3rd Election Debate

The 3rd and final election debate between the three main political part leaders came to a head on BBC1 earlier tonight. Unfortunately I missed the first 15 minutes of the debate. That aside, I thought the debate itself was too formal for my liking and very restrained and in this regard was abit of an anti climax. Unfortunately, there were no highlights, memorable moments or sound bites for me to reflect on.

David Dimbleby as a host did an outstanding job. His extensive broadcasting experience and personal touch shone through and even made some effort to ask follow up questions even though the style and format did not allow for this.

On a slightly irrelevant note with respect to visuals and aesthetics (my favourite words), the BBC's broadcast resolution was very crisp but only second to Sky's. I thought Sky's had a better set and their broadcast images had a nicely soft glossy feel to it. That said, I was most impressed with the BBC's team of lighting crew. Fantastic job. Furthermore I was also impressed by the non use of graphic idents on the BBC. Sky grossly misused it and was very distracting indeed and very annoyning.

In terms of my overall enjoyment and entertainment value comparing all three election debates, the 2nd election debate from Sky was by far the best of the three. David Dimbleby from the BBC was the best host and ITV's coverage was a fucking horrendous. Not the least bit interested in who won each debate - thats for others to debate but if you really want to know my thoughts, hear they are:

• Nick "i am too sexy for my shirt" Clegg won the first election debate by a country mile because no one had really seen or heard him speak extensively.
• Flash Gordon won the second debate by demolishing Clegg on trident.
• Cameron won the third I thought by completely dismissing Flash Gordon altogether and referred to him as a desperate man,  

I fellt a tad sorry for Flash Gordon tonight. He looked broken but fought on and fought hard regardless. I am abit saddened that these historic live tv debates have finally come to an end earlier tonight and hope this sets a president for future debates with a much more interactive audience participation. In an ideal world, what I would have liked to have seen was the three main leaders on a special extended edition of the channel 4 news with John Snow.

Happy voting !!!

2nd Election Debate

Hi folks,

First off, my apologies for the delay with this. A friend came round in the mist of watching the live debate last week and interrupted my viewing experience hence the reason why I did not post at the time. Anyway to cut a long sorty short I managed to watch the full vod version online and uninterrupted so here's my 2 cents worth. Full online SKy news stream here:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/General-Election-Sky-News-Leaders-Debate-In-Full/Video/201004415614025?lid=VIDEO_15614025_GeneralElectionSkyNewsLeadersDebateInFull&lpos=searchresults

It was moronic to host the 2nd live election debate on Sky News channel. Whoever signed this off deserves a slap. Nothing personal against Sky however it is not a mainstream terrestrial channel easily accessible to the wider public. Although the channel is free, it can only be accessed via cable/satellite and freeview meaning those without were basically fucked and the extent of how fucked they were was directly reflected on the overall viewing figures, 3 million or so viewers on Sky compared to 8 million on ITV the week before.

That said, I thought Sky's coverage was miles better than the first debate on ITV. The set/stage was more aesthetically pleasing to the eye and the actual broadcast looked a tad clearer and sharper. Adam Boulton who I had never heard of prior to this did a much better job of hosting compared to Alistair Steward although I still found the overall format very restrictive.

With respect to the actual debate, it was a decent view. More of a cat fight this time round. From an entertainment point of view, the most outstanding standout moment as far as I am concerned was the clash between Flash Gordon and Nick "I am too sexy for my shirt" Clegg in relation to Trident. Flash Gordon blasted Clegg by saying: "I have to deal with these decisions everyday and I say to you Nick GET REAL, GET REAL because Iran you're saying might be able to have a nuclear weapon and you wouldn't take action against them but you're saying that we've got to give up  our  trident submarines and our nuclear weapon now. Now GET REAL about the danger that we face if we have North Korea, Iran and other countries with nuclear weapons and we give up our own"

There were other moments in relation to the dodgy leaflets from labour allegedly smearing the Conservative party's policies which Cameron got pissed off and angrily confronted Flash Gordon in addition to the comment about, Flash Gordon's two kids at bath time however the one that made me laugh the most was this by Cameron: "Politics can make a difference Mary but I would say that politicians in this country have been treating the people as "MUGS" for far too long"

Based on entertainment value alone, I would say the 2nd election debate was most satisfactory. Very much looking forward to the 3rd and final debate this Thursday coming, April 29th on the BBC hosted by the legendary David Dimbleby.

May 6th 2010 will be historic on many levels for the British electorate and politics on the whole. Regardless of what happens if Flash Gordon is still standing as our PM come May 7th, it will be the biggest come back since Lazarus rising.

Volcanic Ash Clouds

Sat here watching desperate housewives at the time of writing this blog. Had a relatively uneventful day with the exception of a really bizzare conversation I had with a couple of friends earlier this afternoon over a few glasses of wine. Is it just me or does the volcanic ash cloud flight ban [lifted today] strike anyone as being very odd?

There are so many things going on beneath the surface and yet nobody takes a moment to step back and think about what's really happening here. Perhaps there's nothing going. Perhaps nobody cares. Or perhaps it is because we have our heads shoved so far up our own arses, we've lost touch of reality and what really matters in life.

This Week

Watching "This Week" on BBC1. I have to confess my fondness for Carolyn Flint. Would most definately drink from her fairy cup anyday of this week. Her husband is a lucky fella. Enough said I think.
http://www.carolineflint.co.uk/biography/biography.htm

The First Election Debate

Just watched the first election debate on ITV1 in it's entirity. To be quite frank, I was absolutely disgusted by the format of the show generally speaking but more specifcally with Alistair Steward's performace. As far as I am concerned, he totally disgraced himself on a professional basis tonight with his shambolic and aggressive chairing skills, interrupting unnecessarily at key moments mid sentences and shouting out Brown, Cameron and Glegg's names like a possessed fool and single handedly ruined my viewing experience.

Adopting the elegant style and format of US presidential debates (which incidentally works beautifully in the US ) to British politics does not translate favourably primarily due to cultural differences. The first televised election debate bewteen the 3 main party leaders though historic and much welcomed, was as weak as an impotent mans 12 inch penis - showing promise on preview but failing to deliver in the theatre. I was genuinely bored to my armpits 10 minutes in.

I love politics for the drama, passion and entertainment value and not necessarily for either party's politics and policies because as far as I am concerned they are all the same - Liars and Cheats who consistently fail to listen to the electorate who put them in power.

Shame on the 3 main party leaders for not having the balls to take part in a real head to head debate with themselves as well a studio audience. Taking into considerdation what they have put as through over the last view years with illegal wars and more recently with the economic crisis, mp's expensis and overal disgraceful behavior of politicians, the least they could have done was to submit to a "no holds barred" real debate.To sum up in the words of Nick Glegg tonight, "they got away scott free"