Blog:Cable Guy Wins First Debate
From Bolton Interweb
del.icio.usMyles Aweigh, Election Correspondent, 29th March 2010
In the first debate of the election, darling Darling, Boy George Osbourne, and Vince "Cable Guy" Cable went head to head in Ask the Chancellor.
Osbourne's performance was weak. He does not have the experience or gravitas to take on the most important political role for the next four to five years. He was tripped up when claiming to pay for tax cuts through efficiency savings he had previously said didn't exist. His qualifications for the role, having never held a proper job in his relatively short life and having no academic credentials in economics, were non-existent. Proof that the Tories should have replaced him with big hitter Ken Clarke months ago. Clarke's credentials are pretty watertight, having been the most successful chancellor of recent history. Third place.
Darling was OK but vulnerable as the man at the helm when the economy hit the iceberg. Regardless of being the fall guy for Brown's incompetence, Darling has to defend the indefensible. Nevertheless, his stewardship of the economy through recession that should have been far less painful were it not for the dreadful incompetence of Brown, has not been that bad and most of his personal judgements have been the best that could be expected. He held his own. Second place.
The Cable Guy was the winner by a mile though. Unimpeachable professional credentials, the only man who predicted the recession and banking crisis (albeit not the extent), and truthful. The Lib Dems do have some dodgy and frankly some silly policies but taken as a whole, Cable was able to wipe the floor with Osbourne and take the high ground with Darling. Cable was actually applauded during the debate, something the other two didn't achieve. The key message that I think may convince many voters was simple - the Lib Dems are not in the pocket of either big business interests and the wealthy nor the unions who are going to cause strike misery for millions during the next few weeks. Comparatively speaking, the Lib Dems are the cleanest of the expense scandal protagonists and with MP's expenses again in the news as new rules are announced, they cannot fail but to benefit.
It will be interesting to see if, and by how much, the polls move after this opening debate. It was Channel 4 and the audience would not have been great, but excerpts were run on the late news programmes. My prediction would be a move from Tory and Labour to Lib Dem but that could all change if Clegg fails to impress when the three leaders debate.
My own vote has been up for grabs for the last 5 years and I have been inclined towards a pox on all their houses. Had Clarke been at the lectern this evening I think I would be veering towards Tory. Osbourne made my mind up there - I cannot vote for a party that has him as its Chancellor-elect. As it stands, the Cable Guy made a sufficiently good show, despite his mansion tax nonsense, that if I had to cast my vote tonight it would be Lib Dem.
Earlier in the day a UKIP spokesman was on Radio 5 explaining their economic policies. Their only policy seems to be that all our problems would be solved by withdrawing from the EU and saving cartloads of cash by not following EU regulations. It seems that their immigration policy would also involve treating EU citizens the same as any other, i.e. an end to freedom of movement of labour. This goes for any of them that have been here for up to 7 years. But UKIP want to keep the trade side of the deal. They are living in a total dream world. Think about it. Why would the EU want free trade with the UK if we are not going to abide by the same rules and regulations - Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland are not in the EU but their passport to free trade is to accept Brussels regulations and standards, and to fully participate in freedom of labour. But without a seat at the table when the regulations and standards are agreed. So if we want free trade then we still have to abide by all the same regulations but cannot influence them and our interests will not be represented at all. If we don't let EU citizens have freedom to live and work here then there are a couple of million Brits working and/or living in Europe that will find themselves deported and arriving at Heathrow as refugees we can't turn away. US, Chinese, and Japanese companies will not invest here as a way of getting their products into the EU market, and millions of jobs will be lost forever. Shall we go back to Canada, Australia and New Zealand and say we made a mistake? Can you guess the response? UKIP are very dangerous - they know what their ridiculous policies actually mean but they are convincing quite a few people by only giving one side and not mentioning the risks. The BNP are unashamed about their ethnic cleansing intentions but UKIP are not far behind. Vote for them and watch the UK become a third world country shunned by all our neighbours.
© Evrose, 2010
