I watched the leaders of the various political parties debate on BBC TV last night. There were two exceptions: Angus Robertson was there for the Scottish National Party (SNP), on the grounds that he’s the leader of the party in Westminster; and Amber Rudd was there on the grounds that her leader Theresa May was frightfully busy meeting and talking with Ordinary People.
Predictably, Rudd took a pasting. All of the other leaders had a dig at her, leaving her groggy. There were moments when the camera moved to her unexpectedly and her expression was that of someone tired, irritated and just a bit afraid. Immediately she realized the camera was on her, of course she flipped the Alive switch and was all business again.
The three people who performed best, I thought, were Caroline Lucas (Green Party) Tim Farron (Lib-Dems) and Jeremy Corbyn (Labour), in that order. Lucas is always sharp and informed, and last night she added a smidgin of passion. “The first quality of leadership” she said when asked what made a leader, “is to turn up.” The audience erupted and Amber tried not to bite her lip off. Farron can be a bit geeky but last night he managed to make big issues small and personal, with his answer to his own question “Where is Theresa May?” He suggested she was maybe outside your house, sizing it up to see if she can take more money from you. Jeremy Corbyn fumbled the occasional response, but in general gave the impression of a serious, committed politician with a strong manifesto to change Britain. Sad but true, Amber Rudd put a hole in the Labour case by accusing Corbyn of belieiving in a ‘magic money tree’. She used the meaningless phrase three times, presumably for the slow in uptake or hard of hearing. It meant nothing but the irony of speaking for a party whose manifesto hasn’t been costed appeared lost on the audience.
Outside was interesting. When Corbyn arrived, the streets were lined with his supporters, cheering and waving their placards. When he left, they crowded to the iron railings and pushed their hands through in the hope of a passing handshake. The fact that they were very likely organized by Labour campaigners didn’t take away from its effectiveness: Corbyn looked like a man enjoying himself and someone ready for Number 10.
Will he get there? Chances are he won’t. Which would be a serious pity, because it’d indicate that no matter how hard young people campaign, no matter how well they use social media (and boy, did they use Twitter well last night), the traditional right-wing media still rule the political waves.
Which reminds me: are we having a televised election debate here? Political parties from the north were notable by their absence last night. And if our local leaders are, will they be waging battle on Facebook and Twitter as well? Because besides being effective, some of last night’s tweets were wonderfully funny.
Footnote. At lunchtime today, I’ll be interviewing John Finucane, the SF candidate in North Belfast. If you have a (serious) question for him, let me know before 11.30 am and I’ll see if I can squeeze it in.
I have to agree with your critique ,Jude.Caroline Lucas of the Greens was the most lucid contributor and Tim Farron of the Lib Dems’also spoke with fluidity and confidence. Jeremy Corbyn was easily the most statesmanlike when he was allowed to finish a sentence and came across as a humane and intelligent politician, calm under fire .Theresa May was absent because she fears this kind of open debate but she sent along a strident “every Tory” , another flip-flopping career politician ,in the shape of Amber Rudd. it is easily apparent that the conservatives will say anything and lie through their teeth to remain in power. Unfortunately a lot of folk seem entranced with their lust for power.
Theresa May is either so confident already that she has already won the election and doesn’t need to debate it at all or she is scared shitless that she will be revealed in a “live” context as a tatterdemalion politician shot full of holes. She has already refused the head- to- head with Corbyn , chaired by Paxman which would have seen her ripped to shreds live on television .Instead , she is attempting to control debate in a dictatorial kind of way by changing the game itself.
These debates are great fun for us onlookers and there is no doubt that the media is controlled by the right -wing almost entirely and they have consisently painted Corbyn in a poor light ,but if you caught Corbyn on” the One “earlier in the week , you could easily see the real man behind the politician ; a man secure in himself talking about the entire stretch and complexity of his life, in a good -humoured and relaxed way. I would say that this reached a higher audience of viewers and might really have done him more good than any debate. I hav eno doubt that he resonates with younger voters in a way that Theresa May will never do , so there is some hope for the future.
Hi Harry, just want to say i’m glad to see you’re back commenting, don’t leave it so long next time! While i don’t always agree with you, I have to admit you are a voice of reason more often than not, and I enjoy your contributions (almost as much as Gio’s ;-0) Now if we could only convince Jessica to come back…
Take care
Kieran
Thanks for the kind words Kieran. This is my very busy time of the year with my honeybees, which is the main reason I’ve been offside for a while.There’s also a new grand daughter to factor in too.I’ll doubtless get back into my stride when things calm down a bit with the honeybees. I’ve had to do some box-building and general tidying -up on that front.
Is it just my imagination Harry or has there been a dramatic increase in the bee population after many years of decline.
Definitely noticing a increase in my small garden.
I couldn’t really answer that one Scott.My own garden is a madhouse of wildlife .There many species cries of bees too.I have currently four hives doing well and I’ll probably bring on a few extra nuns and queens during the summer if possible.They’ll fly within a radius of four miles roughly..and some might even stay close to home..I get the impression over this past six years or so that more people are interested in keeping bees because they are important to the environment but there has been a problem worldwide associated wit h pesticides and monoculture farming.
Jude ask John which is a bigger mountain to climb, the Antrim team he played in to win Ulster or him winning this seat at the first time of trying. He was a brilliant keeper at his peak.
“Tatterdemallion”! Love that word Harry/Paddy. I hope to dine out on it.
Me too, Brian. Haven’t heard it in decades…
You have to admit, the DUP have a point when they cried discrimination at being left out of this debate. The Green Party and Plaid Cymru (think that’s the correct spelling) both only have 1 MP I believe and yet they were invited to the debate last night. The Liberal Democrats have 9 MP’s and UKIP have zero now, not to mention they lost around 90% of their councillors a few weeks ago. Both were at the debate. The DUP on the other hand has 8 MP’s, the UUP 2 MP’s but yet both weren’t invited to the debate and still weren’t when they complained.
Surely there’s more reason to invite the DUP/UUP to a public debate than the likes of Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and especially UKIP? Both parties combined are the 3rd largest grouping in Westminster and could be potentially very important in any Brexit deal. Despite this the British media/government and public don’t want to know them and repeatedly ignore them despite protest.
Does this not show Unionists here how much Westminster thinks of them? Do they not realize that they are regarded as “Paddies” just as much as any Shinner is by the vast majority who sit on the green benches at Westminster? Indeed, when Northern Ireland is the topic of debate at Westminster about 90% of the benches are empty or used for snoozing.
PS: Another thing I don’t get is why the DUP/UUP don’t run candidates in Britain itself, the same way SF/PBP runs candidates both North and South of Ireland. Surely if the United Kingdom is one country the DUP/UUP would seek to get a foothold on politics in GB and strengthen their hand at Westminster? the same way SF has done in the South.
Plaid Cymru have 3 MPs and are the second largest party in the Welsh assembly and Welsh local government, that’s why Leanne was there
@Sraid
The DUP has 8 MP’s, are the largest party in the NI Assembly, are repeatedly quoted as being potentially important in passing any deal on brexit at Westminster and were demanding to be part of the debate.
Why wasn’t Arlene allowed to be there?….
Possibly the reason the DUP were not invited to take part is because the BBC think of them, as David Trimble said some years ago: ‘They are still not house trained’!