When you read post-mortems of the debate between the seven party leaders broadcast on Thursday 2nd April, it makes you wonder if these people watched the same debate.
Similar to someone bringing their own wine along to an offline which turns out to be a dud/crap/knackered/dead. You are polite about it and he or she is raving about it, and crowns it wine of the night.
Of course these matters are down to opinions to an important extent. But I am going to start from the bottom up: from the worst to the best.
Leanne Wood: she was useless, trite, parochial, weak or had nothing to say on encompassing issues. You would never have to worry about getting your ankles wet in her deepest thoughts. She should have been kicked off the set Ann Robinson style. 1/10
Nick Clegg - he came across as a lightweight. His best moment was when he challenged Miliband to apologise to the British people for crashing the economy. But overall a lacklustre performance. 4/10
Ed Miliband - he had obviously been rehearsing in front of his mirror. And you have to give the boy Ed credit for giving it his best shot. We were rooting for him...Grrr! Tige! Go on my son! But he falls well short of being acceptable prime ministerial material. He has negative gravitas. Also in the debate he peaked too early and then started to flounder. Even worse he then came across as a hypothetical mix between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. 4/10
David Cameron - he came across as being elitist and miffed that he had to share the platform with six other plebs. Some of the mud thrown by Miliband and the others stuck too but they could have done a much better job of skewering Cameron on issues like hedge fund tax evasion. He just about got through this without too much collateral damage, but no better than that. But as he matures he gains gravitas, and he is so much more credible than Miliband. 5/10
Nigel Farage - although he is a bit of a one trick pony he made his points effectively if not controversially, and also scored points on other issues as well. Came across as a bit of a clown/court jester, and will probably be irrelevant in this election; anyway. Still 6/10.
Nicola Sturgeon - canny and bright as a button, she came across very well, scoring points easily against her other male protagonists. Her problem is that she can't stand Ed Miliband - she understands that he is not acceptable prime ministerial material - and has a secret crush on David Cameron. 8/10
Natalie Bennett - Natalie Bennett was the star of the debate. Stylistically she may have been a tad nervous and her delivery was not as smooth as some of the others, but substantively she was cogent, consistent, thoughtful, knowledgable on a range of issues outside the environment. Head and shoulders above the others on substance. And the clear winner. 9/10.
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