Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Election 2011: The BBC Wrexham Debate

In all honesty, this wasn't great stuff.

There was an undercurrent of passive-aggressive hostility between the candidates, and amongst the audience, that didn't belong in an election debate. It was more like an episode of Question Time. I was disappointed.

Aled Roberts stood out as the best performer for me. He tried to avoid points scoring where he could and stuck to the facts. He didn't really give any pointers towards significant Lib Dem policies, which I thought was the whole point of the debate. He answered confidently, and fluently, but was never tested and seemed to take it in his stride. 7/10

The photogenic Heledd Fychan gave an assured performance under some difficult questioning, one of which bordered on a slanging match between herself and a member of the audience over tuition fees. She seemed over-eager to interrupt at points, but you couldn't blame her considering some of the finger pointing that was going on, though Heledd was guilty of doing that herself. Not bad at all, but I would've liked to hear more Plaid policies. 6.5/10

Darren Millar was a walking manifesto and seemed to want to try and promote as many Conservative pledges as possible, even if they were unrelated to the questions asked. If the other debaters failed to get their policies out there, Darren was perhaps going too far in the opposite direction. I really wish that the Welsh Conservatives were a bit more positive about Wales though. Is it any wonder we lag behind when we're constantly told how crap we all are? It's self-fulfilling. 6.5/10

Sandy Mewies toed the party line by and large. She was one of the first to start dragging UK-issues, and the Westminster Coalition, into a Welsh election debate. A big no-no in my eyes. We didn't hear that much from her aside from the occasional Tory-bash, and a pledge relating to a Jobs Fund, which was quickly, and effectively, pounced upon by Aled Roberts. Despite having a fair bit of the audience on her side, she didn't make that much of an impact. 6/10

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