Heat or light
I know I'm probably in a minority of one but I wish last Thursday's had never happened.
Gordon, Gordon, Gordon, you will forever be responsible for us having to go through this charade ad infinitum.
You didn't have to do it but now there's no going back.
Why? Because despite the reservations about beauty pageant politics by old curmudgeons like me, something seems to have happened.
Like our silent skies, you can sense something is different but it's hard to know yet quite what.
, the Lib Dems' Health spokesman and North Norfolk MP, is not overwhelmed by the apparent surge in support for the Lib Dems... yet.
"It's the first time we've been ahead in the polls since ," he told me.
"I'm realistic - when you're in the third party your expectations aren't so high. But just getting the recognition factor for Nick Clegg has been a breakthrough.
"It's more pressure though, before it didn't really matter if we didn't get it quite perfect, but now everyone's watching.
"Disaffection with the economy and Parliament is manifesting itself in people wanting a fresh look. People are used to a plurality of choice. Then when it comes to politics, suddenly it's 'this or that' and people are realising that's not the case."
Whether all this would have happened without the introduction of X Factor politics, I don't know."
I would like to think so because I'm still not interested in who won. In my opinion, we all lost.
Welcome to the political blog for the East. I'm Deborah McGurran, the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Political Editor for the region. From Lowestoft to Luton, this is the place for politics with an eastern twist.
Comment number 1.
At 21st Apr 2010, Nich wrote:Perhaps the reason you dislike the debates so much is because it usurps your spin on the news. No longer are people subjected to a slanted view of politics where politicians fight for a 15 second soundbite whilst your pick and choose who the main protagonists are (as ´óÏó´«Ã½ EAST did with the Greens in Norwich North last year). Instead people can see for themselves and make judgements live, in real time.
The truth is the media have lost control of the election. All your prewritten stories, spin that the Lib Dems are in trouble in Cambridge based on no evidence, the story that had long been rehearsed about David Cameron sweeping to victory or simply your choice of where to attend for the election night count has been made null and void.
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Comment number 2.
At 21st Apr 2010, john wrote:Dear Deborah
Not only you wished that the debate hadn't happened but also David Cameron agrees with you . He looked like the proverbial rabbit in the headlights - what to do ? run , dodge or take it like a rabbit?.
As 'For we all lost' - phooey ( politesse comes to the fore ) we all won because we could all make a contemporary comparison - those that couldn't eventually wouldn't
in the past we have all had to make a judgement about the national government on the appearance of the local ( nice , smiling , good with kids etc. but nothing about how to fix the things that needed fixing - either locally or nationally ) candidates.
Tony Benn said that the electorate had been disenfranchised - in this he meant that the voter had little or no choice in any election . Perhaps televised debates are a means to reversing this democratic decline..
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Comment number 3.
At 22nd Apr 2010, Guy Singh wrote:You may be interested in looking at how Twitter feeds showed election debate candidates faired on the different subjects related to the question that were asked by the audience, you can find such an analysis here
This is going to run again tonight so it will be interesting to see how the results compare against last week.
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Comment number 4.
At 23rd Apr 2010, Elwin Tennant wrote:Deborah you are a whisker away from putting your finger on the way forward here. Everyone's complaining about the parties, determining not to vote and feeling disenfranchised. It's time to introduce the greatest development in democracy since the universal franchise - a None of the Above option.
No excuse not to vote, and be prepared to get involved and say why you voted NOTA. We really can't go on the way we are.
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