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ITV (Some) Leaders' Debate 18th May


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This is a decent opportunity for Sturgeon. Wood and Lucas are broadly friendly to her, so she will be left opposed by Nuttall and Farron - both of whom are really quite bad at politics. Quite surprised Corbyn isn't attending after his bluster about May shirking live debates, but there must be some logic to the decision. 

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14 minutes ago, DrewDon said:

This is a decent opportunity for Sturgeon. Wood and Lucas are broadly friendly to her, so she will be left opposed by Nuttall and Farron - both of whom are really quite bad at politics. Quite surprised Corbyn isn't attending after his bluster about May shirking live debates, but there must be some logic to the decision. 

The logic is that going up there without May leaves him open to attack on his competence from the rest without being able to score points over May on policy, whereas if May was there the rest would all be too busy attacking her to care much about Corbyn and he would be able to reap the rewards of the competent debaters destroying her while quietly racking up points on policy, so best to stay out entirely and let them attack May anyway without the risk of Farron tying him in knots on Brexit or Sturgeon wiping the floor with him on everything.

That's the logic, I still think it's shit because if he had the debating strength to stand up there, deflect their criticisms of his competence and just focus on why Labour policy is stronger than the Tories every time he speaks it could ram home the point of May's cowardice and unwillingness to defend her policies, but he doesn't have the skill in debate to do that or tactical sense to attempt it so here we are.

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5 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

The logic is that going up there without May leaves him open to attack on his competence from the rest without being able to score points over May on policy, whereas if May was there the rest would all be too busy attacking her to care much about Corbyn and he would be able to reap the rewards of the competent debaters destroying her while quietly racking up points on policy, so best to stay out entirely and let them attack May anyway without the risk of Farron tying him in knots on Brexit or Sturgeon wiping the floor with him on everything.

That's the logic, I still think it's shit because if he had the debating strength to stand up there, deflect their criticisms of his competence and just focus on why Labour policy is stronger than the Tories every time he speaks it could ram home the point of May's cowardice and unwillingness to defend her policies, but he doesn't have the skill in debate to do that or tactical sense to attempt it so here we are.

I think you've got it right.

Looking back at Newsnight's Labour leadership debate in 2015, however, that was probably when I first sat up and realised that Corbyn wasn't going to be finishing a distant fourth in that election - and might very well have a real chance of winning. Obviously we shouldn't read too much into an internal contest where you are pitching to people who largely agree with you anyway, but I was nevertheless surprised by how well he did. He is, in my opinion, quite good at some of the basics required to be successful in these formats - just sounding like he passionately believes what he is saying, for example. Whether he could go a full two hours against a fairly astute and experienced politician like Sturgeon without tripping up, though, I'm not so sure. 

If he had taken part, it might have been a good opportunity to try and land some punches on the Tories without May or anybody else being there for immediate rebuttal. As things stand, however, it will be a chance for Sturgeon to do so - but also to subject Labour and the Lib Dems to some of the same treatment. It is also be an opportunity for Lucas to make a pitch without a Corbynite voice on the panel - that should give her more (political) space to occupy tonight. I'm not sure how much influence these debates really have on voters' final decisions, but I would be surprised if Sturgeon emerged from this in a poorer position than she is entering it. 

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The media have most likely already written about how Sturgeon took a beating tonight. They probably just dusted off an old article and changed a couple of names

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This could work out well for nuttal. He's getting bullied and battered by all four of them. He's stuttering and getting names wrong.

 

The underdog factor could come into play.

 

Can someone post the 'he's already dead' simpsons gif.

 

 

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