Are you two the best we can do?

No.

Agree with posters here - he was trying to be ‘clever’ but made himself look childish - and quite aggressive. It added nothing to the discussion.

I think he simply articulated what a lot of us, mere mortals, are thinking.
It may not have elevated the debate but it was not much of a debate.
Political debate seems to consist of name calling and shouting over each other.
Nobody... NOBODY.. seems able to present policies or explain how they will be financed or rolled out.

But this is the sort of non question the BBC promotes. At least I found a kindred spirit in my delivery driver who is refusing to watch any tv and sent off his postal vote the moment he got it. Also agreed with him that the lies are tedious but what can you expect from politicians?
However my husband tells me that politics is like supporting a football team- and you never switch sides. I keep twittering on about boundary changes affecting outcomes and he’s not convinced!

What did he expect them to say?

“Oh yes, we totally agree. Perhaps someone like yourself thinks they could do a better job maybe?”

ronib

But this is the sort of non question the BBC promotes. At least I found a kindred spirit in my delivery driver who is refusing to watch any tv and sent off his postal vote the moment he got it. Also agreed with him that the lies are tedious but what can you expect from politicians?
However my husband tells me that politics is like supporting a football team- and you never switch sides. I keep twittering on about boundary changes affecting outcomes and he’s not convinced!

Plenty switched sides when Nigel Farage's Brexit Party stood aside for the Conservatives and Boris got an 80 seat majority 'to get Brexit done'. Red Wall seats which had always voted Labour switched to Blue. Unfortunately Boris/Conservatives let us down.

Plenty of unhappy Tory voters now turning to Reform and previous Labour voters I would suspect as well.

Why didn’t the two leaders say something along the lines of, I’m sorry what can we do so that you don’t feel that way? It could have been a good starting point for why a lot of the electorate are fed up with the same old ways.

As for the charges of bad manners I think it’s the brits lack of dealing with people directly and just moaning instead. My mum would never ask questions when she was perfectly entitled to because she didn’t want to be rude.

It’s entirely possible to be direct without being rude. The question wasn’t direct because it wasn’t intended to encourage debate. It was sneery passive aggressive and didn’t contribute anything useful to this debate

I thought it rude , unintelligent and unproductive.

In your dreams Nicenanny. Do you really support the BNP?

The polls show Farage getting less support from women after his comments on Putin and Ukraine.
I might struggle to understand voters remaining loyal to the Conservatives in light of recent chaos But - I know decent people who vote Conservative. I remember Clark/Heseltine/Stewart/Alex Chalk/theresa May and others as decent people.
How anyone can see Farage or any of his candidates as decent is beyond me

I watched the debate, and thought the question was rude and a bit 'look at me'. It contributed nothing to the debate, politics is not about personalities, it is about policies and I think that the man in question made himself look rather silly.

We have no problems at all when you look at the choice facing the American voters.

Given that the audience were all actors, were they actually their own questions?

It wasnt just rude it was conspiracy theory stuff, whenever I hear the trope of controlled by powerful figures I get a bit uneasy.

I’m so disappointed that the BBC decided to allow that silly, ill mannered question to be asked.

What was the point of it?

I think it would have resonated with a good many people.

But I dare say it would apply even more across the pond - and I know my sister, who’s over here at the moment from across the pond, would agree..

I don't watch the debates now but it seems a reasonable question, it's what I think, could apply, perhaps more so, Trump and Biden.

I must admit, I’ve thought the same myself, but I wouldn’t be rude enough to say it in the event that I had been there.

They are the best that their respective parties can find as leaders, compared to the previous recent leaders they are better.

I'm astonished that anyone at all wants to be PM these days. Two MPs murdered in the last five years. MPs receiving online threats and abuse of every and the most serious kind.Wouldn't vote for Farage in a million years but throwing things at him ? This is not good stuff.
I had a look at Wes Streeting's Wiki yesterday and its most impressive. Apparently he'd like to be PM. I hope he gets the chance someday. ..... and that I live long enough to see it of course .
Any country is better off without Trump as a candidate.

I think he was asking what I, and many others, are thinking. Rude or not it’s certainly no worse than the insults they sling at each other across the chamber at the HoC!

You think Starmer is being controlled by senior figures in the labour party? Who are these mysterious figures?

Very rude and totally unnecessary, we are where we are, and no going back!

Labradora

I'm astonished that anyone at all wants to be PM these days. Two MPs murdered in the last five years. MPs receiving online threats and abuse of every and the most serious kind.Wouldn't vote for Farage in a million years but throwing things at him ? This is not good stuff.
I had a look at Wes Streeting's Wiki yesterday and its most impressive. Apparently he'd like to be PM. I hope he gets the chance someday. ..... and that I live long enough to see it of course .
Any country is better off without Trump as a candidate.

👏👏👏👏

RosesandLilac

I think he was asking what I, and many others, are thinking. Rude or not it’s certainly no worse than the insults they sling at each other across the chamber at the HoC!

Ah but that’s the difference, they are “slinging them at each other”, not that I applaud their often schoolboy behaviour

I can't work out why the BBC even allowed this question.

For a start, as others have said, it was downright rude. I thought we are all supposed to treat each other with dignity and respect however angry and frustrated we feel.

Of course many of us are disappointed with the politicians we have had to put up with for the past 20-30 years. There's even been a book written about this, by Isobel Hardman I think.

It was a pointless question if it was a question, rather than an observation. We've got the politicians we've got and we just have to get on with it.

I'd like to have had a question about social care as that would have put the leaders on the spot.