THE SCOTPULSE POLL GIVES THE NIGHT TO ALEX

There was an STV poll following the first of the three televised debates of leaders for the General Election. It was conducted by the tv company’s own online polling system ScotPulse. Its results make frightening reading for Iain Gray.

991 people were polled:

87% thought Alex Salmond won the debate;

7% thought it was Annabel Goldie;

5% thought Iain Gray was the winner;

and 1% thought Tavish Scott.

Over half the respondents (53%) found their view of Alex Salmond became more positive during the debate, but nearly three-quarters (74%) found their perception of Iain Gray changed negatively.

Annabel may have done herself no favours over university tuition fees, but despite that, she was seen to be the next best thing to Alex for FM.

Mr Scott has been stabbed in the back by London Liberals. Not only has the windfall tax on oil companies cost Scotland billions in investment, there is an estimated loss of 40,000 jobs to take into consideration. Maybe not all at once, but that’s a lot of employment and a lot of salaries to be spent!

It was, of course, the decision of George Osborne to levy this tax, but in some mad lemming like bid for notoriety, or to curry favour with Mr Cameron so that he may progress in the ranks of Cabinet ministers and get his own department (they may be looking around for a new Foreign Secretary soon), Danny (ginger rodent*) Alexander has claimed full responsibility for dreaming up the tax.

This may have been a tad foolish given that the biggest losses will be felt in the town of Aberdeen, where there is one now very vulnerable Liberal Democrat seat for the taking.

Iain Gray: read ths and weep.

Hey ho, isn’t politics interesting?

*allegedly (if in doubt refer to Harry Hardwoman)

PS: Top marks to Annabel for wearing a dark inobtrusive suit, like all the men necessarily had to wear. Whatever people say about her, and the Tories' policies, Annabel still strikes me as a decent sort.

DO WE NEED TO OFFER DEGREES IN CIRCUS SKILLS?

The leaders’ debate the other night saw Tavish Scott, Iain Gray and the First Minister in agreement that Scottish education would remain free at tertiary level.

That’s good, and indeed it indicates that unless the parties do a massive U-turn along the lines of Nick Clegg and his bunch of chancers in England, education will remain free in this country.

We heard from the Tories that it is wrong for people who will earn more because of their degrees, to be subsidised by those who will earn less because they have no degrees. That presupposes that people always earn more when they have a degree but I can think of several organisations where under the average wage is the norm and degrees are a prerequisite of the job. It's true too that we ALL benefit from having a well educated, and appropriately educated workforce.

I think Tavish made a good point about there being alternatives to university. Not everyone, and not every job, requires a degree. Many jobs require technical and craft skills that can be obtained on courses at technical or commercial colleges although these too must be funded.

We need somehow to get away from the notion that the only jobs worthy of respect are those which require university degrees. It’s just not true, as you might reflect when your central heating goes on the blink, your car won’t start, your pipes are frozen or your computer goes BANG!.

And it should be remembered that a good plumber can earn an awful lot more than a teacher or social worker...and why not? There are many good jobs which pay excellent money and don’t need a university education.

Perhaps reflecting on whether or not it is necessary to take degrees in sports science or horse psychology, pop music or hairdressing management, cruise management, circus skills or surf science... all of which can be taken at universities in the UK is something that our funders might want to consider.

Surely all these courses could be covered at HNC/D level or as SVQs (NVQs in England)?

It’s estimated that now virtually every university in England and Wales will charge over the £6,000 which Cameron promised would be the norm, with many of them opting for the £9,000 without having shown a valid reason for it. In the meantime the salaries and costs of the management will doubtless continue to rise.

The government in London will be obliged to find a great deal more money, probably around a billion a year, to fund these costs up front, with their degree having cost some students nearly £90,000 by the time they make the last payment (The Independent).

Now that is a situation to be very much avoided. Why does the London government not think out their policies before putting them into practice?

ELECTIONS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME: BUT WE MUST IMPROVE OUR PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES FOR NEXT TIME

I wondered then as I wonder now why Brown agreed to a teledebate. What on earth possessed him, his advisors or his boss (the Noble Lord) that this was even remotely anything other than a car crash waiting to happen?

Teledebating is always harder for the incumbent, especially when things are going badly (and none could deny that things are going BADLY). The prime minister faced a huge challenge which clearly he thought he could rise to. I will be charitable to him, just for once. I think that he believes that he knows how to fix the mess we are in and that he thought he could get his argument across and convince the peoples of Britain of his capabilities. I think that, as was shown in his encounter with Mrs Duffy, he just doesn’t understand the peoples he is paid to lead. Prime time telly on a Thursday isn’t about deep philosophical debate. It’s about reality tv. If Mr Brown’s decision to let these things happen was based on the fact that the public likes this sort of tv with a vote at the end of it, he didn’t think the whole thing through.

In reality tv we vote for the good looking one, the one from our home country, the one with the nicest dress, the biggest boobs, the body we wish we had. We are not used to substance; froth is fine....

I didn’t think it would work. I thought that the figures would be dismal. Ninety minutes of politics? ... No thanks. I’m off to the pub. But I was spectacularly wrong.

Millions have watched. The course of the election has been changed. People may be concerned about local matters; they may be swayed by windmills, roads, schools, and hospitals locally, but the opinion polls have been all about who performed best in the debate. In many cases not the substance, but the stance, the way they looked into the camera, their wrinkles (Brown), their shiny forehead (Cameron) their easy manner (Clegg). That’s what swayed people used to judging reality tv shows.

But they conveniently forgot some stuff. They based it on the American presidential debates. Who do you want as your president? But from Kentucky to New York City, California to Idaho, everyone in the US has a vote for the president.

I can’t vote for any of these men.

And the exclusion of UKIP, Greens, Socialists, Nationalists, the Irish parties of all shades, and sundry others has distorted the game. People are voting on what they saw on the telly; they didn’t see any of these parties so they won’t vote for them. That has hit what little democracy we have in the UK. The Liberals were nowhere till the debates propelled them to first or second, depending on which opinion poll you believe. Anyone who has been left out of this reality tv show has been left out of the election.

It would have been difficult, but not impossible, to arrange leadership debates including all parties. They do it in Canada, and they seem to do it well despite having all manner of parties including those representing first nation Canadians as well as French and English-speaking immigrants. Needless to say that takes work, effort and ingenuity. So we just had the big two and put in Nick Clegg as a sop to everyone else, and the producers got on with ticking the health and safety list.

The SNP will probably suffer. Well, so be it. You can’t cry over spilt milk. We will never be able to stop these debates in the future, but what we must do is sort out a way of making them more representative. And, we can make it work for the SNP.

In the Scottish General Election we should have STV and BBC Scotland debates on the smaller number of matters that concern our government. An hour and a half of questions with Annabel, Alex, Tavish, Patrick, Iain and whoever leads the other parties currently unrepresented in the Scottish parliament....... seems like a plan, yeah?

WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO OUR WEE BIT DEMOCRACY?

The BBC Trust has rejected the SNP/Plaid Cymru appeal against their exclusion from the leaders' debate. And it looks like, at this late stage the two parties will not go to court over it.

I suspect that there may not be enough money for the fight, or at least that, with two debates down and one to go, the leadership of the two parties just don't feel that the game's worth the candle.

It's too late. The money could be better spent than keeping English barristers in port and stilton.

Forfar Loon has an excellent article here on the subject of the debates. It’s well worth the read.

Anyone, as he points out, who suggests that these debates were not significant should look at the 10 point rise in the polls of one of the parties, the rise that party from “also ran” to the status of challenger in their smug so-called two horse race.... and then repeat their assertion. The debates have indeed been ground breaking. They have completely shaken the whole political system in the UK in more ways than one.

Of course, the insult to people in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should not be underestimated. All the debates were held in England, and participants had to live within a 30 mile radius of the debate location, ergo no one who is resident in Scotland was allowed to participate in this exercise in democracy. It was, therefore, an exercise in democracy in England. Can we then assume that the election is an English one? The Scots, Irish and Welsh matter so little that they have been excluded in more ways than that their Nationalist Parties’ leaders have been excluded from the debate platforms. They, themselves have been excluded from participation in the actual debates.

But the whole essence of it is wrong anyway. We do not elect Prime Ministers here. And, in any case, as the Loon points out, the assumption has been made that Cameron, Clegg and Brown will be re-elected. Oh, we know that are in safe seats, but surely our democracy can’t be taken for granted like that...or at least it shouldn’t.

It has been said that the pressure for these debates has been strong from the Press for decades and wiser prime ministers have resisted, seeing more problems that advantages in them... not just for themselves, but for the already dubious version of democracy that we have in the UK (with FPTP and whipping, an unelected chamber and hereditary head of state).

Wiser prime ministers said no. Then along came King Midas in reverse.

TWO MINUTES IS BETTER THAN NOTHING

Scots voters are being invited to take two minutes to hear a message from the SNP tonight which could save them two hours of their time later in the evening.

The special party election broadcast - billed as "2 minutes from Alex Salmond...Which could save you 2 hours later" - will be screened on all terrestrial channels, and will be UK-wide on Channel 4 and Channel Five, ahead of the leader's debate on ITV. You can see it here.

That debate will focus on so-called "domestic issues" like health, education and justice - all of which are run in Scotland by the Government at Holyrood. As such, the ITV leaders' debate will be almost totally meaningless to viewers in Scotland.

The full text of the broadcast from Mr Salmond is:

"Tonight is the first of the TV debates. Some of you may watch it, most of you will hear about it, but tonight what you won’t hear about is Scotland. You’ll see a long and probably long-winded debate about English health, crime and schools. None of it, none of it, will apply to Scotland. There won’t even be any Scots in the audience - that’s the audience that are not allowed to cheer or clap or react in any way to what’s said.

"I say there should have been a real debate, with all political voices. Tonight there will be a cosy Westminster consensus. Three politicians disagreeing around the edges but basically agreeing on the things that matter most. The three London parties have the same agenda, they’re part of the same system, the same metropolitan machine. They want to cut spending, cuts that will threaten recovery, cuts that will undermine vital local services.

"The Labour Party have admitted that their cuts will be deeper and tougher than those of Margaret Thatcher. Just think about it. The Labour Party say that their cuts, that’s Labour cuts, will be deeper and tougher than those of Margaret Thatcher that devastated so many lives and so many communities.

"Cuts in public services that make society what it is, the National Health Service, our schools, our police. Make no mistake, these are the targets of Tory cuts and Labour cuts and even savage Liberal cuts. But I say there is another way. Let's protect these things that are really important, lets invest in jobs and recovery, Invest in these vital local services and instead take the axe to the planned hundred thousand million pound replacement for Trident nuclear weapons and The five thousand million remnants of the ID card system. Cut the hundred million from the House of Lords or the ten million Scotland Office.

"Cut these things because they don’t matter to anyone and they don’t matter at all.

"That is the alternative agenda, which you won’t hear from any of the London parties tonight. Tonight the people will be excluded from the debate but on polling day it’s the people not the politicians who have the power. That means that this time you can do more than vote for just another politician, elect a local champion, a local and national champion. An SNP MP who will work hard to protect the things that matter most.

"Tonight there will be no one to champion Scotland in the TV debate and the people will be silenced. But on May the 6th the people will speak and their voice will be heard."

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