UK General Election 2010: The Final Leadership Debate

Eight million people watched the final leaders' debate last night between the leaders of the three main parties:

• The incumbent Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown  
• The leader of the Opposition and Conservative Party leader, David Cameron
• The leader of the Liberal Democrats party, Nick Clegg

The theme of last night's debate was about economic issues.

The questions from audience members were about spending cuts, taxes, taxpayers funding the banks while ordinary people are worse off, how to rebuild the country's manufacturing industries, immigration, housing, abuse of the benefits system, and education.

In his opening remark, Gordon Brown made a passing reference to his embarrassing blunder on Wednesday (when he left his microphone on after an encounter with a woman in Rochdale so he was heard calling her 'a bigoted woman') :

"There's a lot to this job, and as you saw yesterday I don't get all of it right. But I do know how to run the economy in the good times and in the bad.”

All three leaders seemed in a fighting spirit and there were times when some of the bickering seemed to be quite intense, particularly when Brown and Cameron had a heated exchange about inheritance tax.

The discussion about immigration was interesting but it had all been said before in a previous debate. I'm still shocked that Nick Clegg proposes an amnesty for illegal immigrants. It's rather a slap in the face for those of us (like me) who came here legally.

About housing. Cameron said stamp duty should be removed for the first £250,000 and that there should be changes to planning rules so more houses could be built. Clegg proposed converting empty properties into more homes. Brown stressed the need to get building societies and banks to start lending again.

I've only mentioned a few points from the debate. A full transcript of last night's leaders' debate is available on the BBC website.

I wonder if any of the televised debates had much impact on voters. Did you watch last night's debate? Did it change your views in any way about how you would vote?

Happy St George's Day!

St George is the patron saint of England.

Today, April 23rd, is England's national day: 

St George's Day!

Celebrations to mark St George's Day will take place across England today and over the weekend.

St George's Day 2010, Activities, Celebrations, Ideas  (via Enjoy England)

London St. George's Day 2010

St. George's Day gets Google Doodle  (link via metro.co.uk)

Facts about St. George's Day, England's national day  (link via Woodlands Junior School)

Urgup in Turkey seeks English twin on St George's Day  (link via BBC News)

Pageant of St George returns to London after 425 years  (link via BBC News)

Download a free copy of The Ricky Gervais Guide to The English to mark St George's Day
(link via guardian.co.uk)

St George's Day Crafts  (link via Activity Village)

Today is also William Shakespeare's birthday and it's appropriate to quote from his play, Henry V, with one of Shakespeare's most famous quotes:

 'Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

and another famous quote is by Sir Winston Churchill:

"There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word,

which means more to me than any other. That word is ENGLAND."

Happy St George's Day!

UK General Election 2010 - the second televised leaders' debate

Tonight was the second televised leaders' debate between the leaders of the three main parties:

• The incumbent Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown
• The leader of the Opposition and Conservative Party leader David Cameron
• The leader of the Liberal Democrats party, Nick Clegg

The theme of tonight's debate was about international affairs.

I thought all three party leaders seemed more aggresive and determined. The debate was definitely much more animated and intense than last week's debate.

I was surprised when they talked a bit about MPs expenses since they discussed that in the first debate and they really just repeated what they said last week. 

At one point in tonight's debate, all three leaders were quibbling about Britain's relationship with America. Then when Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg started to banter back and forth, Gordon Brown stood there with a big grin on his face and then Brown told the audience: "They remind me of my two young boys squabbling at bathtime." Then he said, "'I am afraid David is anti-European, Nick is anti- American."

The immigration issue was discussed at length. Gordon Brown said (bragged more like) that there will be identity cards for foreigners coming into the UK.

I want to know how that is going to help. How do identity cards for foreign nationals make a difference to immigration? Gordon Brown is obsessed with ID cards!

Gordon Brown and David Cameron both disagreed with Nick Clegg about his plans for immigration amnesty. Brown said that the points system was working and Cameron said that we need to have a cap on people coming from outside the European Union for economic reasons.

Climate change and Environmental issues were also discussed. I was pleased to hear David Cameron say, "I've come out very strongly against the third runway at Heathrow. We should be going for high speed rail instead."

What did you think of the second debate?

The Dunkirk spirit is helping people stranded in Europe

Due to the ash cloud (from the volcano in Iceland) spreading across Europe and halting air travel, people are pooling resources together to help each other. Yes, there are alternative modes of transport (buses, trains, ferries) but they are booked solid so lots of people are stranded across Europe and desperate to get home.

And once again, Twitter is proving to be a valuable tool in times of need. People on Twitter are using the appropriate hashtag, #getmehome that @indiaknight started to share travel, ideas, tips, lifts with others and to simply connect to each other and offer support in any way they can. It's the Dunkirk spirit at work to help people who are stranded.

I'm so impressed with the way people are volunteering to help each other (total strangers) and also impressed with the way Twitter is once again proving to be such a valuable tool. It's simply wonderful.

Edited to add: More Dunkirk spirit
Dan Snow @thehistoryguy is going to Calais, France tomorrow (Sunday, April 18th) to bring people home via a fleet of five speed boats! He's set up a special twitter account: calaisrescue

UK General Election 2010 - the first televised leaders' debate

Last night was the (first of three) live televised debates between the leaders of the three main parties:

The incumbent Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown
The leader of the Opposition and Conservative Party leader David Cameron
The leader of the Liberal Democrats party, Nick Clegg

This was an historic event since it was the first live television debate in a UK election.

It was a long debate - run without a break for 90 minutes - and I thought it was moderated very well by Alastair Stewart. I didn't like the the lack of audience noise though (no audience applause was allowed). It was like the audience wasn't there. The topics discussed were Immigration; the National Health Service (NHS); Education; Law and Order; and Political reform.

Nick Clegg appeared to be the most relaxed and speaking much more candidly than Mr Brown and Mr Cameron. And I was very pleased when Nick Clegg mentioned scrapping both identity cards and the National Programme for IT. He talked about the expense of the ID cards and how that money could be spent on more police officers on the streets. So true.

When the debate turned to political reform, Gordon Brown turned to David Cameron and said, "Please no more hereditary MPs." I was pleased to hear David Cameron's retort, "You've had 13 years to reform the House of Lords." Quite.

It was noticeable (and quite funny) how often Gordon Brown said, ""I agree with Nick". Hilarious! It wasn't exactly a subtle way to show that he's courting Nick and the Liberal Democrats for their votes!

Nick Clegg has been hailed as the winner of the first televised leaders' debate.

I enjoyed watching the debate, however, I don't think I learned any new information about the respective policies of each party leader so even though it was interesting to watch and probably inevitable that this sort of tv debate would happen here, I'm not sure of its usefulness. To me, it's the policies that matter, not how the person "looks" on tv.

Did you watch the debate? Do you think the tv debate is a good idea? Who do you think "won" the debate? Did the debate change the way you will vote?

If you missed it, you can watch the debate again:

The First Election Debate on ITV1: 15th April 2010

British airspace is closed due to Iceland volcano!

All flights to and from UK airports have been cancelled due to clouds of volcanic ash from Iceland

Flights cancelled by volcanic ash: what are your rights?

A cloud of volcanic ash has forced the closure of all UK air space and the cancellation of hundreds of flights, leaving passengers to choose between a refund or waiting for airports to reopen.

(link via telegraph.co.uk)

May 6th General Election!

The Prime Minister has (finally) called a General Election. It will be held on Thursday 6 May

Unfortunately, I can't vote because I'm not a British citizen (yet) but if I could vote, the parties' stand on freedom would certainly be a deciding vote for me. If you think it's an important issue too, you might like to use a handy pdf with a list of 10 questions to ask candidates about civil liberties (via the Guardian). I would also like to know more from each party about their stance regarding citizenship equality.

Of course, there are other important issues too, such as the economy, education, and the NHS.

Will you be voting? What issues are you most concerned about?