Tv

Wednesday

David Blackburn

Cameron must not radically change his style at PMQs

Watching David Cameron’s mannequin-like performance during the TV election debates, it became apparent just how good he is at the dispatch box. Quick witted, funny and incisive, Cameron invariably demolished Gordon Brown at PMQs. Daniel Finkelstein’s column is a must read today, bludgeoning the absurd guff about  the ‘new politics’. But Finkelstein argues: ‘David Cameron is very good at being combative in the chamber. He has won many battles. And it will seem unecessarily risky to change his style. But the prize is great. For he can be a national leader, not a party one. And he can make a reality out of the nonsense of the new politics.’ Answering

Thursday

David Blackburn

Best and worst of the campaign: Nick Clegg

Clegg’s best moment: the first TV debate No one could have predicted that 90 minutes of television would have such an impact. But this election has been dominated by the strange re-birth of Liberalism, engendered by Nick Clegg’s performance in the first TV debate. Television is a medium determined by empathy. Clegg embodied the frustration and contempt that many voters feel for the two established parties, and he expressed his alternative vision with ease and clarity in contrast to Cameron and Brown’s garbled debate. The nation swooned. Honourable mention: being the first leader to undergo a Paxman interview. Clegg’s worst moment: the immigration question in the third TV debate Before

David Blackburn

Best and worst of the campaign: Gordon Brown

As we wait for the polls to close, and the final countdown to begin, we at Coffee House thought it would be a good opportunity to look back on the campaign as a whole. And, so, here’s the first in a series of three posts identifying the best and worst moments for the main party leaders. We’ve started with the man who remains Prime Minister for the time being: Gordon Brown. Brown’s best moment: the Citizens UK speech As it happens, choosing Brown’s best moment of the campaign is easy. Alongside so many gaffes, scowls and lies, the flashes of proficiency tend to stick out – and none more so

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

The shape of public sentiment

Silver medal in the Graph of the Day contest (we’ll have the gold medallist up on Coffee House later) goes to this effort from YouGov.  It’s just been published, with details, over at PoliticsHome, and tracks public “buzz” about the three party leaders during the course of the campaign.  I’m not sure how much to read into it, but the peaks and troughs do follow the contours of the election – so Clegg’s support rises after the first TV debate, Brown’s plummets after the Gillian Duffy incident, and Cameron pretty much flatlines it.  One striking feature is how much ground Brown has caught up since last week: the last few

Friday

Daniel Korski

Tories win Today’s first post-debate debate

Today’s debate was riveting. It showed two candidates who were miles away from each other. One was clear, honest and able to avoid the traps set by the interviewer. The other was dissembling and unclear, his line of argument collapsing under the barrage of questioning. If a doubting voter had heard the debate, unsure beforehand whether to vote Tory or Lib Dem, they would likely have plumped for the former, afterwards. Oh yes, there was a debate yesterday, too, among the three party leaders. But that’s not what I’m talking about. No, with the debates now firmly part of the British political system, an equally important feature has arrived with

David Blackburn

Labour’s campaign implodes

Labour’s campaign has been dysfunctional. ‘Bigot-gate’, the concealed cuts, the absence of a spending review, open challenges to the leadership, infighting and a manifesto that read like the terms of surrender, it has been beset by gaffes and self-immolation. Last night, Gordon Brown personified the desperation at Labour’s core. He was negative – dour predictions accompanying an ashen expression. He defibrillated the old cuts versus investment line – a lurid grope for his core vote and one that is incredible in the current circumstances. We expected all of that; what we did not expect was that Brown no longer agrees with Nick. Pitching for what remains of his position on

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tonight David Cameron turned in the performance he needed to. In the post-debate polls, Cameron has won three comfortably, one narrowly and tied the other

For the first forty-five minutes it was rather like the first debate. Brown attacked Cameron, Cameron hit back and all the while Clegg soared above it. But then immigration, Clegg’s Achilles heel, was thrown into the mix. Cameron went hard for Clegg over his amnesty policy, and Clegg had no clear answer—initially backing away from the policy, before coming back to it. Throughout this exchange, Cameron had covering fire from Brown. Clegg appeared knocked back as he came under the most sustained attack of the campaign and didn’t get back into his groove until his closing statement. In the meantime, Cameron capitalised; delivering some of his strongest answers of the

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

Cameron shines, Clegg wobbles and Brown sinks

Well, Cameron saved the best till last. His aides are even joking that they could do with a fourth debate because their man is really getting in the swing of it. He looked more confident, assured – and spoke convincingly about immigration at last, a subject he fluffed last time. I’d place Clegg second. Brown was worse than awful: third in this debate, and will probably be third next week’s election too. Clegg was his usual telegenic self – in thespian terms, an accomplished performance. But he ran away from his own asylum policy, and was comically inept with the facts. He screamed at Cameron: “Will you admit that 80

Peter Hoskin

Sunshine wins the day for Cameron

So that’s the second time that immigration has had a major impact upon proceedings this week.  Until we came to the question on that topic, I thought Clegg was bossing the TV debate.  He was clear, personable and managed to hover elegantly above Brown and Cameron’s dusty brawl over spending cuts.  But as soon as it came to clarifying Lib Dem policy on an amnesty for illegal immigrants, the wings rapidly fell off the yellow bird of liberty.  All of a sudden, Clegg sounded rattled and unpersuasive.  From then on in, it was Cameron’s game. It helped that Cameron had the clearest – and, I suspect, the most popular –

Peter Hoskin

The final TV debate – live blog

2227, JGF: Rumour going around the press room that a certain A Campbell has been overheard saying ‘I think we’ve had it’ 2201, PH: And that’s it. I’ll be putting up my verdict in a separate post shortly. Thanks for tuning in. 2200, PH: Woah. Brown starts positive – thanking everyone involved in the debates.  But he’s soon into hardcore negativity: attaking the Tories for their inheritance tax plans and pointing out what areas of spending they will cut.  It’s all scaremongering about child tax credits, cancer guarantees and the like.  This, lest you need reminding, is his pitch for the country. 2128, PH: Clegg hones in on the “old

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s tactical dilemma

One thing to watch tonight is David Cameron’s strategy for dealing with Nick Clegg’s plan to take peoples’ first ten thousand pounds of income out of tax. This policy is clear and appealing and one that many Conservatives like. Indeed, Cameron himself called it a ‘beautiful policy’ in the first debate. So it is imperative, that the Tories have a way to try and defuse it. During the campaign, the Tories have used two different attacks on it. One is to criticise it from the left, to argue that the policy is not progressive as it does not help the lowest paid: you have to earn more than ten thousands

Daniel Korski

Dear Dave,

Tonight is about the economy – the most important issue troubling voters. Amazing, though, your economic mesage has not been particularly clear. Incredible given what the Labour government has done, I know, but true. George Osborne cannot seem to win over the City; the Lords of Finance never miss an opportunity to tell the FT that they don’t like/trust him. Your deficit-reduction message is on the other hand clear – but voters don’t seem to like it, believe it is actually necessary and seem worried about the “Sword of Cable”, which, like that of Damocles, is said to hang over the country by a hair and can come plunging down

David Blackburn

Should Cameron attack Brown or Clegg?

Obviously, yesterday’s disaster has written-off tonight’s debate for Brown. But ‘Bigot-gate’ is obscuring the European bailout crisis. Allister Heath and Iain Martin surmise that the euro crisis gives David Cameron a further advantage, if he can exploit it. Iain writes: ‘Mr. Cameron has just been dealt a potential ace by the markets. It will be interesting to see if he realizes this and works out a way of playing it in a manner that voters understand. The worsening crisis in the euro zone has attracted very little attention in the general election, thus far. After all, the U.K. isn’t a member. However, the growing crisis is at root about large

Peter Hoskin

A tale of two images

Labour’s, erm, “poster” ahead of the TV debate tonight: And Coffee House’s take on what Number 10 might look like on May 7th (with thanks to the great Carla Millar for putting the photo-montage together):

Peter Hoskin

To what extent should Cameron and Clegg use Brown’s gaffe against him?

Given the timing of Brown’s Mega Gaffe, you’ve got to wonder how it will play out in the TV debate tonight.  Will it, for instance, mean that he gets a hostile reception?  Will he try to defuse the situation by repeating his apologies, or perhaps by making some sort of light out of it (“Yesterday, I met a woman in Rochdale…”)?  Will it overwhelm the deeply serious economic questions which need asking and answering?  And so on. There’s one question, in particular, though, that I’d be keen to hear CoffeeHousers’ views on: how much should Cameron and Clegg use Brown’s gaffe against him?  My thinking is that they’ve played it

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson

Ten reasons why this is a catastrophe for Brown and Labour

Every politician will be thinking “there but for the grace of God…” today – but the Gillian Duffy incident is not just a gaffe. It is bad for Gordon Brown and Labour on very many levels. Here are ten of them.   1. The image of the Politburo pulling away in the Jag, slagging off the proles. This confirms the idea of an elite, who sneer at voters in private but try to charm them in public. And the idea that politicians (of all parties) say one thing on camera, and another when they think no one is listening. 2. The is not just a gaffe, but the PM on

Peter Hoskin

The timing could not be worse

So Brown has now visited Gillian Duffy’s home to apologise to her in person.  Somehow, I think that’s not going to defuse this row.  Labour have, in the lingo of the The Thick of It, a major omnishambles on their hands.  And he’s called Gordon. The worst aspect of this for Labour, though, is the timing.  Sure, they wouldn’t have chosen this at any point the campaign.  But, with only a week left, it threatens to both obliterate eveything that’s gone before and overshadow whatever Brown does from now until polling day.   And then there’s the final TV debate.  The audience has been asked to listen to the participants

David Blackburn

The high tide of Liberalism?

Cleggmania may be in remission. A Populus poll for the Times puts the Tories up 4 at 36 percent, the Lib Dems down 3 at 28 percent and Labour down one at 27 percent. Com Res has Labour and the Lib Dems tied on 29 percent with the Tories up 1 to 33 percent, whilst You Gov has the Tories on 33 percent, Labour on 29 percent and Clegg’s party on 28 percent. A hung parliament remains the probable outcome next Thursday. Anything other than a decisive Tory victory will sustain the Liberal surge, as Clegg would hold the balance of power or a Lib-Lab coalition would seek to inaugurate

Tuesday

Eamonn Butler

The British constitution is in dire need of reform

The UK Conservative leader David Cameron says that any Prime Minister not ‘directly elected’ by the public should be forced to hold a general election within six months. He has in mind his Labour opponent Gordon Brown, who in June 2007 was catapulted into the position by a secret ballot in his own party, rather than by an open election of the people. And if, after the forthcoming general election on May 6, Labour chose to ditch Brown and catapult that gap-year kid…ah, yes, David Miliband…into the top job in order to stitch up a coalition deal with Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats, well, Cameron would give him only six months

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Brown, behind the scenes

A neat election-time spot from the Guardian’s Haroon Siddique, who brings us the above photo of Brown’s speaking notes from the TV debate last night.  Turns out – surprise, surprise – that the “two boys squabbling” line was prepared in advance.  As were a few other clunkers that we thankfully didn’t hear.  I mean: “You can phone a friend, you can ask the audience, you can go 50-50 with Nick.” Really?