All and all the debate wasn’t really a real debate without David and Clegg. So it has to be Tories with a majority, as no other party like to get into a coalition with them (may be except UKIP and slightly Green)
Got to say I’m a bit disappointed about your “Wales-diddy-Wales-diddy-Wales” comment. You can do better than that, and mostly do.