The Election Live Debate

For the first time in British history, the three main political leaders: Gordon Brown (Labour Party), David Cameron (Conservative Party), and Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat) debated on live television against one another’s policies. Three weeks before the general national election on 6^th May, this debate was important in laying out the domestic priorities of each of the main parties, and to help sway the national vote. Questions were asked by selected studio audience on issues related to healthcare, the MP expenses scandal, neighbourhood crime, the army, immigration, and education.

The Labour Party has been in power since 1997, first led by Tony Blair, but then succeeded by Gordon Brown in 2007, who was the former Chancellor of the Exchequer. In his opening speech, Brown stated that, “we are moving from recession to recovery… every promise depends on a strong economy and this is the defining year”. However, as revealed by the Conservative Party posters, Labour had doubled the national debt, and judging by this debate, Gordon Brown’s priorities remain stagnant and unchanged. Conservative leader David Cameron, hopes to “restore some of the faith and some of the politics” from the expense scandals by changing the current political party to “build a bigger society”. Stepping away from the two party fistfight, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg clearly defined that “the way things are, are not the way things have to be,” and opinion polls after the debate suggests the LibDems as favourites to winning the election.   

Unfortunately for Labour, the issue of the national debt was a reoccurring theme in the debate. Brown clearly stated that the national debt will remain the same, which means he intends on NOT cutting any sector budgets. “Pull out money,” Brown said, “and you will have less growth, less jobs and less business,” but this statement is quite unrealistic given that Britain is still very slowly recovering from the financial crash. Cameron pointed fingers at Brown by giving an example of Labour increased managerial pay to 7% and allowed civil servants to spend tax payer money by issuing them with credit cards. Cameron stressed that the deficit needs to be removed now so that £6billion can be later be saved to stop job tax. Clegg was the only leader bold enough to argue that the renewal of the Cold War nuclear Trident missile is a “waste” of money, and such financial resource could be diverted into education, healthcare and policing. “We all know that we have a great black hole in our recovery,” Clegg said, “the question is, who is being straight with you on these cuts?” Unfortunately, it was neither Cameron nor Brown.

Gordon Brown seems insistent in continuing the ‘business as usual’ model. He stressed the urgency of maintaining current police surveillance, to the point where he wants 80% of police time being spent harbouring the streets, and giving dissatisfied citizens an injunction in case the job is not done right. Surely investment in the police should be maintained if they are fulfilling their job to the highest standard? Furthermore, on the issue of immigration, Brown still wants to issue ID cards and enhance the points system as a means to decrease the rising number of immigrants living and working in the country. The already difficult point system greatly ignores professionals who have intangible skills like linguistics or researchers, and only takes into account the quota of immigrants coming into the country. David Cameron argued for the ‘caps system’ which keeps a count on successful immigration and supported the points system to limit number of immigrants coming into Britain for economic reasons. Nick Clegg contested the matter by allocating immigrant workers to regions where the need for special skilled workers is required. If there is a job and the applicant has a sponsor, migration will be entitled. Clegg too agreed that police patrol is necessary but the “conveyor belt” in turning yobs into citizens is underdeveloped. Prisons are “overcrowded colleges of crime,” where 9 out of 10 prisoners re-offend. Therefore to combat this, young offenders need to be engaged in behavioural activities. Cameron was adamant in lengthening the sentence of criminals and sending drug addicts to boot camp, however he also said that if money is not spent on the right things, i.e. purchasing police cars instead of training more people, funding towards healthcare will most certainly be cut.

In the case of education, Brown promises to maintain investment in “education per pupil” which seems far-fetched considering that his arguments in making budget cuts were vague and to a point non-existent. The only plausible suggestion he made was for local federations and academies to takeover underperforming schools. But Cameron argued that the issue of the national debt means Labour cutting the education budget, something which is already put into practice as experienced by my own university. He stated that the education system has become “terribly bureaucratic” and discipline should be exercised by Head Teachers without appealing against students who were excluded for bad behaviour. In agreement, Clegg added that the national curriculum should be made smaller. The paperwork is currently 600 pages long, which stems from Cameron’s talk about bureaucracy. Classes should be made smaller so that teachers can use the resources and teach effectively. Furthermore, LibDem’s “Education Freedom Act” proposes weekend and evening classes, and promises to freeze the government from dominating education, which should promote creativity in schools.

The general debate about healthcare was fairly divided. While Brown urged that the number of NHS staff has risen, Cameron and Clegg argued that money is spent on the wrong resources. Using the example of his late son, Cameron highly praised the NHS on their job, thus supported the need for NHS budget to grow against inflation, as well as giving patients more control over their treatment. In his recall, Cameron said the number of managers is going up 5 times faster than nurses, which ironically stalls the NHS from performing. Brown said that Labour “will support the front line services,” and has already done so as there are now 30,000 doctors, however there is a shortage of nurses and specialists. Brown gives his “personal guarantee” that GPs and specialists will be made available in evening and weekends, however this does not close the gap for the shortage of staff suffered in maternity wards and A&E departments.  Clegg reminded that money should not be spent on upgrading computer systems and hiring managers, but providing services to help people who require it. 

The argument was similar to the treatment of the elderly, and each party leader proposed fair solutions. Cameron was blunt in saying that not all care can be made free due to the current national debt, however, under Conservative leadership, those turning 65 will be guaranteed free residential care which is a “good start, a fair start.” The question is how this care will be paid for full-time if it is not covered by the residents themselves. Clegg suggested to using the money in paying full-time carers of elderly or disabled people a respite period. By providing carers with a week paid rest, this will encourage citizens to continuing caring for loved ones, rather than sending them to residential homes. Brown suggested an alternate solution which will be put into effect in April 2011 under Labour power. If the elderly are in care for more than two years, their personal and medical care will be free thereafter. This will help ease the cost of care.

In regards to the MP expense, Clegg said that he doesn’t think “politicians deserve any credibility”. There are still MPs, who have yet to take responsibility for the abuse, and parties and constituents should have the right to sack corrupt members of parliaments. This idea was formally blocked by Labour and Conservative, but Brown and Cameron now agree with Clegg on this matter. Clegg also supported Cameron’s policy on cleaning up the House of Lords. The Conservative wants salary and MP cuts of 10% in the House of Commons, just like any other sector. Brown went further by suggesting an MP can only be selected in the House with more than 50% of the votes instead of the original 30%, and should cut the number of members in the House of Lords by more than 10%.

With less than 3 weeks to the election, this debate was a taste of how each of the main leaders will perform under pressure on pressing matters. I have always been a firm supporter of the Liberal Democrats, and after Nick Clegg’s outstanding performance against Cameron and Brown, I urge my fellow voters to cast your vote for this ‘alternate’ party.