My expectations were low for last night’s televised debate between the three contenders for Number 10 Downing Street:

• it encourages the “I’m voting for Brown / Cameron / Clegg” syndrome – no you’re not (unless you happen to live in their constituencies) – you’re voting for your local MP. Voting for parties and not candidates has resulted in some truly awful MPs
• it makes personalities more important than policies – the shade of pink of Brown’s tie attracted more comments than degree of socialism in his policies
• the one-minute format assumes any question, however complex, can be addressed adequately in a one-minute soundbite – important issues are reduced to a passing comment (e.g. the Trident issue)

Despite that, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome – possibly because Nick Clegg came across so well   It does prove that when people actually hear LibDem policies explained, they like what they hear. A good morale booster for the troops out leafleting, door-knocking, etc…

This entry was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 9:49 am and is filed under Election 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.