Ask the Chancellors - my verdict
Well having watched the whole debate (whilst hosting a live chat on here) I think Vince won it hands down. He was deft, funny and seemed much more human than the other two as well as nailing a number of points. He got lots of warmth and recognition from the audience, so much so that Tim Montgomerie on Con Home is now insinuating that the audience might have been packed with Lib Dems. That's pretty thin stuff. Tim has also scored it a win for Osborne. We must have been watching different debates. Osborne was outclassed by Cable (and also Darling). Ken Clarke, Philip Hammond or William Hague would have done much, much better in my view. by keeping him in post Dave has made a serious error of judgement that he may come to regret.
I was also pleased to see Cable get in lots of references to what I think are some of our strongest policies such as increasing the tax threshold to £10K and some of our other measures like scrapping Trident. As a political obsessive and Lib Dem activist it's easy to forget that lots of people in this country will not even be aware of them but a decent chunk more of them will be after tonight.
Anyway, you would expect me to think Vince won. The interesting thing to see will be what the polls pick up about the performance of the three people vying for the second most important job in British politics.
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4 comments:
The people's choice* was not even represented though, alas.
* http://voteforpolicies.org./
The one outstanding policy the Lib Dems have (or maybe had - not sure) was replacing the unfair council tax with a local income tax. The principle of that measure is undermined by Vince's dubious mansion tax. He is not an asset, although he is commonly recognised as one. "Funny" and "human" are not qualities desirable in a Chancellor.
While I thought Vince Cable performed better it was said to me that his age counts against him, as the job of CoE is something to be held for a number of years and this may cause concern in some quarters.
I admit I like him, but I think the party needs to get away from promoting the cult of Vince by showing there is greater depth of talent. It ain't a one-man team and I actually think he benefits a lot from having a strong supporting cast who go largely unrecognised.
Huhne, Laws, Browne, Goldsworthy and Webb are all highly capable in this area, so we should be making the most of them too.
If you couldn't have Cable, which LibDem would take his place?
Vince did ok, but he is not the saint some LD say he is. Osbourne was poor, Ken Clarke would be better.
Darling just told the usual guff we have come to expect from Lab.
I think Ricky Gervais or Michael McIntyre would have easily outclassed Vince.
The Mansion tax is designed to appeal to the green eyed monster - it's a bad idea. Like all taxes, it would gradually extend if only by fiscal drag to pull in more and more victims.
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