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Do you remember the final leadership debate?
DAVID DIMBLEBY: Right, we have to bring this part of the debate to an end there, with that question. Thank you very much, all three of you. We end with final statements from each of the three party leaders, David Cameron to start.
DAVID CAMERON: Thank you. I’m standing here for a very simple reason, that I love this country, and I think we can do even better in the years ahead. We can go on, solve our problems and do great things. But we need a government with the right values. We need a government that backs families and understands that the family is the most important thing in our society. We need a government that backs work, and people who try to do the right thing. We need a government that always understands that keeping us safe and secure is the most important thing of all. But there’s something else you need to know about me. I believe the test of a good and strong society is how we look after the most vulnerable, the most frail and the poorest. That’s true in good times, but it’s even more true in difficult times. And there will be difficult decisions, but I want to lead us through those to better times ahead. I think I’ve got a great team behind me. I think we can do great things in this country. If you vote Labour, you’ll get more of the same. If you vote Liberal, as we’ve seen tonight, it’s just uncertainty. If you vote Conservative on Thursday, you can have a new, fresh government, making a clean break, and taking our country in a new direction, and bringing the change we need.
DAVID DIMBLEBY: Thank you. For the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg.
NICK CLEGG: Everything I’ve said during these three television debates is driven by my simple belief that if we do things differently, we can build a better, fairer Britain. As you decide how to cast your vote, of course you’ll be told by these two that real change is dangerous, that it can’t be done. But don’t let anyone scare you from following your instincts. Together, next week, we can change Britain for good. Just think how many times you’ve been given lots of promises from these old parties, and when they get back into government, you find that nothing really changes at all. We can do so much better than that this time. Of course, I can’t guarantee that all the problems you face will be solved overnight, but I can guarantee you that I will work tirelessly to deliver fairness for you. Fair taxes so that you pay less, but people at the top pay their fair share. A fair start, smaller class sizes for your children, a different approach to the economy and decent open politics that you can trust once again. I believe all this can happen. This is your election. This is your country. When you go to vote next week, choose the future you really want. If you believe, like I do, that we can do things differently this time, then together we really will change Britain. Don’t let anyone tell you that it can’t happen. It can. This time, you can make the difference.
DAVID DIMBLEBY: Thank you, Mr Clegg. Now for Labour, Gordon Brown.
GORDON BROWN: These debates are the answer to people who say that politics doesn’t matter. I want to thank everybody who’s been involved in these debates over the last few weeks. They show that there are big causes we can fight for. They also show that big differences exist between the parties. I know that if things stay where they are, perhaps in eight days’ time, David Cameron, perhaps supported by Nick Clegg, would be in office. But I’ve had the duty of telling you this evening that while we have policies for the future, the Conservatives would put the recovery immediately at risk with an emergency budget. I’ve asked David and Nick questions all evening. David has not been able to confirm, but it is the case that inheritance tax cuts will go to the richest people in the country. I believe he’s planning to cut the Schools Budget, and he hasn’t denied it. I believe also that child tax credits would be cut by both parties if they came into a coalition. I believe too that policing would be at risk from a Conservative government, because they have not said they would match us on policing either. And the health service guarantees that we have that gives every cancer patient the right to see a specialist within two weeks would be scrapped by the Conservative Government if they came into power. I don’t like having to do this, but I have to tell you that things are too important to be left to risky policies under these two people. They are not ready for government, because they have not thought through their policies. We are desperate to get this country through the recession and into the recovery, and that is what I intend to continue to do. But it’s up to the people to decide, and it’s your decision.
DAVID DIMBLEBY: Mr Brown, thank you. And thank you to all three party leaders who’ve taken part in this debate, and to our audience here.
A few U-turns, but a lot of S-bend. It's Beechroftification in Cameron's Britain.
In terms of strategy, it’s an effective one.
ENRON was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, corporate scandal to hit corporate America. It led to a lot of nervous CEOs, investors and shareholders. It led to the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to introduce legislation, so that America would never let this happen again. However, it probably will.
Ed Miliband is right to depict David Cameron as ‘tainted’, but the sleaze engulfing those text messages, ‘Yes You Cam’ leaves a sickie taste in your mouth and makes your stomach churn. It is all about what Labour is dead against – not valuing individual workers, who need protection from Unions, to protect them from being exploited. It stops the Beechroftification, a milder variant of Californication. Ed’s conference speech was all about corporate social responsibility last year, but virtually all high-profile left-wing bloggers were too slow or ignorant to pick up on it.
This Government stinks. It stinks worse than a S-bend. George Osborne violently sneered at Alistair Darling’s running of the economy, without ever saying whether he would have saved Northern Rock. He propelled this country into recession, when it was actually in growth in May 2010. The fact that Ed Balls is trusted more with the economy is a turning point for Labour, and is a rejection of austerity. Ed Balls should thrust upon this a drive to protect workers, in whatever legal way possible, and Labour is electable again.
The causes of recession do matter. It wasn’t Labour’s fault as the Conservatives claimed. Gordon Brown didn’t unilaterally cause a global recession. It was due to lack of regulation of securitised mortgages in corporate America. The same Conservatives who wished to copy our ‘reckless’ spending plans. How we deal with it does matter – putting your eggs all in the Bank of England basket might matter, the same Bank of England which dealt with the BCCI scandal, and whose Governor has fully thrust himself behind the failed Tory policies of late. Finally, it does matter that investment in the UK, especially the construction sector, was killed off, as well as consumer demand murdered, leading to more benefit spend and less amount of tax receipts. George Osborne is wilfully ignorant or wilfully ignorant at his economic ineptitude, or is shamelessly lying with his colleagues when he claims that he is successfully paying off his credit card (which he latterly maxed the other night). The deficit doubled in February, George.
The Government also reeks of complete and utter incompetence, not just over the economy, but also in handling everything from pasties to forests. Unbelievably, Cameron will have snatched failure from the jaws of victory, having not won the election in 2010 and having screwed up the BSkyB bid. He is hanging off the edge of the electoral cliff by his fingernails, and unbelievably I am now certain that this will be an one-term government.
Shibley's AV poll
Whether you voted for Ed Miliband, David Miliband, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham or Diane Abbott, or none of them, please complete this survey. It takes about 10 minutes to complete. There are 22 questions which should be answered YES or NO. You must be a Labour voter to take part. Please do not take part if you are a non-Labour voter.
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.
For interest, the questions are reproduced here.
This survey is simply an exploration of views on the AV – the Alternative Vote.
Please only complete this survey if you are a Labour voter (although the issues are not party-political, officially).
This survey consists of 22 very brief YES or NO questions.
Thank you for agreeing to do this survey.
The survey will close at 11.59 pm on 10th December 2010.
What is AV?
Put simply, under our current system – sometimes referred to as First-Past-the-Post – the candidate that gets the most votes in an individual constituency is elected as the MP. The party with more MPs than all the other parties put together then forms the government.
Under AV – the Alternative Vote – the voters rank candidates in order of preference and anyone getting more than 50% in the first round is elected. If that doesn’t happen, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their second choices are allocated to the remaining candidates. If no candidate at the second stage has a majority of votes, the next lowest candidate is eliminated and their votes are redistributed. This process keeps on occurring until a winner emerges.
QUESTIONS 1-9. Please answer the following general questions.
1. At the beginning of this survey, do you feel that the UK should we have a system of AV?
2. Do you think that an AV referendum is a top political priority, given other recent political events?
3. Would the official Labour party line be relevant to how you vote?
4. Should Labour have specific policy on how to vote in the referendum?
5. Do you think that coalitions break promises?
6. Do you think that Britain should have a system of coalitions?
7. Would AV encourage a hung parliament?
8. Would it worry you if the AV vote encouraged a coalition?
9. Would you consider voting no to AV if Nick Clegg remained as Leader of the Liberal Democrats.
QUESTIONS 10-15 The following reasons have been put forward as reasons to vote for AV. For each reason, do you fundamentally agree with the statement as given?
10. The Alternative Vote is a fairer and more democratic way of electing our parliament
11. All MPs would have the support of a majority of their voters.
12. It penalises extremist parties.
13. It eliminates the need for tactical voting.
14. It encourages candidates to chase second- and third-preferences.
15. It retains the same constituencies, meaning no need to redraw boundaries, and no overt erosion of the constituency-MP link.
QUESTIONS 16-20 And do these issues matter?
16. Does it matter the MPs would have the majority of their voters?
17. Does it matter that it penalizes extremist parties?
18. Does it matter if it eliminates the need for tactical voting?
19. Does it matter that the constituencies are the same?
20. Does it matter whether it encourages candidates to chase second- and third-preferences?
GENERAL QUESTIONS
21. And finally, at the end of survey, do you feel that the UK should we have a system of AV?
22. Are you likely to be influenced by any campaigning on this selective issue?
Thank you for completing this survey.
