The second leaders’ debate
Last night, I watched the second of the three televised debates between the three main political leaders, this one hosted by Sky. The first debate was livelier than I expected and this one was even more engaging.
Both Gordon Brown and David Cameron upped their game and did better, while Nick Clegg held his ground in the face of strong pressure from both his opponents, so the overall outcome was more even.
Cameron continues to look lightweight with crafted phrases (“do the right thing”) rather than thought-through policies. Brown was more commanding and clearly has a very strong grasp of all the key issues.
Given his excellent performance last week and the resultant bounce in the polls for the Lib Dems, the real challenge was to Clegg. He defended well his positions on a conditional amnesty for illegal immigrants and the need for a review of the existing Trident option – both policies which I support, even though I am a Labour loyalist.
This election is proving far more interesting than we all expected and the value of live political debates between leaders has been amply demonstrated.
April 26th, 2010 at 9:41 am
I think the television debates are a good thing, but am disappointed that the second and third debates are also between the party leaders. To me it smacks of a presidential election campaign. In a British General Election only the electorate of 3 constituencies get to vote for the 3 leaders; the rest of us vote for our local candidates. In my opinion it would have been better to have the Foreign Secretary and his equivalents debating foreign policy in the second debate and the Home Secretary similarly in the third.