Off Topic Great Britain General Election May 7th 2015.

I missed clegg on question time but saw farage on the following programme and thought he came across really well. Got far more applause from the audience than I was expecting.

 

Farage (rhymes with garage) often goes down well as he just has that believable style. The other thing that sets him apart is that unlike most he actually is passionate about what he is saying rather that it coming from a focus group.

 

I like labour. But milliband lost a lot of undecided voters when he said that the last labour government did not overspend.

That was clearly a ridiculous thing to say. They overspent by a large amount, borrowed hugely and massively increased the deficit. Yes, it was made acutely worse by the crash but not to recognise it was a massive mistake. Because the majority of the electorate in a recent poll did think that labour had overspent.

 

Leaders grilled on post-election deals in Question Time speci

• From the sectionElection 2015

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Media captionDavid Cameron: "These were some proposals that were produced that I rejected"
David Cameron and Ed Miliband have faced tough questions from a Question Time audience over their economic plans in the final TV event of the campaign.

The PM said he had rejected £8bn in child benefit cuts the Lib Dems claimed the Tories had proposed in government.

Ed Miliband said Labour did not overspend when in power and that he would not lead a government if it involved a deal with the SNP.

Nick Clegg was grilled over tuition fees, trust and coalition deals.

While insisting they could both win outright, the Conservative and Labour leaders gave the clearest indications to date of the terms of possible post-election deals, with Mr Cameron saying his pledge of an EU referendum in 2017 would be a "red line" in any negotiations.

Three other leaders also faced audience questions:

• In Glasgow, SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon predicted Mr Miliband would not be able to get his policies through without working with other parties
• UKIP leader Nigel Farage said on a programme broadcast in England and Wales that an EU referendum defeat would not kill his party
• Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood refused to rule out a deal with Labour in a BBC TV special from Cardiff.

The prime minister was first in the firing line at Leeds Town Hall.

Mr Cameron said he did not want to cut child benefit or child tax credits if he won the election, but that it was possible to save more from the welfare budget.

Asked if this amounted to an "absolute guarantee," he said child tax credit "would not fall" and child benefit was "one of the most important benefits there is" and did not need to change.

Brandishing the note left in 2010 by outgoing Labour Treasury Secretary Liam Byrne, stating there was "no money left", Mr Cameron said: "It takes a long time to fix the mess that I was left."

"We are half way through a building job," the PM added.
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Media captionDavid Cameron said he would fight to avoid making compromises in a "dark room with Nick Clegg or someone"
Asked if his vow to pass laws preventing tax rises was an admission he usually lied, Mr Cameron said he wanted to put the policy "beyond doubt".
He said he had not agreed to a head-to-head debate with Mr Miliband because: "This, giving you the chance to answer questions directly, this is more powerful than a televised debate."
'Darkened room'
Mr Cameron was then asked why people did not trust the Conservatives on the NHS, replying that improving the health service was "my life's work" but only possible with a strong economy.
He refused to speculate on what might happen in the event of a hung Parliament, saying he did not want to do a deal in a "darkened room with Nick Clegg", but said an in/out referendum on the EU would be a "red line" in any coalition negotiations
Analysis by Nick Robinson, BBC political editor
The Labour leader said nothing he has not said repeatedly before - explaining his view that the deficit resulted from the financial crash and not from over spending by the last Labour government. He gave no new hostages to fortune but it was, nevertheless, the toughest ride he's faced in this campaign.

With David Cameron looking confident the Tories and the Tory press will claim that this was the night the election turned.

But - and it is a big but - the prime minister's performance relied on either ignoring or dodging the hostile questioning he faced about welfare cuts, the bedroom tax, food banks and the morality of his policies.

Read more from Nick

Read Carole Walker's leader-by-leader analysis.
Ed Miliband faced tough questions, with one man accusing the Labour leader of lying and telling him it was "absolutely ludicrous" to suggest his party had not spent too much in government.

Mr Miliband said: "There was a global financial crisis, there was a high deficit. That deficit has not been cleared. It will be the mission of my government to cut the deficit every year and balance the books."

He dismissed Liam Byrne's letter as Mr Cameron's "regular prop".

SNP deal
Mr Miliband then rejected the PM's claim that the Conservatives would not cut child tax credits. The issue was "on the ballot paper" in light of Mr Cameron's earlier response, he suggested.

On the prospect of a post-election deal with the SNP, he said: "If the price of having a Labour government was a deal or a coalition with the Scottish National Party then it is not going to happen."
Pollwatch by David Cowling, BBC political research unit
ComRes, having registered Conservative leads in its three earlier campaign polls, put them neck-and-neck with Labour on 35% each this time. YouGov suggested a one-point Conservative lead (35% versus 34%).
However, the drama came with Mori's five-point Conservative lead - 35% as against 30% for Labour.

Some interest was aroused when its entrails revealed 63% of 2010 Labour voters remaining loyal to the party, compared with much higher numbers in other polls. A breakthrough for the Conservative campaign or a detail that provokes doubt about the findings? I suspect the latter, but we shall see.

The instant ICM poll assessing the performances of the three leaders on Question Time suggested 44% thought David Cameron had come out on top, compared with 38% who nominated Ed Miliband and 19% Nick Clegg.

No game-changing campaign moment here, it seems. Oh well, back to the national polls we go.
He also ruled out a "confidence and supply" arrangement, with his party trying to win SNP support on an issue-by-issue basis.

"I am not going to start bartering away my manifesto, whatever the outcome of the election," he added.

Mr Miliband refused to set an immigration target, telling one questioner: "I don't want to stand on this stage in five years time and explain why I have broken my promise."

As he walked off stage when his half-hour was up, the Labour leader briefly lost his footing - something that was seized on by his critics in the press.

'Plucky and brave'
Nick Clegg was immediately quizzed about the Lib Dems' U-turn on tuition fees.

He then faced pointed questions about why his party had not revealed an alleged Conservative proposal to cut child tax credits on Thursday earlier.

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Media captionLabour leader Ed Miliband says he will not form a Labour government - if it means making a deal with the SNP
Mr Clegg said the Conservatives had "a very unfair plan to balance the books, which departs from what we've done in coalition and I think we are entitled to say: 'What are you going to do? Who are you going to hurt?'".

The Lib Dem leader defended his decision to go into coalition with the Conservatives in 2010, after an angry former Lib Dem voter said he would have preferred a deal with Labour. Mr Clegg said it had been the "democratic" thing to do so and a "plucky and brave way to put country before party".

However, Mr Clegg said that this year he had been "much clearer" on the "red lines" he would insist upon in any coalition negotiations with Labour or the Conservatives, such as a requirement for education spending to increase by £5bn by 2020.

He indicated he would seek to form another coalition with the party that got the most seats in next Thursday's general election.

But Mr Clegg said he would only back an EU referendum if more powers were handed to Brussels, potentially putting him at odds with Mr Cameron.

'Darkened rooms'
At one stage an audience member asked if he had plans to find a new job when he became unemployed next week. "No I don't," the Lib Dem shot back.

Mr Clegg managed a quip at the expense his rivals, saying: "He (David Cameron) keeps talking about darkened rooms, as does Ed Miliband.
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Media captionNick Robinson analyses the leaders' performances on Question Time
"If either of them still think they are going to win a majority they need to go and lie down in that darkened room."

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Was tempted to post a pic of the huge crowds clapping and cheering Hitler after one of his many public rants but.. thought better of it

 

Ed Miliband: I won't have Labour government if it means deals with SNP
Labour leader strengthens SNP opposition on BBC1’s Question Time after being put under pressure over party’s record on deficit
Ed Miliband tells the British public, in no uncertain terms, that Labour will not deal with SNP
Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt

Friday 1 May 2015 07.14 BSTLast modified on Friday 1 May 201510.30 BS
Ed Miliband has hardened his opposition to a deal with the Scottish National party, saying that he was “not going to have a Labour government if it means deals or coalitions with the SNP”.

Speaking during the final TV leaders’ event prior to next week’s election, Miliband came under pressure over the previous Labour government’s record on the deficit, his attitude to the private sector and his potential dependence on the SNP.

The three main Westminster leaders – Miliband, David Cameron and Nick Clegg – appeared in a BBC Question Time format that left each exposed to 30 minutes of hostile and informed questioning from a confident audience.

An instant Guardian/ICM poll found Cameron had come out on top, with 44% of those surveyed feeling that the prime minister had done “best on the night”, compared with 38% for Miliband and 19% for Nick Clegg. But only 8% said their vote would be swayed by what they had seen.

With the election only a week away, the three grillings were seen as critical to the outcome of the closest election for a generation.

The format of the separate cross-examinations had been agreed by the BBC after Cameron refused to appear alongside the other Westminster leaders in a head-to-head debate.

Although the pressure put on Miliband over Labour’s record on tax and spending was intense, probably the most significant moment of the 90 minutes came when the Labour leader was asked whether he was ready to form a coalition in a hung parliament with the SNP.

The Labour campaign has been dogged by what Cameron has dubbed a “dangerous alliance” after opinion polls suggested that Miliband would be unable to form a government without the support of Nicola Sturgeon’s party.

Miliband dismissed the prime minister’s warnings when audience member Simon Wilkinson asked him why the Labour party was misleading the country over a deal with the SNP.

The Labour leader then ruled out a coalition or a less formal “confidence and supply” arrangement.

Miliband added: “Let me be plain. We’re not going to do a deal with the Scottish National party; we’re not going to have a coalition, we’re not going to have a deal.

“Let me just say this to you – if it meant we weren’t going to be in government, not doing a coalition, not having a deal, then so be it.

“I am not going to sacrifice the future of our country, the unity of our country, I’m not going to give in to SNP demands around Trident, around the deficit, or anything like that.

“I just want to repeat this point to you: I am not going to have a Labour government if it means deals or coalitions with the SNP. I want to say this to voters in Scotland.
Reacting to Miliband’s tough line on working with the SNP, Sturgeon said on the BBC Scotland Question Timesegment: “I heard Ed Miliband and he sounded awfully like he was saying – and I hope I’m wrong about this because I think people across Scotland and the rest of the UK would be appalled if I’m right – he sounded as if he was saying that he would rather see David Cameron and the Conservatives back in government than actually work with the SNP.

 

Milliband has scored a massive OG with his comments about an SNP coalition.

He's never going to win an overall majority, so he's more or less just said;

"Ok, Mr Cameron, you win"

Docile tit.

 

He is in a difficult situation SNP is the devil he cannot dine with until after the election.

 

He can't dine with them at all now, after making such a definitive statement.

He's ****ed himself and consigned us to another 5 years of the Tories with a single sentence, the prize twat.

 

Isn't it a possibility that no one will win a majority, neither of the two leading parties will form a coalition and there will have to be another election. At that point the SNP voters may decide to vote Labour as it will be the only way to get the Tories out of government.

 

If that's his strategy then it's incredibly risky.

The Liberals will get smashed next week but they'll still end up with 25 'ish seats and if the Tories just edge it, they could form a Govt.

Albeit not one that would probably have an overall majority, as Labour plus the SNP will almost certainly have more seats between them.

It'd make for a very weak Govt and the markets would hate it, so a new election could be called, but I think he's been a complete tool for completely ruling out the idea pre-election.

 

He'll still form a coalition with the SNP. He's desperate for power and won't have any qualms about reneging on his promise.

 

The fake French mockney accent must have been off the cuff. There's no way his advisers would have prepared him to talk like that!

 

Reminds me of the Harry Enfield
Julio Geordio

 

it seems tories will be largest party but labour will form a piss poor instable minority government.

I'd give it 6 months but the propensity for people to cling to power like a limpet to a rock will prob mean a bad scenario for 2 years

lib dems should not support tories if they do they will end that party.

 

Mrs Sturgeon (SNP) Leader has not helped the case of Milliband by challenging him openly about a coalition, because
admission at this stage would cause labour votes. David Cameron is still use his failure to admit against him

 

Miliband knows he has to get as many labour voters as possible

He'd be really happy to have snp propping him up but not in coalition

 

Just be glad your politicians are not like US senator Tom Cotton who is tweeting at the Iranian foreign minister "in your 20s, you hid in US during Iran-Iraq war while peasants & kids were marched to die"

Some good responses to the honourable US senator from folks in the US who are obviously embarrassed by this ****ing hate filled eejit if you click this image below

 

Didn't George Dubya hide away during the Vietnam war, protected by his dads political power.

Think he ended up as a pilot, protecting the US from a none existent threat from the air by the Viet-Cong.

 

Yup, never mind that Saddam as armed by the US and goaded into attacking Iran cos Iran kicked out the dictator Kermit Roosevent intalled as dictator in the 50s like No one is as ignorant of American foreign policy history than an American senator

Sure even dick Cheney has contracts with Iran, via Hilliburton through another country cos of US sanctions, all while he was... attacking Iran in the media and through sanctions