Sunak v Starmer part 1

They have a notion, that when people are met together, a short silence does much improve conversation: this I found to be true; for during those little intermissions of talk, new ideas would arise in their minds, which very much enlivened the discourse.

It’s a truth, universally accepted, that you can get whatever answer you want, depending on the questions you ask and the people you ask them of. Which explains why there are two polls this morning with very different results. One, conducted by YouGov last night shows the current prime Minister Rishi Sunak, he of the dapper, sharp-cut suits, ‘winning’ last night’s pre-General Election  televised Leaders’ debate on ITV.

The other, out this morning by Sponson, shows Sir Keir Starmer, the man with his eye on the hot seat, ‘also ‘winning’.

To my mind, it all got a bit unnecessarily shouty. It wasn’t the measured, civilised debate that we got when Brown, Cameron and Clegg rocked up to the lecterns in 2010. It was definitely missing a bit of ‘I agree with Nick’ political consensus.

Starmer, as befits a man trained  as a barrister, who rose to become the country’s top solicitor, was the mor calm, measured of the two. But then that is his training. Rishi was more impassioned, though he reminded me of my teenagers arguing, each desperate to get the last word in, to ensure that their say is heard the most. He did a bit too much talking over Julie Etchingham than a man of his education really ought to have done. At one point I wouldn’t have been surprise to hear her say: “Hush, Rishi, Mummy’s talking, you’ll get your turn in a minute.” In fact, I rather wish she had. It would have livened things up better than  the rather bizarre question from ‘Gareth on his way to Germany’.

Will last night’s debate have changed anyone’s mind about which party they vote for? Will any of the other debates coming up change voters’ minds? They might. It was, after all, Clegg’s performance against Brown and Cameron (on top of a lot of grass roots activity by the party faithful) that tipped the Lib Dems into coalition in 2010. OK so they were then unceremoniously turfed out five years later, but  t did prove that a slick, polished  TV performance can make a difference.

Slick and polished is not really how last night’s debate ended up, that said. The next one, on BBC, will be with the leaders of seven parties, so that’s likely to be even  more of a bun fight.

I think I know what the result on July 5^th will be, but the public is a fickle beast at times. At least there’s the football to distract us when it all gets too much. Go Lionesses! Oh, apparently some boys are playing as well?