Expounder

Originally Posted by Expounder

I have my doubts about the theory that Lib Dem votes would be at the expense of the Tory party. I can't see any Tory voter embracing The Lib Dems love of the EU. After all the Tory party is planning to withdraw from most of the agreements made by previous governments with the EU.

The reason I say this is that the Telegraph led today with a ringing endorsement of nick Clegg's performance in the debate last night. This tells me the Tories have nothing to fear from the Lib Dems and any votes gained by them would be lost by Labour who have a similar policy towards the EU which would dissipate the Labour vote, a transparently devious ploy by the old blue rag.

The Lib Dems and Nick Clegg can promise the earth knowing full well that will not be forming the next government. The debate so far has not been about gritty details of unpopular policies but general outlines of intentions in which Nick Clegg can outline what he wants as he will never be held to account. Even in a hung parliament he would have to tailor his cloth to meet immediate challenges to which ever party he gives his support.

Cameron seemed shrill and agitated and caught out by the air brushing jibe by Brown and would not answer questions on policing and education when challenged by Brown. His promise to increase spending on the NHS and the elderly [related subjects] contrasts starkly with earlier promises before the campaign to only guarantee to maintain funding for the NHS in his first year in office [a statement now conveniently forgotten]. He is now guaranteeing total support for the full term. This, along with all his other opportunistic policy statement changes through the campaign means that when in office will have a reason to renege on anything he has promised on the pretext that he never new how bad the government books were when he took over.
.

Brown surprised me as being unflappable as I thought he may have stumbled somewhere in the debate. In fact he came over as someone at ease and also a reassuring presence. As an incumbent he didn't have the freedom to espouse untried policies of the other two but committed himself well in the first debate.

All in All it was treated as the first round of a beauty and sound bite contest rather than an in depth political debate. Lets hope the other two to come reveal more unsavory details of what we are likely to expect in the next five years.