Osborne comes out fighting

2trueblue

Cable is a fable teller.

Paddy

The Lib Dems are telling outright lies and seem to be getting away with it eg. the Tories are to raise VAT.

John Bracewell

About time there was some fight from the Conservative leaders. Good show from Osborne and Clarke. More please.

Jonathan Hall

e shouldn’t expect a similarly aggressive performance from David Cameron tomorrow…. Why on earth not???

If Cameron doesn’t change his tactics, he shouldn’t expect anything other than a similar result to last week. His advisors need to understand, this is not America, the British public like there leaders to have a bit of spirit about them. How else can you explain Brown’s bounce in the wake of those bullying allegations? The best advice I could give to Cameron is this…. Be yourself, show your anger and frustration with the way this country had been governed for the past 13 years and don’t forget to remind voters about Lib Dem policy positions e.g. Pro Euro, Pro European Army, Pro Immigration Amnesty, etc….

Mark

The public is angry and wants change.

Unless Cameron is angry he won't be perceived as the agent of that change.

teledu

Osborne did well, Darling so-so (wouldn't give straight answer to Neil's final question to him, "was it wrong of Brown to say days of Boom-and-bust was ended?". Cable was a shambles;wholly unconvicing. Congrats to Neil and Flanders, they were both willing to badger when faced with blather.
AND YET - did the BBC News channel show a clip of Cable's stumbling performance?
No. It showed Cable and Darling laying into Osborne regarding Ken Clarkes's statement over threat of IMF intervention if there's a hung parliament. (To be fair, they did show Osborne's reply - and it was a good one too.)
Maybe other BBC bulletins showed more of the debate than this, but I can't sit in front of TV all day.

fasano

George Osborne despite the media being constantly negative and the uneducated bile of Vince Cable won this debate with consummate ease.Alistair Darling is a very decent person but has the awful disadvantageof working for an extremely unpleasant and dysfunctional boss.

Chris

If Cameron is not assertive and forceful the result will be the same as last week.r

annassasin

Sadly the students, that are voting in their hoards for Clegg, were still in bed when this was broadcast. Note that BBC still has not put this program on i-player ??. Seen ealier one student saying that Clegg smiling more would secure her vote. OMG OMG Raise voting age and IQ.

TGF UKIP

Some of the best goals are scored via counter-attacks and Dave has two such opportunities tomorrow night, though I very much doubt he'll take them.

The first is on the non Lisbon Treaty referendum welshed on by both Labour and the LibDems. Either Clegg or Brown will point out that Dave didn't carry through post ratification either. However, Dave, if he's smart, will simply say "I leave gesture politics to you Gordon/Nick and unlike you I've too much regard for taxpayers money to waste £20m of it for purely party political purposes, even though my Party would have been delighted to have such a referendum."

The other thing which will probably get chucked at him is the disapproval of Merkel in particular, over the Tory withdrawal from the EPP. Here Dave could and should, but won't, say "I care a lot more about what the British people think and about the promises I've made to my Party, than what Frau Merkel thinks. Too much British policy over the last thirteen years has been made in France, Germany and Brussels."

I gather, though, that Clegg is promising an in/out referendum which should give Dave something to ponder on as no doubt Dave will then be asked will the Tory Party campaign for an in or an out.

toco

Very worrying but par for the course that the supposedly independent BBC is not covering George Osborne's stellar performance.Post election we need to check out this left wing organisation and in particular its editorial people.

Ralf Garner

Mr Cable should have stuck with his first career. When he was in York he was in a band called Vince Cable and the Hotwires.

alexsandr

annassasin, worry not, students will not arise in time to vote. Unless there is free beer at the polling station.
Remember. the vote on May 6 is the one that counts.

Crevice

Yes, I've noticed George Osborne getting better each time I see him on TV, and also hear his comments on radio becoming much more incisive - and which somehow come across much better than Vince Cable, and way ahead of anyone in the Labour benches, who seem tired and disinterested now.

George Osborne has much of what it takes to do the necessary - he'll be overshadowed by Ken Clarke, but that's not his fault!

I rate the man, and expect to see him rise even further in the next couple of weeks. At least he sticks to his guns, and listens to questions, which neither Cable or Darling do.

Tiberius

The Tories are back in the lead in the YouGov daily poll, following on from the 9 point lead with ITN/Comres last night.

A fair amount of the dry powder is being drawn on now, too, and I see the Osborne haters and UKIP groupies are having to hide at the moment.

Well meant advice from TGF Dave above (in addition to Toby Young's heartfelt plea on DT online), but I'm sure Dave has had more advice on how to play tomorrow than Steve Harmison did when everyone suddenly became an expert on how to be good fast bowler.

Tomorrow's debate is on Sky 3, and chaired by that too-cool-by-half merchant, Adam Boulton. Two questions therefore: how big will the audience be on Sky, and how hard will Boulton's casual but subtle bias against the Tories make it for Cameron.

Cameron will have his own game-plan, no doubt. But moreso than last week, his wits will have to see him through.

paulg

We better get an aggressive display tomorrow; the lib-dems need to be destroyed by this time tomorrow.

David Lindsay

Oh, dear God, make this Election end, so that we no longer have to watch ordinarily sane journalists pretending that George Osborne is a serious figure.

Moraymint

Crevice
April 21st, 2010 9:06pm

"... which neither Cable or Darling do".

I think that should be "neither Cable nor Darling do".

Sorry, it's late and I'm bored. So, it's off to bed to read Mrs Moraymint a story.

Woody

I thought this was one of George Osborne's best performances but the BBC keep showing the piece where Cable and Darling 'gang' up on him.
Nice to see Cable get his just desserts and about bloody time to.

Boudicca

Cameron is making a big mistake if he doesn't go 'aggressive.'

The UK's system of Government is adversarial ie win or lose the argument. It is only necessary to try a conciliatory approach if you think you will lose or wish to enter into a coalition.

Cameron should be going all-out to win. If he gives in to the conciliatory approach now, we will be left with a hung Parliament and coalition Governments from here to eternity.

This is a bare-knuckle street fight. Cameron should stop with the Queensbury Rules, take the gloves off and hit Clegg into the middle of next week.

oldtimer

Watched The John Sopel 9pm election programme this evening for the first time. It was excellent viewing on three counts:

1 it seems that LibDem party rules place a triple lock on the leader doing deals with other parties - he needs agreement of 75% of his MPs, 75% of some shadowy council of 30 LibDem bigwigs and IIRC failing that endorsement by his party members (cannot remember majority required) - so in theory the 30 bigwigs could frustrate an election result by preventing the LibDems from entering a coalition of which they did not approve. It all dates from the time of Paddy Ashdown - so he could be restrained.

2 an interview with the head of the Institute of Government who has been busy, with the Cabinet Office and the political parties on constitutional procedures in the event of a hung Parliament. He said he is in active contact with them all. Interestingly, in the light of the LibDem triple lock, he observed that in the event of a hung Parliament one thing that would concentrate MPs minds on the Friday after election day would be a weakening of market sentiment - exactly the point that Ken Clarke was making earlier in the day.
3 an FT editor described an article by KC repeating this same point for the FT.

Nicholas

Oh, dear God, make this Election end, so that we no longer have to read boring posts pretending that George Osborne is not a serious figure.

David Ossitt

Moraymint

“So, it's off to bed to read Mrs Moraymint a story”.

Being a euphemism for?

Richard of York

So the markets wont like a hung pariament?
If there is some sort of Lib/Lab pact the IMF will have to step in because they only understand majority government.
I suppose if Oik were to be in the seat without a majority but the largest party we could have the IMF coming in to hold the hand of a Tory chancellor??????

Clarke is past his sell by date ...for gods sake he will be 80 before the end of a 5 year term.....put the old duffer out of his misery.
Oik was exposed today even Neil lost his patience with him...Flanders laughed at him when he tried to obfuscate his way through the questions.
Aggressive bully boy tactics wont make him liked by the people and they wont vote for him.

TGF UKIP

Tiberius, it don't matter a tinker's what Osborne does or says, the voters tuned him out long ago. He is but one of the reasons your lot are in such a parlous predicament.

The main reason, though, is Dave himself, but along with young James and Fraser, so besotted are you that I realize that it is quite impossible for you to recognize that.

Lizzy

Richard of York - unless I was watching the wrong thing the only people appearing before both Andrew Neil and Stephanie Flanders today were Darling, Osborne and Cable. So am puzzled you say both Brillo and Stephanie ripped Ken Clarke to shreds.
If by some remarkable chance this encounter did indeed take place could you advise me which programme so I can see if I can find it online.
Or is this your usual BS?

Major Plonquer

During tonights debate the subject of the EU and the Lisbon Treaty will likely come up. If during the mutual finger-pointing Cameron was to state that he is willing to show leadership, change Tory policy and give the British people our referendum he will win the election by a landslide. This is his LAST CHANCE to save the Tory party.

Rhys

Are you really so illiterate that you cannot place the apostrophe correctly in " Chancellors' "
Jesu. If, in your position and with your education you can't do basic English grammar why should any of your views carry weight ?

Patrick

The Spectator must have been watching an alternative parallel universe version of this debate. By any measure George Osbourne was woeful, at best. he is too young and too raw to be anything approaching the Chancellor, come on guys have a go at the truth rather than naked proproganda...please

Richard of York

@Lizzy
read the post again and if you need help google who Oik is.....lol
Happy days!

Dorothy Wilson

"Clarke is past his sell by date ...for gods sake he will be 80 before the end of a 5 year term..."

Richard of York, heading towards Bosworth: Clarke is currently in his late 60s so it is difficult to see how he will be 80 at the end of a 5 year term.

But then facts, and maths, were never your strong point.

Herbert Pocket

@RoY: A simple Google search would inform you that Ken Clarke is 69. He will be 74 in 2015.

You've already bombed repeatedly at politics, history, grammar and basic spelling. Now it is clear that even simple arithmetic is beyond you. If you think your relentless, error-riddled posts are doing anything to persuade undecided voters here of the strength of the Labour case, you are sadly mistaken. So, please - get a job. Or a girlfriend. Or a proper hobby.

David Ossitt

Dorothy Wilson

“Richard of York, heading towards Bosworth: Clarke is currently in his late 60s so it is difficult to see how he will be 80 at the end of a 5 year term.

But then facts, and maths, were never your strong point.”

Dorothy he hasn’t a single strong point; he is more like a bad infection of athletes foot; than a man, something that he as a chiropodist might actually know something about.

Richard of York

@Dotty and Herb

LOL I thought only women lied abiout their age...just googled Joan Colins she is claiming 66......oh happy days.
Oh and Dot is not the 45 she claims either...haha zimmer creek is the new fawlty towers....or better know as Speccie showers.

Dorothy Wilson

Dick: my name is not Dot. You do know how to be rude don't you? It seems to be a tendency with Labour bloggers. There's someone who seems to spend most of his tied to his computer and posts in our local paper under the name of Mr Not Very Sensible in the Real World. He is actually Mr Not Very Sensible in the Fantasy World. However, he is just as rude - and deluded as you are.

You can check Clarke's age from his attendance at Nottm High School.

At least, I have the guts to use my real name. Most Labour bloggers hide their identity behind silly names - just like you.

Victor Southern

Dorothy - the reason that R.O.Y. cannot do maths is because this particular posting is made by the juvenile Richard, the one who cannot spell or punctuate as a result of having spent all of his 12 years of education under Labour. He is also the ageist one who despises older people. That is fairly normal with younger Labour activists who even refer to us as "coffin blockers".

ROY is actually 3, perhaps 4 different people all posting on the same account.

Richard of York

@Dotty

Look I am sure if you ask the speccie they will run you through how to set up a username.
As for being rude, check out some of the other posts and tell me they are all sweetness and light.
So Gal hitch up the frock throw away the zimmer and get stuck it ..its more fun than playing poker with money-off coupons from the woman's realm.
Toodle pip!