Debatable; Boris vs Corbyn (BBC Debate and Final Weigh in)

BBC One-on-one: Corbyn's Last Stand

Presented by Nick Robinson, the leaders' debate began with the coin-toss winner and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

6/12/19:

Corbyn, ever the ghost at our Brexmas feast, spent much of the opener talking about funding for the NHS; measures to deal with child poverty and his fiscally ambitious manifesto.

The coin toss loser; her majesty’s Prime Minister Alexander Boris De Pfeffel Johnson gave his typical performance. Our parliament is in a ‘paralysis’ and this can be ‘turning point’ but first we ‘must get Brexit done’ and ‘unleash Britain’s potential’.

He rounded the speech off by describing the dangers of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and opponent Jeremy Corbyn’s plans for more ‘dither and delay’ and saying vote for him, ‘a One Nation Conservative’.

The first question from the specially picked BBC audience saw both leaders asked why ex-Prime Ministers (John Major and Tony Blair) have both said not to vote for their old parties.

Both leaders just about managed an answer. Corbyn by explained why he believes his party would be good for the country while Johnson reckoned the best way to get ex-Prime Ministers to vote Tory was to ‘get Brexit done’.

There was a lot of this: So, instead of running through all of it – unanswered question by half-answered question - I might as well break it up into the talking points.

Brexit

The Prime Minister’s favourite question of the evening: “can you guarantee we leave next year?”

Corbyn broke into a staunch defence of his neutral Brexit position, the performance brought in to question the strategy of Labour for two years: This policy of pragmatism, which journalists frequently describe as ‘confusing’ or ‘fence-sitting’, appears somehow more plausible now that Corbyn won’t campaign in his refernedum.

As dignified a defence as is possible, given Labour cannot promise to Leave voters we will be out of the EU next year.

Johnson gave the people what he knows they want; a catchphrase only explanation of his Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB). Yes, we will leave next year; it's a ‘fantastic deal’ which is ‘oven-ready’ lets ‘get Brexit done’.

He even unveiled some focus group sourced benefits of the WAB including its ability to ‘protect animal welfare’, ‘cut VAT on tampons’ and of course ‘control immigration’. Then turning his attention to Corbyn’s ‘mystery deal’.

Corbyn: "Ques up the M20"

NHS

A good round for Corbyn who came straight out the traps with the effect austerity has had on the NHS. While Johnson, for unknown reasons, felt it necessary to explain why 19,000 of the 50,000 of the nurses he plans to hire are already nurses.

The Prime Minister described Corbyn’s claims the Tories will privatise the NHS as ‘Bermuda Triangle stuff’.

Socialism vs Capitalism

A tricky one for Comrade Corbyn. Instead of answering which was better he focused on how much the post-war Labour government raised living standards.

Johnson: ‘you can’t clobber business’.

This became an argument about corporation tax, the PM keen to convince the specially picked audience that Comrade Corbyn and his rag-tag shadow cabinet are Communist guerrillas – hell-bent on bringing Richard Branson to his denim-clad knees.

The Economy

The Labour party have long maintained that we should be borrowing more to enforce public services and now, as we face down from this Brexit cliff, the Prime Minister has come around to the idea.

The vague and misleading commitments in the Tory manifesto are, if the Prime Minister is to be believed, the spoils of austerity. It's no surprise that they've waited until election time to reap them.

Jeremy Corbyn handled the attacks on his ‘radical’ manifesto by pointing out his manifesto is the only one that is fully costed.

Both leaders gave the party line verbatim and swung every answer back to the talking points. While we haven’t seen meaningful movement in the polls yet, to cite this as another Johnson victory may be discounting a considerably stronger performance from Corbyn.

Injury Time

At the time of writing, Labour party are still stubbornly behind in the polls and the Prime Minister has published almost identical editorials in several Sunday newspapers.

Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine was on the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday; stereotyping Labour voters and describing the PM as ‘the hardest working man in journalism’.

BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg and ITV’s Robert Peston have both faced criticisms over breaking a story based on CCHQ’s claims that a Labour protester assaulted an aide to Health Secretary Matt Hancock. A video of the non-incident was later shared to Twitter which showed the aide walking into an angry cyclist.

No.10 Downing Street has officially declined their Andrew Neil interview, just out of his interview with Brexit party leader Nigel Farage, Neil called out Johnson’s refusal by outlining the things he would have asked Johnson.

Senior Downing Street source: “The public is fed up with interviews that are all about the interviewer and endless interruptions. The format is tired and broken and needs to change if it is to start engaging and informing the public again.”

Novara Media, Evolve Politics and The Canary continue to roar into their Momentum echo-chambers on behalf of Labour, while the NewStatesmen have made the decision to remain neutral. Despite this, Politics Editor Stephen Bush has been vocal in his criticisms of the BBC.

The Guardian has continued to be a broad-church of cautiously pro-Labour content, sending Political Editor Heather Stewart on the trail with Corbyn and Deputy Rowena Mason with the Prime Minister.

Stewart described on The Guardian’s Today in Focus on Tuesday how she asked the Labour leader about an incident which saw Prime Minister presented with a picture of four-year-old suffering from pneumonia, on a hospital floor due to insufficient beds.

Johnson looked away, rather than engaging with the image, before grabbing the reporter’s phone and putting it in his pocket.

Corbyn described it as ‘very odd’.

Stewart asked: “should you have attacked him more? Is it hard to land blows on Boris Johnson?”

Corbyn looked disgusted, responding: “I am not a boxer, perhaps more people would like me to be, but that’s not my style.”

This sums the Labour strategy; the leadership go high and Momentum goes low. The online presence of Labour is what makes this election so unpredictable. They may not have the press, but they certainly have Twitter.

Will it be enough?

Johnson has said on Tuesday - in what some are calling a distraction from the 'very odd' phone-grab - that his government are considering doing away with the license-fee structure for the BBC altogether.

After a frustrating three weeks of watching the Prime Minister slogan his way through election debates, I take comfort in the fact that we can agree on something.

At the very least; they shouldn’t be allowed to break stories on Twitter.