Liberal Vision

Vince the invincible..

Ok. In the past 24 hours (since the Leaders Debate as it happens ) we  have received dozens of emails asking us to reinstate the link to the “Vince video” . To my knowledge the link was always there….and anyway I think that Nick has proven he is “de man” but hey… here is the link again

(ps.. it is a year out of date….but you know that ….right  ??)

 

Tags: general election, I agree with Nick, Leaders Debate, Nick Clegg, Vince Cable

NEW POLL – LIB DEMS ON 35 PER CENT!

Word breaks that a new ComRes poll is showing the following voting intention:

• Dave Nu Lite Conservatives – 36%

• Super Clegg’s Lib Dems – 35%

• Gordo’s OldNuLab – 24%

Before you start running off to your constituencies and preparing for government, note that the poll was taken, I believe, only from people who watched the TV debate.

I’ll update and add links as and when they become available.

ConsHome are reporting it here.

Guido is reporting it here.

Update:

David Cowling, editor of the BBC’s Political Research Unit, has been examining that ITV/ComRes poll. He says: “This was not a voting intention poll but a panel of people who watched the debate and then gave their voting intentions afterwards. This is not a national random sample of the population – some 46 million people – but a sample of the nine million who watched the debate and we have no certainty that the sample even speak representatively for them.”

Also, Sky News report that the poll numbers are “still being finalised”.

Tags: comres, David Cameron, general election 2010, Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg, opinion polls, tv debate

Littlewood asks whether this will be the first and the last election to feature “the leaders debate”..

politicalbetting.com shows the following results on  tonight’s leaders debate…

ITV poll:          Clegg 43  Cameron 26  Brown 20

YouGov:          Clegg 51  Cameron 29  Brown 19

Angus Reid:  Clegg 46  Cameron 21  Brown 19

One of the founders of Liberal Vision – Mark Littlewood – (and who is canny on the betting side of all things political (and football) is questioning whether this will be the first and the last election to feature “the leaders debate”.

He may have a point.

Several months back when these things were being tentatively brokered Brown may have thought he had little to lose, with the Tories having carved out a huge lead….. Cameron may have thought he had all to gain (his lead seemingly unassailable) … how wrong they both were. Some might argue that Nick got lucky. To some extent this is true. It certainly was not Lib Dem pressure that squeezed Nick into the debate – that “credit” goes to the broadcaster’s psephologists – who all unequivocally agreed that the Lib Dem leader should be involved. That surely tells us something- (they are no mugs) and perhaps should have told Messrs Brown and Cameron something too.

It’s hard to see any Tory or Labour leader letting this happen again. Talk about giving the Lib Dems a free pass…. Then again….how silly they will look when they refuse…oh ..I am already looking forward to the next election before this one has even got going.

Tags: Leaders Debate, Mark Littlewood

Brown bamboozled and Cameron got Nicked!!!

One clear winner on the first leaders debate tonight…Nick Clegg.

The talk will now be of David Cameron being “Clegg-lite” rather than the other way round.

Nick was an easy winner. The ITV news poll of 4000 people put Nick not just ahead – but a country mile ahead (and am told that You Gov poll for Sun also gives it unreservedly to Nick).

Nick had some wonderful touches – simply excellent eye contact with the viewer – talking into the camera time and again – oooh that was good, relaxed attitude (so relaxed he was positively laid back – and er hmmm had his hands in his pockets most of the evening), a grasp of the facts and figures, constantly distancing himself from the other two parties … oh and lets not forget the name-checking those that asked the questions at the end (buy the person that thought of that one a bottle of something bubbly)… A very polished performance.

Brown was, well Brown – fish out of water- this is not his natural environment (still not quite sure why he agreed to do this). Perhaps it is a result of his physical disability but if you cant look people in the eye they will be disinclined to believe you – and Brown never once looked down the barrel of the gun – into the camera – to talk directly to the viewers. His disability should not prevent that, that’s surely the disfunctionality of the personality. It was also funny that Gordon insisted on calling Nick into his defence on several occasions ….”I know Nick agrees with me”…. (Nick largely looking bemused!!)

Cameron will be bitterly disappointed- the programme exposed yet again his lack of detail – but perhaps more importantly – he is supposed to be the man of style over substance – well tonight there was no style or substance….. He looked first uncomfortable – then increasingly deflated and defeated. His insistence on name-checking a place or person he had visited in recent weeks on every question started out sound phony and ended up just down right ridiculous…methinks he protested too much about being in touch with the ordinary bloke. Give it a rest Dave..

The big question we have to ask ourselves of course is ..can tonight’s performance be converted to a 2-3% boost in the polls? If it can…its game on.

Tags: Add new tag, ITV, Leaders Debate, Nick Clegg

We aint gonna take it…

Today the Liberal Democrats launched their manifesto. Of course a lot of the media reporting centred on economics, the public debt, , and whether Lib Dems sums added up (at least they had sums to add up!), the four key policies…etc etc .

Yes the economy is important. It’s right that the sums must add up. Of course we want Vince to talk about “the elephant in the room” (and no Vince you are NOT elephant man)… but lets not forget the other stuff……

Tags: civil liberties, general election, Liberal Democrat manifesto, Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg