The BBC are to hold a debate on 2nd April between UKIP leader Nigel Farage and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg on the EU.

 

I'm guessing Farage will run rings around him.

I don't know, Farage has had a few stinkers when he's been put on the spot before. And this is one of the few topics where Clegg can still sound sincere.

Nick vs Nigel, eh?.

 

I'm going to cheer for the moderator.

We've got about 2 months to sort out the rules of the Great Debate Drinking Game. To get us started -

 

Every time Nigel Farage says "Baffling", take a drink.

Every time Nick Clegg apologies for something, take a drink. Double it if he looks dead beneath the eyes whilst he says it.

Every time someone from the audience brings up tuition fees (I know it's a debate on Europe, but SOMEONE'S going to bring it up), take a drink.

 

*Disclaimer* - these suggestions are merely for fun, B-B does not condone over-excessiveness of alcohol. Please drink responsibly.

Don't underestimate Clegg here, he is a crafty bugger, knows which buttons to press as he know Farage loses his rag under pressure and gets rattled by intense questioning

 

Farage will blag and bluster his way through things, but i think Clegg will rattle him big time

Talk about the ANDRA CHANSEN of British politics *.*

 

fanning self in anticipation (GO CLEGG)

hoping clegg whips out the WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE card

 

bank holidays and 40 hours weeks > more taxes

Let's not forgot "Clegmania" after how well Clegg did during the 2010 Election debates. He's clearly got a knack for arguing/debating. Plus, I think Nigel Farage might make a faux pas.

I will try and remember to watch this. Clegg, take him down.

 

Should hopefully bring more attention to the Europeans anyway.

Aside: this might be the first thing all Parliament that actually boosts the Lib Dems in the polls a little, but it'll be ephemeral.

Clegg is going to hammer the point that the forthcoming vote-sweetener tax-relief raising for the low-paid the Tories are claiming to be Tory policy is actually a LibDem pre-election policy they were eventually persuaded into. Then they are going to raise the stakes for the next election by raising it 12500. Main beneficiaries? Low-paid. That would include any low-paid working students or former students paying the non-Lib-dem policy of raising fees. I would hope they address the issue as a key demand for the next election, assuming they hold the balance of power again, and see if the Labour party will retract student fees as an election pledge, or even pay back fees paid. Wouldn't that be nice?

 

In terms of Europe, Clegg will voice the concerns of most business and insist they are 100% behind the EU and list the reasons why.

 

Farage will rattle on about immigration, jobs, not being racist, his party members not being nutters, and winning over Tory voters, blah blah blah then go for a pint to appeal to the working man.

Clegg is going to hammer the point that the forthcoming vote-sweetener tax-relief raising for the low-paid the Tories are claiming to be Tory policy is actually a LibDem pre-election policy they were eventually persuaded into. Then they are going to raise the stakes for the next election by raising it 12500. Main beneficiaries? Low-paid. That would include any low-paid working students or former students paying the non-Lib-dem policy of raising fees. I would hope they address the issue as a key demand for the next election, assuming they hold the balance of power again, and see if the Labour party will retract student fees as an election pledge, or even pay back fees paid. Wouldn't that be nice?

 

In terms of Europe, Clegg will voice the concerns of most business and insist they are 100% behind the EU and list the reasons why.

 

Farage will rattle on about immigration, jobs, not being racist, his party members not being nutters, and winning over Tory voters, blah blah blah then go for a pint to appeal to the working man.

So non-Lib Dem that almost all the party's senior MPs voted in favour of it.

 

The £12.5k policy is undoubtedly a good one and a useful bargaining tool, but peoples' memories aren't short enough to allow Clegg a reprieve next year. They may well still hold the balance of power but it's even less likely than last time that the party will be able to choose their coalition partners - the maths didn't add up with Labour last time and that was with probably twice as many Lib Dem MPs as there'll be after 2015.

Clegg is going to hammer the point that the forthcoming vote-sweetener tax-relief raising for the low-paid the Tories are claiming to be Tory policy is actually a LibDem pre-election policy they were eventually persuaded into. Then they are going to raise the stakes for the next election by raising it 12500. Main beneficiaries? Low-paid. That would include any low-paid working students or former students paying the non-Lib-dem policy of raising fees. I would hope they address the issue as a key demand for the next election, assuming they hold the balance of power again, and see if the Labour party will retract student fees as an election pledge, or even pay back fees paid. Wouldn't that be nice?

 

In terms of Europe, Clegg will voice the concerns of most business and insist they are 100% behind the EU and list the reasons why.

 

Farage will rattle on about immigration, jobs, not being racist, his party members not being nutters, and winning over Tory voters, blah blah blah then go for a pint to appeal to the working man.

Why would the raising of the personal allowance come up in an EU debate?

 

Anyway, yay for something which saves the average low-paid student 72p a week! Not to worry about that extra £18k they've had lumped on though.

really strikes me as the lib dems attempting to find a nook for them to stand out on and appeal to voters who have (quite rightly) become disillusioned with them during the coalition years as they've slipped into the void of no presence or purpose. it really does reek of desperation and i can't see the casual voter suddenly doing an entire turn around on them based on a single issue (even if it is a rather large one).

 

will certainly be interesting to see how the debate goes. hopefully farage's very persona can put people off.

I'm not sure the term "coalition" is being considered. It's a case of everybody having to negotiate for things they do and don't believe in. Or the whole government falls apart and you have another election and possibly yet another hung parliament. That, as i've said before, is what the voter voted for. It's democracy people, you can single out individual unfair policies and ignore the reasons they were felt necessary all you want, but you can't deny that's always going to be how coalitions work, give and take. The Lib-dems, I'm fairly sure, can't in any way be blamed for the mess the country was in when they were forced to deal with it after the election.

 

You can argue all day who or what caused it (and Ive expressed my views on who and what many times), but it ain't in any real universe Lib Dems....

 

Much as the two main parties are trying to cast them in the part as villains for electioneering purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

I would expect the EU discussions to briefly cover non-EU UK issues, though I may be wrong on that.

 

For the record, I am utterly against any student fees, being a beneficiary of free education and limited parental contribution myself way back when - there's no way I would have been able to do further education without them, the first ever in my family to do a degree on both sides going back as far as anyone knows. I look forward to seeing ANY of the 3 main parties propose abolishing them!

Edited March 8, 201411 yr by popchartfreak

The whole "it's fun to thrash the Lib Dems, but it's better to beat the Tories" mantra has been in place for a while now in the Labour camp and the Tories seem to be far more interested in attacking the opposition than their own coalition partners. And doing it for electioneering purposes would be horridly short-sighted given there's only so many gains both can make from the LDs and the election will more likely hinge on whether Labour take back a load of Tory marginals.

 

As for the whole coalition thing, obviously it's about compromise, and the Lib Dems can't be blamed for allowing the tuition fees issue to be put to Parliament, but to abandon a fairly prominent electoral pledge by voting in favour of the reforms is unforgiveable.

The whole "it's fun to thrash the Lib Dems, but it's better to beat the Tories" mantra has been in place for a while now in the Labour camp and the Tories seem to be far more interested in attacking the opposition than their own coalition partners. And doing it for electioneering purposes would be horridly short-sighted given there's only so many gains both can make from the LDs and the election will more likely hinge on whether Labour take back a load of Tory marginals.

 

As for the whole coalition thing, obviously it's about compromise, and the Lib Dems can't be blamed for allowing the tuition fees issue to be put to Parliament, but to abandon a fairly prominent electoral pledge by voting in favour of the reforms is unforgiveable.

So have you forgiven the Labour MPs who voted to introduce tuition fees in the first place after they said they wouldn't?

Clegg needs to focus on outing the nutcases and bigots that would potentially be UKIP MP's, he needs to give examples to Farage and really put him on the spot and make Farage lose his cool, when he does he is there for the taking

 

Only this morning a UKIP election candidate has been caught referring to Stephen Lawrence's mum as a 'monkey'

 

UKIP are nothing more than the BNP in suits and ties as opposed to Dr Martens

So have you forgiven the Labour MPs who voted to introduce tuition fees in the first place after they said they wouldn't?

There's a big difference between three grand and nine grand. If it were the same people at the top of the party now who devised it then, it'd be fair to cry hypocrisy but in the current climate the only way fees are being reduced is with a Labour-led government.

So have you forgiven the Labour MPs who voted to introduce tuition fees in the first place after they said they wouldn't?

 

That was bad, but a) it wasn't really a flagship policy in the way it was for the Lib Dems, and b ) Labour hadn't made a big thing of being holier-than-thou and going on about "no more broken promises".

 

Tuition fees is definitely not going to go away for the Lib Dems. The main damage isn't actually the policy itself, it's the signal it sends out. The thing people detest the most about politicians is when they lie and when they give up their principles for the sake of getting "their snouts in the trough" of power, so even people who agree with tuition fees or are indifferent to them will have totally lost respect for the Lib Dems over the issue.