Tag Archives: leaders debate

The NHS doesn’t need warm words, it needs hard cash.

Probably the line of the debate for me, from Nick Clegg as he highlighted Liberal Democrat plans to invest £8 billion in the NHS in England with resultant Barnett Consequentials. Clegg was at the top of his game tonight. Paddy Ashdown said he was flawless, but I wouldn’t quite go that far. He stumbled a bit on immigration – taking the right line but with some strange comments about good and bad immigrations. I actually feel prouder of him than I did in 2010. After all the grief he’s taken, after everything that’s happened in the last five years, for him to come out with humility and clarity and perform so well was very good.  As I write, a public speaking expert says that he thought Nick was excellent.

He was pretty strong on the economy, too and repeatedly challenged Cameron on the Tory plans not raising taxes on the rich.

Having lived through the independence referendum and all the nonsense spread by the Yes campaign that the NHS had been privatised in England, it was good to see Nick call Nicola out on that.

Nicola Sturgeon  was very good too. It was funny when she turned and faced Cameron to ask him to specify his welfare cuts and he turned away from her. She made a lot of claims about what was happening in Scotland, from NHS Funding (actually going down), NHS car parking (you still have to pay in some places) and on the failure of the SNP to keep its promise to dump student debt. Oh, and let’s not forget the young people denied opportunity because of the SNP’s slashing of college places. 

It was one year ago tonight that Nick took on Nigel. And tonight he takes on Nigel and five others. All of them will be queuing up to attack him. Nigel because Nick’s open, liberal, internationalist stance is the antithesis of all he stands for, Ed, Nicola, Leanne and Natalie because that’s what they do and Dave because the last thing he wants is another coalition with the Nick. After all, he did tell the Daily Mail that he’d govern like a proper Tory if it weren’t for Nick. When the Prime Minister talks about Ed Miliband being in Alex Salmond’s pocket, you can tell he feels that he’s been in Nick Clegg’s for the past five years.

But lets just take a moment and smile. This is the first major occasion like this at a UK level when there will be an equal number of men and women on that stage. I wish it wasn’t remarkable and I hope that in my lifetime it won’t be. Natalie Bennett, Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood and Julie Etchingham, you are making history.

So, let’s look at the basic housekeeping first. The debate can be seen on STV and ITV live and you can watch online on the Lib Dem website here. I will probably watch the BBC News Channel, where, alongside the debate, they’ll have the Worm, which shows selected viewers’ instant reactions to what is being said.

Format

Each leader gets a one minute statement. Then there are four question and answer sessions on the topics of health, the economy, immigration and the future of the UK. Each section, after each leader has had an uninterrupted minute to answer the question, lasts for up to 18 minutes.

My advice to Nick