Won’t be on Twitter at the next Leader’s Debate

By April 16 2010, 9:02 am 1 Comment
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There have been 1500 tweets with the #leadersdebate hashtag over the last 2 hrs this morning. I’ve downloaded them using The Archivist and attached for your delectation.


 


Next Thursday I’ll be switching the phone off and disabling my wireless router and simply watching the debate on the telly.


 


Last night the great British wit was out in force as comments about the colour of ties, whose neck looked best on HD and whether Clegg should have had his hand in his pocket, gushed forth from thousands of viewers intent on making their feelings felt in real time.


 


One chap I follow felt it was too much of a distraction, and I must admit I’m at a loss to really say who presented the best political argument.


 


So is this the way we should decide who we vote for? Letting the PR gurus and spin doctors fight it out back stage?


 


Nick Clegg certainly came across as the nicer bloke, and his campaign has had much impetus from Vince Cable being such a voice of reason and highly regarded political figure.


 


But I didn’t hear much policy or promises coming from any of the leaders.


 


Lots of carefully crafted examples of where they’d met “real” people and identified with “real” issues, but where was the heated debate we get to see at Prime Minister’s question time?


 


Looking forward with gusto to next week.


 


Let me know who says what on Twitter the next day!

  • Henry Elliss

    All fine points – I personally take the view that my mind is reasonably made up by now, so having the tweet-stream to amuse me through the debate was a welcome addition. But it definitely wouldn’t help me if I were a swing-able voter.

    I disagree about the lack of arguements and bitchiness that you usually see at PMQ’s or on things like the Andrew Marr show though – having a clear, calm and well-presented debate made politics much more accessible to me, as I suspect it did for a lot of non-politicos. Whenever I see minor politicians having heated arguments and talking over each other on shows like Newsnight I just switch off – it’s all a lot of hot air. At least with last night’s debate we got to hear clear statements and discussions, albeit mostly empty promises and nonsense. But still…!

Jobs