Ed Miliband versus Nick Clegg

durhamjen People have always been swayed by appearances and politicians have make-up artists and stylists working for them so the whole thing becomes a bit of a popularity contest. Of, course, there are those who decide who to vote for on the basis of what they have done previously and what they are saying now. The problem with Ed Milliband is that even a conscientious listener can lose the will to live when he is talking.

There are people other than Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg in the election, though. Ed Miliband is supposed to be good when talking to people on the stumps, despite his looks.
However, I am sure that is not why people went on hunger strike to get the vote, so that a hundred years later we could say one looks better than another. The most mesmerising speaker I've ever seen was Tony Benn. I never thought about what he looked like.
We talk about how many people went to Eton. I think it's probably just as important to be told how many of them were in PR, like Cameron. I know he surrounds himself with PR people. People who vote on looks are really falling into the trap.

may2015.com/breaking-news/fashion-designer-vivienne-westwood-to-donate-300000-to-the-green-party/

Vivienne Westwood has got the right idea, to try and even up the disparity in electioneering finance, no matter what the candidates look like. The Green Party needs a few more like her.

Do you think Nick Clegg would do this?
It might help to save him/ his party, although he voted with the government a few days ago on the NHS.

action.peoplesnhs.org/ttip-lib-dems

Interesting to read these comments.

I just wish my vote counted. No matter how the five of us in this house vote we will have a tory MP. Labour stand no chance here. Many put all our hopes in the Lib Dems and voted for them.....An anti tory (sitting smug git) vote.

We have three DC aged 21, 19 and 18 who will all be voting in May. They have their opinions but the hope we all have in common is that the Lib Dem get a 'kicking'. I would love Nick Clegg to lose his deposit.

Tuition fees are still very high on the agenda for us. Thanks to Mr Clegg.

Ed Miliband doesn't come across well. Not sure if it's him or the way he is depicted in the media.

The trouble is Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and David Cameron are all the same. Privileged background and never done a proper job.

One of my sons has already said he intends to vote UKIP.

Vote green, Mamardoit?
If Labour do not stand a chance of getting in, at least do not waste your vote, and do not vote for the smug git, which you obviously would not.
Five votes in one house, three for the first time. How exciting.
My kids tell me I ought to go back to Labour, if only because I feel sorry for Ed Miliband.

Well, isn't that just as bad as voting for someone because of their appearance?

No. I feel sorry for him because of the way people attack him because of his looks and because then they do not listen to his views. His problem is that he is still too frightened of these attacks to be his own man.
Anyway, I said my kids tell me that, not that I was going to do it.

Maybe if their policies were more plausible and engaging then the 'great British public' would spend less time discussing their appearance and presentation skills?
Unfortunately they are such a bunch of smug and uninspiring individuals I personally won't be watching, listening or voting!

Are you talking about all of them, or just the Labour Party, loopy?

If you do not want to vote, at least go and spoil your vote by telling them what you think. Do not waste the vote that others died for.

I'm generalising Durhanjen.
We have too very long-standing Conservative MP who quite frankly I cannot stand. This area is a pretty safe Tory seat, local Council Tory-led for years.
I have spent a number of years forced quietly listening to most of the local MPs speak both locally and regionally (work related) and, quite frankly, have yet to either believe or be the slightest bit inspired by any of them.
I will spoil my vote rather than waste it.

Our seat has gone back to being a swing seat. So my vote counts. I am going to have to listen a bit more carefully to politics in the next 4 months than I would have otherwise.
I havent made my mind up yet between at least two parties.

If the Lib/Dems had not joined a coalition the Conservatives could have called and won an election 6 months or so later, and I for one don't like to think what austerity they would have imposed on the country by now. Yes Nick Clegg didn't carry out his promise on tuition fees, we all know that you shouldn't make promises you cannot keep, but is he the first politician do that.? Any party that has Shirley Williams in it is good enough for me. By joining the coalition the Lib/Dems have lost more than they have gained. I expect some will say ,serves them right!

Actually the person I detest most is David Cameron who projects this image of a man of the people when he is of course a rich, over-privileged, upper class kid. And people have fallen for it.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/12/sorry-shirley-williams-nail-health-bill-myths

It was Shirley Williams who - perhaps unintentionally, if one wishes to be charitable - misled those that were wavering, and convinced them to support the Health & Social Care Bill.

The link is to an article by Polly Toynbee. For those of you who, because she writes for the Guardian, choose not to read the link, here is a summary of what she said:

Shirley Williams angrily denied Toynbee's claim that she had just led her people to vote for allowing up to 49% of all NHS facilities to be used for private practice.

Toynbee said:

"Here is the relevant paragraph – clause 161, goods and services: "(2A) An NHS foundation trust does not fulfil its principal purpose unless, in each financial year, its total income from the provision of goods and services for the purposes of the health service in England is greater than its total income from the provision of goods and services for any other purposes." Clear away the fog, and that says the only obligation on a foundation trust is to ensure its NHS work is greater than its private work. That allows its private business to rise to anything up to 49%, unlikely but permitted. Don't take my word for it, since every health expert I double-checked with yesterday confirms it. Mike Farrar – head of the NHS Confederation, member of the government's Future Forum on the bill – says it was discussed there in detail and, yes, 49% is the cap intended.

"Shirley Williams went on to claim: "Labour never had any kind of cap at all – 49%, 80%, 100% – no cap of any kind." But that's not so...

"Ask Professor Chris Ham, head of the King's Fund, who worked in the Department of Health when Labour set its tight cap, who confirms. "... Labour's cap stopped any growth in private work by banning foundation trusts from taking on private work at a proportion exceeding that of 2003 (on average 2%). (NHS Act 2006, section 44, private health care) :.... ". In clause 164 Lansley's bill strikes out this old cap: Shirley's Lib Dems voted against Labour's amendment trying to reinstate it."

A report in the Guardian in August 2014 confirmed the fears of those who opposed the bill: new figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed that already six trusts in London and the south-east have hugely increased their private patient income (one by over 39%) since the passage of the Health and Social Care Act in 2012.

Who do I detest the most, Ed Miliband for stabbing his brother in the back or Nick Clegg for his broken promises of no tuition fees.

I do find this sort of thinking simplistic in the extreme. My first question is "would you have voted for either party anyway" as I usually find those making this sort of remark are already more attached to other political parties and just think it clever to make their arguments personal rather than political.

So, let's take "Ed Miliband for stabbing his brother in the back". Did he? They both stood for the leadership as they had very different views on the direction their party should take. I think it was very moral for both to stand. Why not say David Miliband tried to stab his brother in the back? Having asked that question I am sure those making this sort of statement would have twisted it round if the result had been the other way round.

Then we have "Nick Clegg for his broken promises of no tuition fees.", which it equally an equally childish comment. It was not Nick Clegg who made or broke the promise. The Lib Dem party felt this should be the way forward. Nick Clegg has already said that they should not have made a promise on it. They went into coalition with 56 Lib Dems and 306 Conservative so how on earth do you think they could have got this through if the Conservatives didn't want it? If you only voted Lib Dem for this one policy you will, no doubt, not vote for them again but I would question the depth of any political feeling if that is the case.

Politics is the art of the possible not Santa Claus giving us each what we wanted. For heavens sake can we raise the tone of political discussions and present ourselves and our views as grown-ups should.

Well said Gracesgran, and thank you Eloethan I shall read Polly Toynbee's article. Most of the time I agree with her too.