Posted on 04/02/2015 3:47:10 AM PDT by UKrepublican
Nigel Farage is the bookmakers’ favourite to win Thursday night’s televised seven-way leaders debate — the only event in which David Cameron will go head-to-head with his rivals.
Mr Cameron’s allies are hoping that the two-hour ITV debate will become a political slanging match, illustrating his argument that the UK general election next month could produce a messy and unstable result.
The format, the result of protracted wrangling between the broadcasters and Number 10, will give an invaluable platform to the leaders of smaller parties, including the UK Independence party’s Mr Farage.
Ukip has been slipping in opinion polls in recent weeks but Mr Farage showed in televised Europe debates with Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, last year that his populist style can be highly effective.
William Hill makes Mr Farage the 13/8 favourite to be voted the “best” leader in the debate in snap polls to be published immediately after the event, which ends at 10pm on Thursday.
Natalie Bennett, Green party leader, Leanne Wood, leader of Plaid Cymru, Nicola Sturgeon for the SNP and Mr Clegg will also join Mr Cameron and Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, for the event in Salford.
Mr Cameron, who gave a lacklustre performance in last week’s televised interrogation by Jeremy Paxman, has been taking part in dress rehearsals with Tory colleagues playing the role of his rivals.
Mr Miliband has been played by Rupert Harrison, George Osborne’s chief adviser, Mr Clegg by Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, while Mr Cameron’s Scottish adviser Andrew Dunlop took the role of Ms Sturgeon.
Mr Cameron has been lucky in the drawing of lots before the debate; he will stand at the end of the leaders’ line-up, some distance from Mr Farage, and will have the final word in the closing statements.
Meanwhile, Mr Miliband, who put on a combative show in his grilling by Mr Paxman last week, may find the seven-way format more challenging.
The Labour leader will find himself in the unusual position of being attacked from the left: Ms Bennett, Ms Wood and Ms Sturgeon all claim to be ideological partners in a Green/Nationalist “progressive alliance”.
Ms Bennett will speak first in the debate and will be hoping to erase from the public mind some of her recent media performances, when she forgot key aspects of party policy.
Mr Clegg’s return to Manchester comes five years after he burst on to the political scene in the first of three televised elections before the 2010 campaign; the resulting “Cleggmania” is now a distant memory.
Mr Farage, speaking before the debate, said he wanted an Australian-style points system to halt what he called was “uncontrolled mass immigration” and to bring net migration down to a range of 30,000-50,000 a year.
The Ukip leader defended his claim that children did not feel comfortable playing football in the streets because of high levels of immigration, saying that there were totally segregated communities in towns such as Peterborough and Boston.
He also told the BBC that some of his party’s recent problems involving Ukip candidates making racist remarks or accused of financial irregularities were down to “a problem with some Conservative defectors”.
The debate will be hosted by ITV News’s Julie Etchingham and will be broadcast between 8pm and 10pm. The leaders will make short opening and closing statements and will address questions raised by the studio audience.
Immediately after the debate, ComRes and ITV will release the results of a specially commissioned snap poll revealing viewers’ first verdicts on the leaders’ performances.
The debate will be the last time Mr Cameron will appear in a televised debate with his opponents. Later in the campaign Mr Miliband will join the leaders of the smaller parties for a “challengers’ debate”, which will exclude Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg.
A week before polling day there will be a BBC Question Time special featuring separate appearances by Mr Cameron, Mr Miliband and Mr Clegg.
Leaving aside the content of their arguments, I thought the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon came out of it the best. She looked calm, she didn't get flustered, she steered away from the nasty exchanges, she answered the most questions and got in some particularly nasty hits on Ed Miliband (Labour). This is worrying, as the woman and everything she is and stands for, politically and economically, are total anathema to me.
Miliband came out of it surprisingly well, although he rather overdid the appeal to the audience at the end. He looked liked he had been heavily coached.
Cameron was his usual professional, bland self. He looked and talked the part (even if his actions don't back his words up).
Frankly it wasn't Nigel Farage's best performance. He didn't do badly by any means, and certainly not by the poll results afterwards, and he was certainly the most interesting candidate there, but 6:1 really was a bit too much in that format.
Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats) also did surprisingly well, given the poor hand he'd been dealt. It was noticeable that he concentrated attacks on his Tory partner!
Natalie Bennett rambled through the usual contradictory platitudes Green party candidates make. Who cares?
The Plaid Cymru candidate was definitely the worse. She was pretty much incoherent, and no, not because of the accent.
I think I would have liked Farage to counterattack a bit more, though I appreciate he was taking the higher stand of being positive. The sheer hypocricy of Scottish and Welsh Nationalists (a large chunk of whose support is based on blatant anti-English racism) accusing him of Xenophobia I found utterly mind-boggling.
Totally agree. And I am a member of the party.
I have to say I think he dropped the ball a bit with the HIV comment - he is right of course, but of all the stats and figures he could use to make the point about health/eduction/benefits tourism I feel it was a horrendous choice, though gutsy.
The format was awful though well moderated,too many players and as you say there was not enough counter attacking going on. It was cringy to watch and hear the other begging to get let back in to responsd - Nigel doesn’t do that sort of thing and fair play for that.
Miliband was very contrived and it showed.
Greens and Welsh didn’t really add much for me, and for some reasons, despite the fact the No camp won the referendum not one of them took the SNP leader to task. I really don’t understand why that is. Especially Miliband who has most to loose from the SNP. He sealed Labour’s fate in Scotland.
Clegg did well, it was almost a copy of his 2010 performance - only then he was young and fresh and to some believable - now he is tainted for 5 years in government with Cameron where he had sacrificed some core policies to the annoyance of his core vote. As such he didn’t poll well.
Cameron was very mediocre for me, didn’t want to engage in real debate until the end, made what they Tories are claiming are a couple of zingers but I think they fell flat myself. But nothing lost or gained for him.
I’m hoping the next debate will give Nigel Farage more opportunity to spread his wings and do what he does best. But I do think he needs a bit of a change of approach and to get down in the mud a bit more. Especially with his harshest critics. I can safely say when he does it connects with a lot of people. A good mixture of humor and passion is his winning formula. The reason being is that is comes across as sincere, and of all the leaders, he really is.
I have to say I am very worried. I think that the SNP is going to sweep Scotland. There doesn't seem much to stop them. The Tories have no strength north of the border; the greens aren't going to do anything, the liberals will do well to even hold onto 2-3 seats on the borders. Labour Scotland is in turmoil; UKIP Scotland is in a civil war.
I dont think either Labour or Conservatives will be able to get a majority. The SNP are likely to be the third largest party in Parliament. I dont see how another coalition can be made under those circumstances, which means either a weak minority government or yet another election.
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