Friday 16 April 2010

'A black man in Plymouth'

I've never really 'got' Twitter, am an infrequent user, but last night during the election debate, I saw how fast and furiously bullets of opinion/information can be shot out. It was dazzling, if a little bizarre. And exhausting, a cockpit of letters and symbols to be negotiated.

I was a bit underwhelmed by the debate, none of them are great orators, but Nick Clegg came out best. Cameron was ribbed mercilessly on Twitter for his black man in Plymouth line. I cringed when he said it, and couldn't imagine either of the others having done so. I find myself leaning more and more towards the Lib Dems, the fear, of course, that if you vote for them the Tories get in, and that is just too bleak to contemplate. But maybe we just need to take a leap of faith. And also, it was a Lib Dem MP - John Barrett - who read The State of Me (bought his own copy!) and blogged about it last May (3rd), showed he understood the issues surrounding ME. I sent copies in 2008 to both the Scottish Parliament and my own MP, c/o The House of Commons, but no reply.

I also 'panicked' when I saw our prospective leader(s) were standing up for the debate: How can people stand for an hour and half and speak intelligently? You have to sit down, I thought (my energy radar worrying vicariously). I also found the setting a bit too seventies' game show. We just needed Les Dawson and we would have had Blankety Blank. Alastair Stewart looked knackered and old (I don't watch ITV and probably haven't seen him since the 90s, he looked like he was still recovering from Diana's death). I turned off the televison debate after an hour and listened to the rest on radio.

7 comments:

Amy said...

Ha! I completely agree with you about the debate, although I was only able to watch the first half hour. It did look like a game show i thought - especially with each leader sporting a tie in their party colours.

I also thought Nick Clegg came across best, and later, on radio 4, they said that a YouGov poll had 54% of the audience at home feeling that clegg had "won" the debate. I think it's worth looking into the figures for how people in your constituency voted last time, so that you know whether voting Lib Dem won't let the Tories in. I know that where I live, the Tories came third in 2005, with only about 14% of the vote, and were a long way behind the Lib Dems and Labour, so voting Lib Dem is unlikely to let the tories in here. Although obviously how it pans out nationally is a different matter...

On a personal note, Nick Clegg is my parents' MP, and they wrote to him about ME issues once, and he wrote the most extraordinary, long reply. He totally, totally knew his stuff about the politics, the sub-grouping issues, and the way ME is neglected. I know that's a very personal, single-issue thing to like him for, but I couldn't help admiring him for it.

Amy said...

I should add that Nick Clegg's views on ME are hardly the only reason that I might vote Liberal Democrat. I'm not that myopic about my voting decisions!

nmj said...

Thanks, Amy, the Nick Clegg stuff re. ME is interesting. I am the same as you, would not vote Lib Dem cos a nice MP read my book, but when you are swithering, as I am, single issue, personal things are a very useful tool.

nmj said...

... Eddie Izzard's PPB is brilliant, I must say. V clever, cheeky & optimistic, bringing you back into the Labour camp, and a wee twist of Dr Who at the end. But we have to remember it is not the charmer Eddie Izzard we are voting for...

http://www.politicshome.com/uk/article/7908/izzard_outlines_labours_brilliant_britain.html

nmj said...

... though not exactly impressed my the lib dem candidate in my area.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7099013.ece

Cusp said...

Really good review of the debate. We had to watch it quite closely because my partner had agreed to be part of the post-debate poll and so we were waiting for the phone call aftewards.

I think a lot of poeple are considering voting LibDem but the problem is, as you say, that this might help the Tories and also, in the end, there's a part of me thinks that the LibDems might have all these good ideas but there are no LibDem MPs who have ever held the reins of power, so they're very inexperienced. Saying something is not like doing it.

nmj said...

It's tricky and catch-22, if not enough people vote for them they can't ever get experience ... but they all say great things pre-election and don't always do those thing when they are in power, lib dems are not alone in this :)