Voters walked out of a Tory campaign event – leaving flailing David Cameron red faced as he defended Conservative cuts.
The Prime Minister hoped to win over mobile phone workers with a town hall-style question-and-answer session.
But the bid backfired when they subjected him to a 42-minute grilling him over food banks, legal aid cuts and slashing benefits for the most vulnerable.
The flustered PM, sweat glistening at the base of his neck, watched as up to 30 of the 200-strong audience at O2 in Leeds walked out during his appearance, preferring to go back to work than listen to his electioneering.
Ed will be storming to victory if the 15% who walked out all vote for him.
Good point from Toby Young over at The Telegraph: "Finally, the reason this was good for the Prime Minister is because it gave us a taste of the chaos that will ensue if Ed Miliband is in a position to form a government on May 8. This is what a “rainbow coalition” would look like – a weak Labour leader being pushed to the left by three anti-austerity party leaders."
Spot On.
Except the reason people fear the SNP is not because they're "anti-austerity". It's because people fear it would mean preferential treatment for Scotland and/or would pave the way for independence.
Which it would. What's the SNP for, in a UK context, if not to get preferential treatment for Scotland? By definition that means someone else losing - England.
I wonder if these debates are actually changing people's political opinions. It's an angle that's not talked about much- and I think that might be partially because politicos/anoraks are likely to be more fixed in their opinions or tribal. But maybe a secondary effect of Cameron getting all these anti-austerity people all this screen time is that public opinion will actually move somewhat against austerity.
I doubt it'd be some huge sea change, but might be enough to matter at the margins.
Good point from Toby Young over at The Telegraph: "Finally, the reason this was good for the Prime Minister is because it gave us a taste of the chaos that will ensue if Ed Miliband is in a position to form a government on May 8. This is what a “rainbow coalition” would look like – a weak Labour leader being pushed to the left by three anti-austerity party leaders."
Spot On.
"chaos" hasn't really taken hold as a thing in this campaign.
it has if your posts are any guide
"Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos...” - The Joker.
The debate might not shift many votes directly but it could well push up Ed M's polling numbers. He was the only one there who looked like a prime minister, the others were negotiating with him, arguably deferring to him. Nicola Sturgeon for all her feistyness and debating ability was effectively trying to play a fairly weak hand in advance of coalition negotiations and it showed. As OGH has said if Ed M becomes PM, this could well end up being David Cameron's "Sheffield rally" moment, a convenient but wrong analysis of why he lost. Another example of what has been, so far, a very poor tory campaign
Everyone did well out of this again. Ed played the reasonable card, Leanne got to ride Nicola's coattails, Natalie stood up for the Greens well, Nicola hit it out of the park, and Farage got to scoff at all these lefties with no competition.
My totally unasked for thoughts
Openings LW - More stilted than last time. NF - Direct and positive EM - Serviceable NS - Positive vision of cooperation NB - I get the feeling someone told her to mention Caroline more
Q1 NS - No fumbles, but not sure why not being full blooded against austerity (she's opposed of course, but supports 'modest' increases) EM - the voice of austerity. Good delivery, he's actually decent at this, to the surprise of too many. NB - Did she say she was concerned about the debt? Not the impression I usually get from them. NF - Able to be distinct from others. Quite specific. LW - NS mark2
Ed was talking about being the balance between extremes - he's a LD now? Nicola/Leanne/Natalie merging into one person for this bit.
Q2 EM - Easy answers, noone to rebut his claims about government. A few applause lines, but not many. NF - Decent - clear from start immigration being 'solved' would not fix problems, which was promptly ignored by everyone else. I agree crowd was weirdly hostile, but why bring it up? Complain about it later! NB - My mind wandered. Apologies Natalie. Earnest later on. NS - Had clear idea for whole UK, not only Scotland. Crowd lapping it up. LW - I don't remember a thing she said.
Q3 NF - Pretty reasonable, but no reaction in support. LW - More than the others she sounds scripted, not genuine. NS - Conventional defence being strong not a bad idea to focus on, hard to argue against. Got away with evading answer about previous lukewarm support for NATO. EM - Ok at first, better when flatly denying Farage later. Then peddled his lie about Syria, the biggest problem I have with him in these debates, but shouldn't harm him at all. NB - Actually raised reasonable point about regional support for ISIS a big problem, not just that they are evil.
Q4 NB - firm and bold going against premise of questioner, though unnecessarily went after Farage during a positive period, when she would have got the chance to attack him later. NS - I had no idea the SNP wanted strong controls on immigration. Allowed to evade answer on what that meant, just usual platitudes about understanding concerns and being stronger EM - Tried to be strong on weak issue for Labour. NF - Not a single clap despite nothing controversial at first. Surprised he doubled down on HIV stuff - he could be totally right and they would still have been salivating over that. LW - Eager to be most anti-NF (agreed with allies?)
NHS debate out of nowhere - I bet Dimbleby allowed it as it was the only thing that really broke up the Farage vs everyone show and got Ed M more riled up at the others.
Q5 Thank you Dimbleby for trying to forestall the goddamn 'I'm going for a majority' non-answer. EM - Old cliches about letting people decide from Ed. NF - A clear line at least. NS - Selling rainbow coalition, but with her making Ed better. LW - Long list of demands for so few MPs. NB - As above
Why the problem with 'ideological tory cuts' rather than just tory cuts, given Labour will still cut and Greens/SNP/PC seem the most ideologically minded of all. Fairly good Ed M line on Clegg, Cameron and a bit of Farage, no reaction from audience. Why must I despise the Tories if I don't vote for them? Can I not just be allowed to disagree and perhaps not automatically join the anti-tory club?
Summaries
NS - Seems to suggest will end austerity - so expects Labour to abandon it completely it seems? LW - Carbon copy, but without the ability to demand it, given have promises support to stop Tories and not enough MPs to back up threat to pull out. NB: As above EM - Focused, going for presidential challenge NF - Weakest part of the night, not a great closer
The loser is Cameron, of course. Even worse are the LD's who made themselves irrelevant- one step below loser, but I do not know how you can classify that.
AIUI the lib dems wanted to be there but we're prevented from attending. I'm not sure why though.
Tabman, that's utter bollocks by any interpretation. What you're saying and what Alexander said is that Cameron decided that the LD couldn't attend. If so, that's utterly craven on Clegg's part. He should have insisted before the vote that he wanted to be present. Leaving Dave totally isolated. Lib Dems were big losers tonight.
Really quite looking forwards to the QT programme in a fortnight. If only that it doesn't contain the awful, and shrill Ms Bennett (tonight definitely cemented my dislike of her - why on earth they use her instead of Lucas is surely one of the great political riddles) . Quite looking forwards to the absence of the Nationalist too, and I think we've rather exhausted Farage's repertoire.
roadto326 @roadto326 2m2 minutes ago News at 10 good for Miliband. That little montage of them all slating Cameron awful for the Tories.
Good day for Dave O2 disaster! and getting slagged off for not turning up tonight.
Bad headlines what did he expect?
But who is going to help Miliband run the country? LD swingback to LD, UKIP swingback to Cons leaves the coalition back in power (although Dave's position by no means safe but I'd back him to stay).
. But maybe a secondary effect of Cameron getting all these anti-austerity people all this screen time is that public opinion will actually move somewhat against austerity.
People are already against austerity I think. But since the big two are both promising it, it's a question of whether Lab can still get the votes of those who are totally anti-Austerity or not, because they hate the Tories more. The PC/Greens and SNP clear they do hate the Tories enough to work with Labour, and trying to give impression they will also stop Labour implementing austerity - if that works, all four of them could do well (though Lab suffer comparatively nevertheless, if he has to work with them, but still gets to be PM of course)
Come on survation, get that poll out already. Everyone's getting antsy enough to start talking about twitter sentiment analysis as if it's a real thing
I cannot do any work until I know the results..........
The real loser tonight was the BBC. A real disgrace.
The audience was bad, but that wasn't done by the BBC. I know I may be alone in this, but I thought Dimbleby was good as well. He didn't intervene too much, seemed pretty fair in his dealings with them all. Only ok, but that's better than people say he is thesedays. Other than that, there was nothing to object to or support in the BBC during it. The people actually asking the questions, given how they framed their questions, seemed the only potentially right wing people there though.
Come on survation, get that poll out already. Everyone's getting antsy enough to start talking about twitter sentiment analysis as if it's a real thing
I cannot do any work until I know the results..........
The real loser tonight was the BBC. A real disgrace.
The audience was bad, but that wasn't done by the BBC. I know I may be alone in this, but I thought Dimbleby was good as well. He didn't intervene too much, seemed pretty fair in his dealings with them all. Only ok, but that's better than people say he is thesedays. Other than that, there was nothing to object to or support in the BBC during it. The people actually asking the questions, given how they framed their questions, seemed the only potentially right wing people there though.
The BBC set the guidelines to their own audience surely?
If the BBC had told the audience to be quiet I suspect they would have been. I've been in the Question Time audience once before and before it started Dimbleby spoke to the audience saying they wanted the audience to be vocal and applaud etc - it seems like they did the same this time.
Come on survation, get that poll out already. Everyone's getting antsy enough to start talking about twitter sentiment analysis as if it's a real thing
I cannot do any work until I know the results..........
The real loser tonight was the BBC. A real disgrace.
The audience was bad, but that wasn't done by the BBC. I know I may be alone in this, but I thought Dimbleby was good as well. He didn't intervene too much, seemed pretty fair in his dealings with them all. Only ok, but that's better than people say he is thesedays.
Thought the NHS intervention by him was a bit unnecessary as it was a debate about public services & they were getting lively?
I am frankly shocked. Sturgeon was even better than last time, a clear winner I'd have thought even as Ed looked so very reasonable the whole time, with her populist railings.
Anything other than a clear sign Ed flopped with the public a failure for Cameron though, surely? How can that be argued? He needs support for Ed to drop, and his to rise, neither of which seems likely if Ed can be argued even in one lone poll to have won this thing.
I note that Farage calling Ed a liar hasn't made it on to the BBC news.
Pro UKIP bias on the BBC then ....
I presume that was meant to be funny, try harder please
Certainly not.
Calling another politician a liar isn't generally liked by the punters and usually results in a negative response. Accordingly Farage's rant at Miliband being cut by the Beeb is probably very good for Nigel.
Fuller results: Survation/Daily Mirror Debate Poll Sample size: Fieldwork: Immediately after the debate’s conclusion. No polling during. Data Weighted To ONS 2012 targets on: Age, Gender, 2010 Past Vote, Region (6), SEG. Who do you think ‘won’ the debate? Ed Miliband - 35% Nigel Farage - 27% Natalie Bennett - 5% Nicola Sturgeon - 31% Leanne Wood - 2%
Would make the best Prime Minister? Ed Miliband - 43% Nigel Farage - 26% Nicola Sturgeon - 25% Natalie Bennett - 3% Leanne Wood - 3%
Performed the “best”? Ed Miliband - 29% Nigel Farage - 26% Nicola Sturgeon - 35% Natalie Bennett - 5% Leanne Wood - 5%
Performed the “worst”? Ed Miliband - 18% Nigel Farage - 36% Nicola Sturgeon - 6% Natalie Bennett - 21% Leanne Wood - 17%
Had the most convincing arguments? Ed Miliband - 31% Nigel Farage - 31% Nicola Sturgeon - 24% Natalie Bennett - 10% Leanne Wood - 4%
Had the most appealing personality? Ed Miliband - 21% Nigel Farage - 23% Nicola Sturgeon - 30% Natalie Bennett - 9% Leanne Wood - 16%
Answered the questions put to them best? Ed Miliband - 27% Nigel Farage - 30% Nicola Sturgeon - 31% Natalie Bennett - 8% Leanne Wood - 5%
Best on immigration? Ed Miliband - 18% Nigel Farage - 53% Nicola Sturgeon - 13% Natalie Bennett - 10% Leanne Wood - 6%
Best on defence? Ed Miliband - 35% Nigel Farage - 37% Nicola Sturgeon - 16% Natalie Bennett - 9% Leanne Wood - 3%
Best on national debt & deficit? Ed Miliband - 40% Nigel Farage - 30% Nicola Sturgeon - 18% Natalie Bennett - 8% Leanne Wood - 4%
Best on housing? Ed Miliband - 36% Nigel Farage - 26% Nicola Sturgeon - 17% Natalie Bennett - 15% Leanne Wood - 7%
Best on NHS? Ed Miliband - 40% Nigel Farage - 28% Nicola Sturgeon - 15% Natalie Bennett - 9% Leanne Wood - 7%
Best on holding the current government to account? Ed Miliband - 35% Nigel Farage - 24% Nicola Sturgeon - 31% Natalie Bennett - 7% Leanne Wood - 4%
Straight contest between David Cameron and Ed Miliband to be Prime Minister? David Cameron - 40% Ed Miliband - 45% Would not vote - 10% Don’t know - 5%
Come on survation, get that poll out already. Everyone's getting antsy enough to start talking about twitter sentiment analysis as if it's a real thing
I cannot do any work until I know the results..........
The real loser tonight was the BBC. A real disgrace.
The audience was bad, but that wasn't done by the BBC. I know I may be alone in this, but I thought Dimbleby was good as well. He didn't intervene too much, seemed pretty fair in his dealings with them all. Only ok, but that's better than people say he is thesedays.
Thought the NHS intervention by him was a bit unnecessary as it was a debate about public services & they were getting lively?
I think that was for time more than anything else, as they all seemed to have a good crack at the NHS part. If anything I thought he let that go on when it was a debate on wider impacts than on just the NHS, because it was more interesting.
I note that Farage calling Ed a liar hasn't made it on to the BBC news.
Pro UKIP bias on the BBC then ....
I presume that was meant to be funny, try harder please
Certainly not.
Calling another politician a liar isn't generally liked by the punters and usually results in a negative response. Accordingly Farage's rant at Miliband being cut by the Beeb is probably very good for Nigel.
The punters like the truth, this was not the HoC after all.
Straight contest between David Cameron and Ed Miliband to be Prime Minister? David Cameron - 40% Ed Miliband - 45% Would not vote - 10% Don’t know - 5%
That is rather out of sync with normal polling. Be interesting to see the demographics of the people they polled, as they is way way out from what we normally see.
If it repeated elsewhere, obviously Cameron is absolutely and utterly screwed.
Come on survation, get that poll out already. Everyone's getting antsy enough to start talking about twitter sentiment analysis as if it's a real thing
I cannot do any work until I know the results..........
The real loser tonight was the BBC. A real disgrace.
The audience was bad, but that wasn't done by the BBC. I know I may be alone in this, but I thought Dimbleby was good as well. He didn't intervene too much, seemed pretty fair in his dealings with them all. Only ok, but that's better than people say he is thesedays. Other than that, there was nothing to object to or support in the BBC during it. The people actually asking the questions, given how they framed their questions, seemed the only potentially right wing people there though.
The BBC set the guidelines to their own audience surely?
I'm sure, but Farage and his supporters obviously won't mind that people were vocal, they will mind it was hostile against him specifically, and the opinions of the audience on who to jeer or cheer would not have been chosen by the BBC they said. (I remind any UKIPers so minded that I thought Farage did very well, in fact I said he appealed to me more than the others, so no need to assume I am defending the BBC because I am a UKIP hater)
Come on survation, get that poll out already. Everyone's getting antsy enough to start talking about twitter sentiment analysis as if it's a real thing
I cannot do any work until I know the results..........
The real loser tonight was the BBC. A real disgrace.
The audience was bad, but that wasn't done by the BBC. I know I may be alone in this, but I thought Dimbleby was good as well. He didn't intervene too much, seemed pretty fair in his dealings with them all. Only ok, but that's better than people say he is thesedays.
Thought the NHS intervention by him was a bit unnecessary as it was a debate about public services & they were getting lively?
Don't think anyone was surprised by his intervention given that Farage was sticking it to Ed over his appalling record on the NHS.
Straight contest between David Cameron and Ed Miliband to be Prime Minister? David Cameron - 40% Ed Miliband - 45% Would not vote - 10% Don’t know - 5%
That is rather out of sync with normal polling. Be interesting to see the demographics of the people they polled, as they is way way out from what we normally see.
If it repeated elsewhere, obviously Cameron is absolutely and utterly screwed.
Most polls don't take place minutes after one of those two people got an hour and a half of decent screentime and the other was conspicuously absent
Straight contest between David Cameron and Ed Miliband to be Prime Minister? David Cameron - 40% Ed Miliband - 45% Would not vote - 10% Don’t know - 5%
That is rather out of sync with normal polling. Be interesting to see the demographics of the people they polled, as they is way way out from what we normally see.
If it repeated elsewhere, obviously Cameron is absolutely and utterly screwed.
Of course, this is also the single most propitious moment to ask that question in the whole campaign and get EM as an answer.
roadto326 @roadto326 19s19 seconds ago Crossover has now occurred - though not in the way the Tories hoped. EdM now favourite to be PM after election with Ladbrokes.
Miliband won imho. He came across as pretty responsible and a leader. Farage lost. totally.
Very funny Daily Mail front cover. Not for the faint hearted of leftwing persuasion.
Farage is just trying to shore up his vote these days. He was never going to 'win' with that strategy and probably never expected to.
Miliband benefits hugely from all of these debates because each time he unpicks a bit more of the 'weird' story. Tonight, as you say, he even went a bit further and even looked a leader. I'd have said it was a win for him too.
Big losers surely the LD's? As Emily Maitliss pointed out they didn't get one single mention in the 90 minute debate.
Well she's wrong, they had 2 mentions. Ed Miliband making a joke about the potential for a Cameron, Clegg government with a bit of Farage, and Natalie Bennett directly appealing to their former voters in her closer.
Granted the basic point of it being bad for them stands.
Think we need to see the audience share for this and then poll watch but Im a tory leaner & even I think Miliband not only won but looked prime ministerial. In fact if he gets in I won't be so alarmed after that. Cant see how that can help David Cameron.
roadto326 @roadto326 19s19 seconds ago Crossover has now occurred - though not in the way the Tories hoped. EdM now favourite to be PM after election with Ladbrokes.
GOsborneGenius retweeted Jim Pickard @PickardJE 2m2 minutes ago Killer poll: Straight contest, Cameron and Miliband to be Prime Minister? Cameron - 40% Miliband - 45% Don’t know - 5% Survation/Mirror
Miliband had the most amount of time to answer questions, and the three women all asked him questions if he were PM. However, Sturgeon's wooing of Miliband will come back to haunt him. You could see by his contorted expression how much he wanted to avoid engaging with her. Could cost Labour the election.
Comments
I doubt it'd be some huge sea change, but might be enough to matter at the margins.
I thought he was great: "you lot don't understand" (to include the audience, natch).
Plus aren't accusations of lying not usually taken more seriously??!
My totally unasked for thoughts
Openings
LW - More stilted than last time.
NF - Direct and positive
EM - Serviceable
NS - Positive vision of cooperation
NB - I get the feeling someone told her to mention Caroline more
Q1
NS - No fumbles, but not sure why not being full blooded against austerity (she's opposed of course, but supports 'modest' increases)
EM - the voice of austerity. Good delivery, he's actually decent at this, to the surprise of too many.
NB - Did she say she was concerned about the debt? Not the impression I usually get from them.
NF - Able to be distinct from others. Quite specific.
LW - NS mark2
Ed was talking about being the balance between extremes - he's a LD now? Nicola/Leanne/Natalie merging into one person for this bit.
Q2
EM - Easy answers, noone to rebut his claims about government. A few applause lines, but not many.
NF - Decent - clear from start immigration being 'solved' would not fix problems, which was promptly ignored by everyone else. I agree crowd was weirdly hostile, but why bring it up? Complain about it later!
NB - My mind wandered. Apologies Natalie. Earnest later on.
NS - Had clear idea for whole UK, not only Scotland. Crowd lapping it up.
LW - I don't remember a thing she said.
Q3
NF - Pretty reasonable, but no reaction in support.
LW - More than the others she sounds scripted, not genuine.
NS - Conventional defence being strong not a bad idea to focus on, hard to argue against. Got away with evading answer about previous lukewarm support for NATO.
EM - Ok at first, better when flatly denying Farage later. Then peddled his lie about Syria, the biggest problem I have with him in these debates, but shouldn't harm him at all.
NB - Actually raised reasonable point about regional support for ISIS a big problem, not just that they are evil.
Q4
NB - firm and bold going against premise of questioner, though unnecessarily went after Farage during a positive period, when she would have got the chance to attack him later.
NS - I had no idea the SNP wanted strong controls on immigration. Allowed to evade answer on what that meant, just usual platitudes about understanding concerns and being stronger
EM - Tried to be strong on weak issue for Labour.
NF - Not a single clap despite nothing controversial at first. Surprised he doubled down on HIV stuff - he could be totally right and they would still have been salivating over that.
LW - Eager to be most anti-NF (agreed with allies?)
NHS debate out of nowhere - I bet Dimbleby allowed it as it was the only thing that really broke up the Farage vs everyone show and got Ed M more riled up at the others.
Q5
Thank you Dimbleby for trying to forestall the goddamn 'I'm going for a majority' non-answer.
EM - Old cliches about letting people decide from Ed.
NF - A clear line at least.
NS - Selling rainbow coalition, but with her making Ed better.
LW - Long list of demands for so few MPs.
NB - As above
Why the problem with 'ideological tory cuts' rather than just tory cuts, given Labour will still cut and Greens/SNP/PC seem the most ideologically minded of all. Fairly good Ed M line on Clegg, Cameron and a bit of Farage, no reaction from audience. Why must I despise the Tories if I don't vote for them? Can I not just be allowed to disagree and perhaps not automatically join the anti-tory club?
Summaries
NS - Seems to suggest will end austerity - so expects Labour to abandon it completely it seems?
LW - Carbon copy, but without the ability to demand it, given have promises support to stop Tories and not enough MPs to back up threat to pull out.
NB: As above
EM - Focused, going for presidential challenge
NF - Weakest part of the night, not a great closer
Your welcome, said nobody to me.
News at 10 good for Miliband. That little montage of them all slating Cameron awful for the Tories.
Good day for Dave O2 disaster! and getting slagged off for not turning up tonight.
Bad headlines what did he expect?
Mirror Politics @MirrorPolitics 2m2 minutes ago
This by Stefan Rousseau of PA is the photo of the night #BBCdebate
https://twitter.com/suttonnick/status/588813147231932416
Miliband won imho. He came across as pretty responsible and a leader. Farage lost. totally.
Very funny Daily Mail front cover. Not for the faint hearted of leftwing persuasion.
Miliband - 35%
Sturgeon - 31%
Farage - 27%
Bennett - 5%
Wood - 2%
Nick Sutton ✔ @suttonnick
Friday's Daily Mirror front page:
Tories too right wing to win
#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers #ge2015 pic.twitter.com/zlIYqnNRIn
Nick Sutton ✔ @suttonnick
Friday's Telegraph front page:
Sturgeon offer to Miliband: I'll make you PM
#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers #GE2015 pic.twitter.com/1TKOGLWZoc
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/politics/market?nodeId=MENU:27212700&id=1.101416490
Sturgeon 31%
Farage 27%
Bennett 5%
Wood - 2%
http://t.co/c8d8XF80oj
Sebastian Payne ✔ @SebastianEPayne
Survation poll finally out on #BBCDebate - Ed Miliband wins:
Miliband - 35%
Sturgeon - 31%
Farage - 27%
Bennett - 5%
Wood - 2%
Seem to recall you commenting on how awful he was during the debate, unsurprisingly Survation doesn't agree with you.
Miliband looked like a prime minister tonight.
If the BBC had told the audience to be quiet I suspect they would have been. I've been in the Question Time audience once before and before it started Dimbleby spoke to the audience saying they wanted the audience to be vocal and applaud etc - it seems like they did the same this time.
Reckon I'd have lost money.
Anything other than a clear sign Ed flopped with the public a failure for Cameron though, surely? How can that be argued? He needs support for Ed to drop, and his to rise, neither of which seems likely if Ed can be argued even in one lone poll to have won this thing.
Calling another politician a liar isn't generally liked by the punters and usually results in a negative response. Accordingly Farage's rant at Miliband being cut by the Beeb is probably very good for Nigel.
Survation/Daily Mirror Debate Poll Sample size: Fieldwork: Immediately after the debate’s conclusion. No polling during.
Data Weighted To ONS 2012 targets on: Age, Gender, 2010 Past Vote, Region (6), SEG.
Who do you think ‘won’ the debate?
Ed Miliband - 35%
Nigel Farage - 27%
Natalie Bennett - 5%
Nicola Sturgeon - 31%
Leanne Wood - 2%
Would make the best Prime Minister?
Ed Miliband - 43%
Nigel Farage - 26%
Nicola Sturgeon - 25%
Natalie Bennett - 3%
Leanne Wood - 3%
Performed the “best”?
Ed Miliband - 29%
Nigel Farage - 26%
Nicola Sturgeon - 35%
Natalie Bennett - 5%
Leanne Wood - 5%
Performed the “worst”?
Ed Miliband - 18%
Nigel Farage - 36%
Nicola Sturgeon - 6%
Natalie Bennett - 21%
Leanne Wood - 17%
Had the most convincing arguments?
Ed Miliband - 31%
Nigel Farage - 31%
Nicola Sturgeon - 24%
Natalie Bennett - 10%
Leanne Wood - 4%
Had the most appealing personality?
Ed Miliband - 21%
Nigel Farage - 23%
Nicola Sturgeon - 30%
Natalie Bennett - 9%
Leanne Wood - 16%
Answered the questions put to them best?
Ed Miliband - 27%
Nigel Farage - 30%
Nicola Sturgeon - 31%
Natalie Bennett - 8%
Leanne Wood - 5%
Best on immigration?
Ed Miliband - 18%
Nigel Farage - 53%
Nicola Sturgeon - 13%
Natalie Bennett - 10%
Leanne Wood - 6%
Best on defence?
Ed Miliband - 35%
Nigel Farage - 37%
Nicola Sturgeon - 16%
Natalie Bennett - 9%
Leanne Wood - 3%
Best on national debt & deficit?
Ed Miliband - 40%
Nigel Farage - 30%
Nicola Sturgeon - 18%
Natalie Bennett - 8%
Leanne Wood - 4%
Best on housing?
Ed Miliband - 36%
Nigel Farage - 26%
Nicola Sturgeon - 17%
Natalie Bennett - 15%
Leanne Wood - 7%
Best on NHS?
Ed Miliband - 40%
Nigel Farage - 28%
Nicola Sturgeon - 15%
Natalie Bennett - 9%
Leanne Wood - 7%
Best on holding the current government to account?
Ed Miliband - 35%
Nigel Farage - 24%
Nicola Sturgeon - 31%
Natalie Bennett - 7%
Leanne Wood - 4%
Straight contest between David Cameron and Ed Miliband to be Prime Minister?
David Cameron - 40%
Ed Miliband - 45%
Would not vote - 10%
Don’t know - 5%
PB Tories on the ball again I see.
David Cameron - 40%
Ed Miliband - 45%
Would not vote - 10%
Don’t know - 5%
That is rather out of sync with normal polling. Be interesting to see the demographics of the people they polled, as they is way way out from what we normally see.
If it repeated elsewhere, obviously Cameron is absolutely and utterly screwed.
Worrying for some:
Best on NHS?
Ed Miliband - 40%
Nigel Farage - 28%
Nicola Sturgeon - 15%
Natalie Bennett - 9%
Leanne Wood - 7%
I did say ^_________^
Performed the “worst”?
Ed Miliband - 18%
Nigel Farage - 36%
Nicola Sturgeon - 6%
Natalie Bennett - 21%
Leanne Wood - 17%
Mind you, all of them are atrocious.
Crossover has now occurred - though not in the way the Tories hoped. EdM now favourite to be PM after election with Ladbrokes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJOjTNuuEVw
Miliband benefits hugely from all of these debates because each time he unpicks a bit more of the 'weird' story. Tonight, as you say, he even went a bit further and even looked a leader. I'd have said it was a win for him too.
Barnsley Jobcentre's shut, surely?
Granted the basic point of it being bad for them stands.
Sun Politics ✔ @SunPolitics
YouGov/Sun poll tonight - Labour and Tories tied: CON 34%, LAB 34%, LD 7%, UKIP 14%, GRN 5%
Come on Cameron - why are you scared?
Heaven forbid that Ladbrokes might be using the debate to get their name in the papers...
Jim Pickard @PickardJE 2m2 minutes ago
Killer poll:
Straight contest, Cameron and Miliband to be Prime Minister?
Cameron - 40%
Miliband - 45%
Don’t know - 5%
Survation/Mirror
WOW just WOW
Well done Cameron - was it worth it?!?