The Third Debate
Apr. 30th, 2010 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloApparently Cameron won. Apparently.
I couldn't see it myself. But then I can barely see Cameron at all. Or hear him. The camera switches to him and my mind immediately goes somewhere else. The only bit where he grabbed my attention was when Clegg went all Paxman on him and asked him the same question again and again- a question about immigration- and the Cameron Falls roared on, regardless.
He was similarly evasive when Brown twitted him about his tax break for billionaires. No, not evasive; that's the wrong word; he doesn't evade, he ignores. The words keep pouring over the edge at the rate of X cubic tons a minute.
He was in PR. Never forget he was in PR.
Clegg has a scheme to offer an amnesty to illegal immigrants who are already here and would like to become legal. Apparently this is a stupid idea. He kept saying, "Look, this is an existing problem and you guys aren't even thinking about it", but apparently that doesn't cut the mustard. Having schemes that address real problems in a sober and enlightened way isn't serious politics. Serious politics is saying "Send 'em home"- which was Gordon Brown's line.
A Labour prime minister mouthing a National Front slogan- ain't that great!
Did he say it this time or did he say it last time, or did he say it both times? I'm not sure. The debates are running together in my head. The same things were said over and over again. And if you think I'm overly sweet on Clegg, let me point out that his line about "the two old parties" got to be awfully greasy around the collar.
They spent hours and hours prepping for these debates. I wish they hadn't. We only watch in the hope there'll be the odd flicker of spontaneity. There weren't many. Or even any. Our leaders are far less afraid of seeming characterless and boring than they are of the slightest verbal slip.
(The more I think about it the more I wish Brown had said about the woman who tripped him up yesterday "Well, she is a bigot- and so are you and you and you. Frankly I'm ashamed of the lot of us." but he daren't because he relies on the bigot vote.)
What I'd really like to have seen is the three of them sat in armchairs, with a glass of whatever they fancy at their elbows, along with a few random members of the public (really random- pulled off the street) also sitting in armchairs with a glass of whatever they fancy at their elbows- and there being no moderated structure at all, just the rough and tumble of debate- and everything short of physical violence allowed. Now that would have sorted the men from the boys.
Which reminds me- where were all the women? OK, by some curious quirk of spherical predominance all three party leaders are men- nothing we can do about that (or is there?)- but did all three moderators have to be men too? Couldn't the BBC have fielded Kirsty Wark, for example? Or is there something in the BBC charter about weighty affairs of state being the exclusive province of the Dimblebody family. Like it's a hereditary office or something.
What is it with the Dimbledums, anyway? Grandpa Richard was a lively cove, and fast on his feet for a fat guy, but the younger Dumbledores don't have his sparkle. David Bumblebee, with his boring insistence of repeating the question every time he moved to a new respondee, came over like he should have been carrying a gold tipped staff and wearing a tabard. And he's about 100, isn't he? Tell you who I'd liked to have seen running the gig- Lily Allen.
And in conclusion, please don't vote for David Cameron. Please, please don't vote for David Cameron. Because if you do I will be really quite sad.
I couldn't see it myself. But then I can barely see Cameron at all. Or hear him. The camera switches to him and my mind immediately goes somewhere else. The only bit where he grabbed my attention was when Clegg went all Paxman on him and asked him the same question again and again- a question about immigration- and the Cameron Falls roared on, regardless.
He was similarly evasive when Brown twitted him about his tax break for billionaires. No, not evasive; that's the wrong word; he doesn't evade, he ignores. The words keep pouring over the edge at the rate of X cubic tons a minute.
He was in PR. Never forget he was in PR.
Clegg has a scheme to offer an amnesty to illegal immigrants who are already here and would like to become legal. Apparently this is a stupid idea. He kept saying, "Look, this is an existing problem and you guys aren't even thinking about it", but apparently that doesn't cut the mustard. Having schemes that address real problems in a sober and enlightened way isn't serious politics. Serious politics is saying "Send 'em home"- which was Gordon Brown's line.
A Labour prime minister mouthing a National Front slogan- ain't that great!
Did he say it this time or did he say it last time, or did he say it both times? I'm not sure. The debates are running together in my head. The same things were said over and over again. And if you think I'm overly sweet on Clegg, let me point out that his line about "the two old parties" got to be awfully greasy around the collar.
They spent hours and hours prepping for these debates. I wish they hadn't. We only watch in the hope there'll be the odd flicker of spontaneity. There weren't many. Or even any. Our leaders are far less afraid of seeming characterless and boring than they are of the slightest verbal slip.
(The more I think about it the more I wish Brown had said about the woman who tripped him up yesterday "Well, she is a bigot- and so are you and you and you. Frankly I'm ashamed of the lot of us." but he daren't because he relies on the bigot vote.)
What I'd really like to have seen is the three of them sat in armchairs, with a glass of whatever they fancy at their elbows, along with a few random members of the public (really random- pulled off the street) also sitting in armchairs with a glass of whatever they fancy at their elbows- and there being no moderated structure at all, just the rough and tumble of debate- and everything short of physical violence allowed. Now that would have sorted the men from the boys.
Which reminds me- where were all the women? OK, by some curious quirk of spherical predominance all three party leaders are men- nothing we can do about that (or is there?)- but did all three moderators have to be men too? Couldn't the BBC have fielded Kirsty Wark, for example? Or is there something in the BBC charter about weighty affairs of state being the exclusive province of the Dimblebody family. Like it's a hereditary office or something.
What is it with the Dimbledums, anyway? Grandpa Richard was a lively cove, and fast on his feet for a fat guy, but the younger Dumbledores don't have his sparkle. David Bumblebee, with his boring insistence of repeating the question every time he moved to a new respondee, came over like he should have been carrying a gold tipped staff and wearing a tabard. And he's about 100, isn't he? Tell you who I'd liked to have seen running the gig- Lily Allen.
And in conclusion, please don't vote for David Cameron. Please, please don't vote for David Cameron. Because if you do I will be really quite sad.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 10:18 am (UTC)(Apparently Gary and Phil Neville's sister is a world-class netball player, but somehow she's never become a millionaire on the back of it.)
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Date: 2010-04-30 10:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:argh!
Date: 2010-04-30 11:10 am (UTC)Camille Paglia called Jonathan Dimbleby a strutting popinjay and his wife blasted Paglia and called her pathetic. Then the popinjay left his wife for an opera singer and when she died an operatic death, just porked a twenty-nine year old and got her knocked up for fear of doing anything more original. Oh and he got a documentary out of his sob story too, courtesy of the BBC. That would be...you, lads. British taxpayers.
David Dimblebly left his wife for her married friend and likewise made sure he could start over.
What lovely, charming gentlemen. It makes my stomach turn to think they've any moral mandate to question England's political leaders, who all appear to love and respect their wives and children.
The irritating thing about those Dimblepricks is that everyone still seems to love them - including the wives they treated like toilet paper. I personally could drop them both into a pit of slurry and watch them die in a deadly embrace of nitrogen and be undisturbed, but that's just me.
Re: argh!
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From:no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 11:38 am (UTC)And Nick Clegg apparently won the Facebook vote again.
I'm not looking at any other polls. I'm pretending they don't exist.
Channel 4 also has this picture: http://www.channel4.com/news/media/2010/04/day30/30_leg_540_30.jpg
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 02:39 pm (UTC)I know what you mean about the Dimbleby clan. I lost it with David Dimbleby in The Seven Ages of Britain, or whatever it was, when he was talking about that 'pointed thingy' (or some similarly inane words) at the front of a Classical building. (It's a pediment, David. Even the twits could cope with that one, surely!!! If there's one thing I can't stand in a documentary, it's being patronised!)
Don't worry. I didn't vote for David Cameron. Nor did I vote SNP.
I voted Lib Dem, so there! And not because I was wowed by the Clegg-Factor. I might have voted Green as a Donald Trump protest vote, but we had no Green candidate standing. So Lib Dem it was.
A Liberal I was born, I graduated into Social Democracy, and a Liberal Democrat I shall always be.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 04:18 pm (UTC)Why do I watch debates between Brit popiticians? It happened to be the most entertaining thing on TV.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 05:32 pm (UTC)I think that's what happened anyway - I was trying to track down a link to the story, but couldn't find it online anywhere.
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From:replying generally- Tories are horrid
Date: 2010-04-30 07:18 pm (UTC)Just one more reason why Tories are to be despised - no ethics basically!
Shall I vote Lib Dem or Labour in Chatham/Aylesford? I'd hate to let in the Tories. But I want to give the lib dems the true picture of their support, and voting tactically doesn't do it...
Jenny
Re: replying generally- Tories are horrid
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