Election Fever...

Last night telly history happened. I'm sure you are aware of this, unless you are hidden under a rock somewhere?
The leaders of our three political parties, Gordon Brown of Labour, Tory David Cameron and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg were involved in a live debate on ITV. Admittedly it was a rather 'eighties Britain' looking affair not helped at all by Gordon Brown's awful pink tie, dark brown suit and light blue shirt combination. However the debate was enthralling, I haven't got this excited by telly since vampire Bill Compton and Suki finally got it on in True Blood. In fact, I got so excited, that I forgot all about The Outnet first birthday designer £1 sale.
David Cameron looked so plastic I spent more time searching out a wrinkle on his face than listening to what he was saying. It bothers me that this man should spend so much time on his appearance. Surely he is going to be so busy with his botox injections, his facials and his suit fittings that he's not going to have time to really run this country? That and there is his child on the way, a dad I know is so knackered from his newborn that sometimes he isn't aware what day of the week it is, let alone anything about national debt, how many bobbies are on the beat and the state of the health service.
Gordon Brown I felt came across in a very gentle and trustworthy manner with his warm scottish accent. I was surprised by how I warmed to him, regardless of the terrible suit. And contrary to claims that he is nothing but a dour, bullying Scot he raised the biggest laugh of the night with his 'You can't airbrush your policies like you do your posters David' quip.
However, his comments about the economy left me running scared. It was like he was suggesting that we should just keep muddling on as we are. Keep spending as we are. Now, I don't know a huge amount about politics but I do know about budgeting. In short, there is no way you can pay off a debt without making cut backs and I think, as a country, we are prepared for this. We are aware that we, somewhere, at some point, are going to have to pay more taxes to sort out the national debt. All I want is a government who can sort this out in an efficient and responsible manner.
Perhaps it is irresponsible of me to admit on my blog which way I am planning to vote at present, but hey, I've admitted that I suffer from mild depression if I don't exercise, the rate of my debt just a year ago and if you check out my posterous blog, you can see what undercrackers I've bought recently, so obviously discretion isn't a strong point of mine.
Anyway, based on his performance last night, I'm going with Lib Dem and to me, Nick Clegg was the clear winner of the night. I also did an online quiz about who I should vote for this morning, Lib Dem was the outcome and if a quiz says so, it must be the right choice (I'm ignoring that the quiz suggested that the Conservatives should be my second choice).
Nick Clegg really stepped up to the bar and used this opportunity with all his might. The way he kept sticking his hands in his pockets after earnestly gesticulating his points and the fact that his suit was slightly too big for him reminded me of a young and enthusiastic teacher who really does want to do everything he can to make things better. He seemed to be the only one out of the three who talked about saving us from national debt in a practical everyman manner, scrapping all the bureaucratic crap and spending the money on real people, things that really matter. His only pitfall was the nuclear stuff - does he want us to be a sitting duck?!
Admittedly I am biased, I've always voted Lib Dem and always got irritated when people have told me my vote is 'wasted.' If everyone who wanted to vote Lib Dem but voted for someone else because they were worried about a 'wasted vote' actually voted Lib Dem then parliament might look very different.
After the disaster of the recession and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan people are deeply unhappy with the current government and I still don't think there is a great deal of trust for David Cameron, being the slimy, smooth-foreheaded character he is. So now more than ever I think Lib Dem has a chance, at the very least to form part of a coalition government - something both David Cameron and Gordon Brown were obviously considering. Brown made attempts in the debate to argue their compatibility in this way and Cameron posed all 'buddy buddy' with Clegg for photographers at the end.
Reading the papers this morning, I got very different stories about the election debate last night. As the Media Guardian today notes, "British newspaper readers woke up this morning to news of nine different debates between the main party leaders, with a range of outcomes to suit every taste."
Don't you just love the freedom of the press?!
Don't listen to what the papers say, make up your own mind... take a quiz.