The Big TV Debate -Who won?I think, on balance, that David Davis came out slightly ahead but the real winner last night was the Conservative party itself. The show was both a PR coup for the BBC (who were obviously as pleased as a tail with two dogs to have got the show) and our party who came across as bold, open, intellegent and prepared to debate and discuss topics in a way the Labour have long given up doing.
In spite of all the nay sayers talking down this contest it’s the nearest we have in the UK to a proper US style primary and gives welcome exposure to opposition politicians (and not just the leader) that otherwise passes us by.
I thought the tone was right, not confrontational but with just enough frisson between the rivals to make it watchable tv and not look rehearsed or staged.
Lastly, I would have thought that even the most committed Labour or Lib dem supporter must have watched and thought ‘we must do this at our nest leadership election’ and there can be little doubt that the Party Leaders will do open, one to one, TV debates at the next election.
What we did last night on TV, and indeed the whole of our leadership election is new, exciting and good for democracy and politics.
But by the way, I am still going to vote for David Cameron.
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8 comments:
I agree with you that Davis won, and that the whole idea of the two of them appearing together to debate was a very good one. I would also hope that the other parties adopt this too (and that maybe at the next election we could see all 3 party leaders together?).
The one thing that it showed up more than anything however is how silly the MPs have been in rejecting Clarke, Rifkind and Fox. All three would have come over far better than the two Davids did.
Davis 'won'. As a non-Tory I fervently hope he wins. A right-wing leader is a ticket to certain defeat in 2009-10.
Without question a more socially liberal leader is an essential for you.
Sadly you've overlooked Liam Fox a man with no crossover appeal to floating / potential switching voters. Davis is my main hope now to keep the Tories out of office !!
That...and a vote for Adrian Sanders ;-)
I agree that this has all made the Conservatives look electable again.
I won't change back on the basis of the leaderhsip alone but coming with it has been some good things on the environment which the Conservatives have ignored for too long.
I hope cameron wins and if he turns out to do some of the things he is saying now I will vote Tory again and so will many others.
I will never vote Tory but Cameron is definitely the way for you to go, despite seeming a bit vacuous like Blair.
However a reinvigorated Tory party would be good for us all, especially a tolerant socially liberal party at ease with the 21st century.
You really must :
ditch the obsession with the EU. It really isn't one of the pivotal issues that swing votes at election time.
be more tolerant of lifestyles other than the white nuclear family (gays, single parents, ethnic minorities et al) and evidence this in policy terms.
give the impression you care about public services. People are not hung up about 'choice' they want available and accountable services locally. Do you really think vouchers, social insurance schemes or marketisation instead of the NHS is really the way to go?
Do this and you'll be contenders again. Listen and appeal to the wider electorate rather than some of the base concerns of some of your more reactionary members.
People May, Lansley, Green and Bercow are the way forward. What do you think Marcus ?
If you look at my comments about the leadership a way back you will see that I did suggest that both Andrew Lansley and Theresa May were leadership contenders I would have welcomed. Not so sure about Bercow because he used to be rabit foam-at-the-mouth rightwinger and I am always a bits supicious of 'damascus' conversions....
ditch the obsession with the EU. It really isn't one of the pivotal issues that swing votes at election time.
Just caring on listening to utter rubbish and the aprty will remain split.
The EU make most of our laws , if you ignore that major point you will never win.
Heath lied to us all in 1975 - I will never forgive him for that and nore will the people.
It's EU obsessives that have given us Blair for eight years by splitting the Tory vote.
It's high time the UKIP recognised that there is more to life than Europe and came back to support a proper political party which ahs a real chance of making Britain safer, more prosperous and fairer.
UKIP's credibility with Conservatives is very low because they still targeted seats like Torbay and Eastleigh where the challenging Tories were Euro-sceptic and the sitting MP was a euro-supporting Lib Dem - in several cases allowing the opposite of what they want to happen, this brings their whole philosophy into doubt - if they really did want to ditch Europe surely they would want to stack the Commons with anti-European Conservative MP's.
There is no such thing as a euro sceptic Tory; it’s a contradiction in terms.
As for UKIP’s obsession with the EU, this statement alone highlights the Tory inability to open its eyes to the EU and all it stands for.
UNTIL the Tory party gets off the fence of the EU and tells the truth about it the Tory party will always be the party of opposition.
Most of our laws derive from Brussels so it’s hardly an obsession of UKIP to get out of the EU if our MP's are to have any powers at all, it's a pre-requisite.
Why can’t the Tory party see what the rest of the country can? It’s almost certainly to answer as to why the are still opposition - and not a very effective one at that.
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