Here are four of Tim’s highlights from the debate last night:
3 reasons to vote Lib Dem and warning against giving May a blank cheque to introduce Dementia Tax, nick school lunches and implement a bad Brexit deal without giving people a say.
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Mathew on Monday: “We need to be bold” (Mathew Hulbert)
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Katharine Pindar 
13 Comments
I thought Tim did fine and probably helped hold and firm up our vote
But personally I thought the whole format of 7 leaders was a farce and just became a Bear Pit which will have done nothing to impress the average voter
At the end of the day the whole idea of having 7 leaders (particularly those who are not putting up candidates in seats across the whole UK or like UKIP receive for too much respect as aa serious party despite hardly existing on the ground at all.
The debate should have been I think between parties who are competing to lead the UK and have put up sufficient candidates to be able to do that should the public wish to vote that way
He was fabulous. It doesn’t make any difference to my vote for two reasons: I postal vote so the deed is already done and the LDs are a distant dream in my area. That doesn’t change the fact that he was great though. I wish you guys had the power and resource base to be a big party.
Lyn – If you really feel that, join us! Every member we get builds up our resources. There are many members who live in areas where we are a ‘distant dream’. I was one such myself for many years. We will only become stronger in your area if our natural supporters (that’s you) step up.
I seem to remember Tim saying something like “voting Conservative is giving the Government a blank cheque as financial details are not available.”
BUT this is just neo-liberal thought. It is treating the economy as if it were a household. If it’s true it’s also true for every party. The Lib Dems are no exception. The idea that everything can be fully costed may true for a small local council but it isn’t true for national government.
National spending creates national income. If the Government cuts its spending it cuts its own income. The difference between the new lower level of spending and its reduced taxation income, due to the lower level of economic activity, may be even higher than it was previously.
A big mistake for Tim Farron to attack the social care plans.
By doing so he is supporting wealthy people passing on larger unearned inheritances to their children.
Lib Dems should be proposing lower taxes on earned income and higher taxes on wealth.
Currently we are proposing to increase the standard rate of income tax and giving tax breaks to wealthy families through attacking the social care proposals.
Personally, I found Tim more irritating than normally – mind you, this is a format that seems to do that to everyone.
However, so many people I have spoken to today who watched it thought he did well, and even changed their opinion of the party — particularly left-leaning voters who haven’t updated their opinion of us since 2015, were impressed with his attack on May.
Clearly, he hasn’t achieved much cut-through to wider opinion yet, and the soundbites and the jokes were all to one purpose – to shape himself clearly in the public mind … and it may be working. We need it.
David Evershed
If you take the trouble to read the manifesto you will see that we will reverse the Tory cuts in inheritance tax and capital gains tax, and will look at introducing land value tax. Meanwhile the increased threshold for income tax is thanks to us.
Personally I would go further on wealth taxes including the mansion tax which I thought was a good idea.. unearned wealth is the best place to look for funding ill health provision in old age (we should stop calling it “social care” as if it is nothing to do with heal
Sorry! Annoying phone! To continue:
(We should stop calling it “social care as if it is nothing to do with health). But the Tory proposal is a lottery where some keep all their money and others have to pay massively. That sort of thing should not depend on whether you are unlucky enough to get a debilitating illness like Alzheimer’s in your later years.
TonyH
Quite! I grew up in Sheffield
Phone Again!
I grew up in Sheffield Hallam, in a time when we were a distant third in every election both local and national!
I really liked the format last night, and I thought Tim possibly came off best, although there was good showing all round really, except for possibly Paul Nuttall.
If anyone is going to pull the Lib Dems out of the Doldrums, then it is Tim, so I hope, for everyone’s sake, that the Lib Dems increase their seat numbers at the next election.
It will take a while for tuition fees to be forgotten, but I think that there is no fear of the Lib Dems being wiped out, and as long as economic liberalism is put on the back-burners (my opinion I realise!), then the fightback will be successful. It may just take a little longer than many are hoping for!
@ David Evershed
As Andrew McCaig states it is a lottery for who gets dementia or who does not. Therefore it is luck whether you can pass on the wealth you have worked for all your life to your family. Liberals have never been against wealth or passing wealth on. We are in favour of taxing wealth fairly. It would be fair to increase inheritance tax for everyone to pay for everyone’s social care. It is not fair for some unlucky people to spend most of their assets on care while others with the same amount of wealth do not have to pay anything.
Also we are promising to increase the threshold before people start to pay National Insurance (an income tax in all but name).
Well, from now on I hope that Libdem will shift the debate to economic policy. I hope that someone will lead a direct attack on Tories’ austerity economic policy.
Next, oppose and smash the Internet Snooper Charter like the way the party opposes Brexit.