Tonight’s debate, some say, could have a dramatic effect on British politics.
This is the first election period in the United Kingdom with televised debates between the leaders of the main parties.
One debate down. Two to go. But already people are saying that the first debate alone has managed to shake up the campaign, to energize it, and has led to the wholly unexpected rise of the leader of the perennially third party.
Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, previously the outsider, was seen as the winner of the first debate. His relaxed style went down well with the audience. The Brits are fed up with politics and politicians. Or so they say. Many feel their leaders lie to them. The recent expenses scandal, in which Members of Parliament’s expense accounts have been leaked, scrutinized and deemed by many UK taxpayers to be excessive, has angered a lot of people. The scandal centered on the ruling Labor Party and the Conservatives.
The pundits say Clegg really felt like the breath of fresh air an angry electorate is hankering for. That said, being an outsider and never viewed as a possible Prime Minister, his policies have not been scrutinized. The incumbent Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative Party Leader David Cameron’s have been time and again. Their performance in the debate was perceived by viewers as more restrained, more guarded. They clearly had more to lose. It’s not that they made any major gaffes. The perception among viewers was that Clegg seemed more like the man for change.
Today the papers, particularly conservative ones, have been full of stories slamming Nick Clegg. They involved party donations that allegedly went in to his personal account a few years back, but were actually used to pay a staffer. Clegg denies anything unethical. Also, a comment he made back in 2002 has been cited, and come back to bite. Then he told a newspaper that the UK has “a more insidious cross to bear than Germany over the Second World War”, a reference to the British suffering delusions of grandeur over having defeated the horrors of Nazism.
Just last week, Clegg’s popularity was compared to that of Winston Churchill after his success in last week’s debate, said today “I must be the only politician who has, in a week, gone from Churchill to a Nazi.”
The British system is different from the American one. The Brits vote for Members of Parliament. If a party wins more than half the seats in Parliament, its leader forms a government, and becomes Prime Minister. If no party gets more than half the seats, it’s called a hung Parliament, which is highly unusual and which either means a coalition is formed among parties or a new election is called.
Before the debate, the Conservatives were favored to win the requisite chunk of votes to be the part of power. The Nick Clegg phenomenon has made the prospect of a hung Parliament seem more real. No one expects the Liberal Democrats to win the election. But their success after the first debate has changed the picture. The latest YOUGOV poll puts Conservatives at 33 percent, Liberal Democrats at 31 percent and Labour at 27 percent.
People are saying it’s the first time in a generation the outcome of a British election is so uncertain.