United Kingdom

When I was watching the debate, I felt the leaders were sticking to the old divisive tactics, picking on what the other parties have done in the past and blaming ethnic minority groups or using “popular” causes to try to win votes. Where were the new ideas we should be capable of with all our wealth

With just 35 days until Britons head to the polls, the leaders of seven political parties battled it out on the small screen to win votes in a televised debate.

The result has been mixed with polls differing on who performed best.

Prime Minister David Cameron won the first TV encounter of a close national election in Britain, an opinion poll showed, but opposition Labor leader Ed Miliband leveraged a rare opportunity to promote himself on a national stage.

It wasn’t quite a debate, but back-to-back live televised interviews of Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition leader Ed Miliband were billed Thursday as the unofficial campaign kickoff six weeks before Britain’s general election.

David Cameron last night agreed to a single TV debate during the election campaign. The Prime Minister is expected to attend a seven-way session at the start of April, to be shown on ITV.

Here’s a list of things that you wouldn’t want to be called if you were a party leader facing an election in 60 days’ time. Scared. Arrogant. Cynical. Hypocritical. Cowardly. Calculating. High-handed. Feeble. Duplicitous. Undemocratic. Chicken.

Those who have spoken to the prime minister in recent weeks say he is visibly irritated by the Big Debate debate – or “debate-gate” as it is perilously close to becoming.

A future Labour government would take legal steps to ensure that live television debates become permanent features of general election campaigns, in a move to prevent politicians blocking them for their own self-interest.

American-style TV debates are a relatively new phenomena in the U.K., introduced only in 2010. They were popular, with some 22 million tuning in over the course of three debates.