The winner
There wasn’t one. The confusion over the result reflected the general messiness of this 7-way showdown, which at times resembled a playground slanging match. The first poll coming via YouGov put Nicola Sturgeon in the lead, just ahead of Ukip leader Nigel Farage. But this was quickly challenged by an array of different results with ICM placing Labour leader Ed Miliband in the lead, and ComRes calling it a dead tie between Farage, Miliband and Cameron. Survation had Cameron, Miliband and Farage all tied in first. The real winner, in some sense, was probably David Cameron who managed to mainly stay out of the fray, kept his cool and in doing so highlighted the absurdity of the whole affair. “We were very happy with the way the PM handled it,” William Hague told Prospect in the immediate aftermath. “He made clear that Farage is the back door to Ed Miliband and that was very effective. The others are chaos when they are together.”
The standout performance
Nobody was agreeing with Nick, except for Dave occasionally, but “I agree with Nicola” was one of the phrases of the night. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, resplendent in red, impressed with her ability to present herself as a voice for progressive change across the UK. Stepping outside the prism of Scottish nationalism, Sturgeon will have won the sympathy of Left-leaning voters across the country with her stance on key issues such as education, austerity and immigration. She played the role of the insurgent perfectly, breaking up the petty squabbles between the increasingly brattish male party leaders and demanding an end to the “old boys network”. For a party that isn’t fielding a single candidate south of the Scottish border, this was a serious achievement.
The biggest disappointment
Despite delivering the odd strong line on the need to address the Syrian refugee crisis and an appeal to voters not to just vote for the lesser of two evils, the Green Party's Natalie Bennett failed to fully undo the damage of her car crash interview with LBC Radio in February. Looking distinctly nervous, Bennett was the only party leader not to memorise her opening and closing statements, urging voters in a clunky line clearly borrowed from Nike to “just do it” and vote Green. While I’m sure her party will scoop up a fair share of the Lib Dems student vote from 2010, the Green Surge is officially over.
The “did they really say that” moment
Unsurprisingly this came courtesy of Nigel Farage. When asked how best he would protect the long-term future of the NHS, the Ukip leader launched an attack on "health tourism" claiming it costs taxpayers £2bn a year. He then illustrated his point by claiming that among the 7,000 new diagnoses of HIV every year, 60 per cent are not British nationals. “They can come into Britain from anywhere in the world and get diagnosed with HIV and get the retro-viral drugs that cost up to £25,000 per year per patient,” he said. His comments sparked outrage on Twitter, and among his fellow panelists, with Plaid Cmyru leader Leanne Wood telling the Ukip leader: "This kind of scaremongering is dangerous; it divides communities and it creates stigma to people who are ill and I think you should be ashamed of yourself."
The moment it got personal
The Coalition gloves came off as Nick Clegg took several swings at David Cameron over his proposed “ideological cuts” in spending on education and hospitals. In a bid to present his party as the most capable of providing a balance and stopping the country “lurching to the left or right”, Clegg looked fierce in his defence of his party’s, and his own record, in government. Cameron, looking briefly rattled, said he defended all the “difficult decisions” that he and Clegg had taken together in coalition, and accused the Liberal Democrat leader of taking a “pick and mix approach” to their shared record.
Final verdict: Sturgeon stormed it, Miliband got slammed from all sides, Cameron and Clegg looked like bitter divorcees, Farage was, well, Farage, and a star was born—no, not Leanne Wood, but Jonny Tudor, 17, politics student who asked the first question on the deficit and in doing so sparked a new hashtag #jonnysgeneration.
There wasn’t one. The confusion over the result reflected the general messiness of this 7-way showdown, which at times resembled a playground slanging match. The first poll coming via YouGov put Nicola Sturgeon in the lead, just ahead of Ukip leader Nigel Farage. But this was quickly challenged by an array of different results with ICM placing Labour leader Ed Miliband in the lead, and ComRes calling it a dead tie between Farage, Miliband and Cameron. Survation had Cameron, Miliband and Farage all tied in first. The real winner, in some sense, was probably David Cameron who managed to mainly stay out of the fray, kept his cool and in doing so highlighted the absurdity of the whole affair. “We were very happy with the way the PM handled it,” William Hague told Prospect in the immediate aftermath. “He made clear that Farage is the back door to Ed Miliband and that was very effective. The others are chaos when they are together.”
The standout performance
Nobody was agreeing with Nick, except for Dave occasionally, but “I agree with Nicola” was one of the phrases of the night. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, resplendent in red, impressed with her ability to present herself as a voice for progressive change across the UK. Stepping outside the prism of Scottish nationalism, Sturgeon will have won the sympathy of Left-leaning voters across the country with her stance on key issues such as education, austerity and immigration. She played the role of the insurgent perfectly, breaking up the petty squabbles between the increasingly brattish male party leaders and demanding an end to the “old boys network”. For a party that isn’t fielding a single candidate south of the Scottish border, this was a serious achievement.
The biggest disappointment
Despite delivering the odd strong line on the need to address the Syrian refugee crisis and an appeal to voters not to just vote for the lesser of two evils, the Green Party's Natalie Bennett failed to fully undo the damage of her car crash interview with LBC Radio in February. Looking distinctly nervous, Bennett was the only party leader not to memorise her opening and closing statements, urging voters in a clunky line clearly borrowed from Nike to “just do it” and vote Green. While I’m sure her party will scoop up a fair share of the Lib Dems student vote from 2010, the Green Surge is officially over.
The “did they really say that” moment
Unsurprisingly this came courtesy of Nigel Farage. When asked how best he would protect the long-term future of the NHS, the Ukip leader launched an attack on "health tourism" claiming it costs taxpayers £2bn a year. He then illustrated his point by claiming that among the 7,000 new diagnoses of HIV every year, 60 per cent are not British nationals. “They can come into Britain from anywhere in the world and get diagnosed with HIV and get the retro-viral drugs that cost up to £25,000 per year per patient,” he said. His comments sparked outrage on Twitter, and among his fellow panelists, with Plaid Cmyru leader Leanne Wood telling the Ukip leader: "This kind of scaremongering is dangerous; it divides communities and it creates stigma to people who are ill and I think you should be ashamed of yourself."
The moment it got personal
The Coalition gloves came off as Nick Clegg took several swings at David Cameron over his proposed “ideological cuts” in spending on education and hospitals. In a bid to present his party as the most capable of providing a balance and stopping the country “lurching to the left or right”, Clegg looked fierce in his defence of his party’s, and his own record, in government. Cameron, looking briefly rattled, said he defended all the “difficult decisions” that he and Clegg had taken together in coalition, and accused the Liberal Democrat leader of taking a “pick and mix approach” to their shared record.
Final verdict: Sturgeon stormed it, Miliband got slammed from all sides, Cameron and Clegg looked like bitter divorcees, Farage was, well, Farage, and a star was born—no, not Leanne Wood, but Jonny Tudor, 17, politics student who asked the first question on the deficit and in doing so sparked a new hashtag #jonnysgeneration.
