LONDON: The third and final face-to-face US-style debate between the contenders for the U.K. Prime Minister job is now history. There was no “knock-out punch,” no major gaffe, no “game-changer.”
But our sister newspaper The Sun probably summed it up best on their front page :
“Breakfast Election Special : Scrambled Clegg and Toast…Cameron’s full of Beans”
Translation for Americans :
Third –party challenger Nick Clegg is doing well but stumbling on his own rhetoric.
Hapless incumbent PM Gordon Brown and third standing in the polls is “toast.”
And Conservative candidate David Cameron is out in front.
The theme of the last debate was the economy. And while that did spark some back and forth, the one thing most people were waiting for was whether Brown would mention again his sorrow about calling a voter a “bigot” behind her back but on microphone.
We didn’t get a real apology, just a throwaway line at the outset about how he doesn’t always get things right.
So now with election day next Thursday, May 6 we are in the homestretch. The only real drama among most analysts is whether front runner Cameron’s party will garner enough Parliamentary seats to govern on its own and not via a coalition or despite an unworkable “hung parliament.”
Then again who knows? A week in politics in the UK is the same as in the States : A lifetime. Keep your fish and chips ready.