So history has been made and party leaders Gordon Brown (Labour), Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats) and David Cameron (Conservatives) have had their first ever televised election debate. Hosted on ITV as a part of a series of three televised election debates for 2010, the big winner from the first outing was Nick Clegg, who benefited from both the exposure of equal footing with the other leaders and the opportunity to poke his sharpened stick at both Labour and Conservative policies past and present.
Taking chunks out of Brown and Cameron alike, Clegg managed to come across as intelligent, informed, decisive, free thinking and able to relate to the general public at large. If the contest was just based on charm alone, Clegg would have won hands down, but with the addition of his challenging and effective remarks on the economy, the expenses scandal and immigration he managed to pull off a minor political coup.
His big, bold statements included harsh criticism of the Conservative’s “mythical” waste savings approach to stemming the growth of the UK’s budget deficit. Arguing that you “can’t square a circle”, implying that the Conservative’s economic plans could not fulfill the need for economic recovery. Instead, Clegg proposes a 10% tax increase on banks, as they are the root cause of the recession, and to save £15 billion pounds by scrapping plans to revamp the old Trident nuclear programme, which was originally established in the 70s as a deterrent to a Soviet nuclear strike.
Along with Gordon Brown, he was also critical of the Conservative’s cap on immigration, equally arguing that it is a policy plan that features much in the was of thought, in that it doesn’t take into account the needs of positive immigration. Nick Clegg’s proposal is to propose a regional approach to immigration, based on successful schemes in Canada and Australia in which immigration is apportioned strategically throughout the regions of the UK depending on the needs of the area. To Cameron’s “do do” speculation on immigrant employees simply moving around once they arrive, Clegg simply cited the working practice of regional work permits in Canada and Australia.
Clegg also showed his frustration at the Conservative and Labour’s compliments without actions answers to questions about NHS development. Having seen A & E departments & maternity wards closing in hospitals throughout the UK at the same time as the introduction of an expensive computer system that doesn’t work and more managers appointed to the NHS than ever before, Clegg warned that improvements to the NHS simply weren’t being realised.
Finally, Nick Clegg called for all of the parties’ to put their differences aside to establish a thorough plan for the care of the elderly, taking into account good suggestions from all parties. In this he established himself as a leader for good policies, not party lines.
Brown’s battlefield
With Nick Clegg picking up the big kills, the scraps were left for Gordon Brown who did little to hurt his chances of success, but equally did little to steal a march on his rivals. His most effective point throughout the night related to the conservatives plan to cut budget spending should they come into power. With every other country in the developed world looking to retain public spending to ensure a double-dip recession does not occur, Gordon Brown effectively placed the Conservatives as the risky bet for economic growth.
Finally, we come to the contribution of Conservative leader David Cameron, who fell foul to criticism from Gordon Brown of “airbrushing” public spending cuts. While there is a lot to be said for the concept of stripping the fat from public spending, Gordon Brown implied that for the Conservatives what this would mean is job losses; claims that David Cameron neither addressed fully or denied. Despite the lucidity of his idea to take £1 from every £100 of spending to cut costs, there were no assurances of securing jobs. What he also misses is the importance of the multiplier effect in economics, which indicates that £1 added to the economy goes a lot further than just one pocket.
On the whole the initial debate was a great introduction to both the characters of the party leaders and the policies set out in their manifestos. With Clegg picking up most of the positives and the remaining chunks going to Gordon Brown it will be interesting to see David Cameron’s response at the next debate on Sky Sports News on Thursday (22nd April 2010).
