Lib Dem candidate calls “Two Horse Race” tenuous and regards national vote as more important than seats in a hung parliament.

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Who plays Lib Dem Two Horse Race bingo?

Whenever you get a leaflet from the Liberal Democrats during the current UK General Election campaign, you can be guaranteed two things – a rather interesting bar graph, and the declaration that “It’s a two horse race” and “only the Lib Dems can win here. The first person to spot it when reading a leaflet should shout “Lib Dem Bingo!!!” At least in our house. Anyway…

Yesterday I conducted a two hour debate on Leith FM with four candidates from Edinburgh North and Leith and Edinburgh East, with Mark Lazarowicz (Labour), Iain McGill (Conservative), Beverley Hope (Lib Dem) and Callum Cashley (SNP).

Now I’m no Paxman or Humphries, but I’d decided I would step up and challenge certain points. I’ve always said that when I do interviews for the Edinburgh Fringe, I try to ask what the viewer is screaming at their MP3 player. This would be no different.

So when the subject got round to the media and slick marketing slogans, how could I resist bringing up “it’s a two horse race” slogan…

[audio:http://www.ewanspence.co.uk/podcast/lfm_noiseuphusting_twohorserace.mp3]
Download clip (MP3)

The other question I’ve seen around, and on a more serious note, was also for the Liberal Democrats and what happens in a hung parliament. There’s every chance that Labour could get more votes across the country, but the Conservatives get the most seats. So who would the Lib Dems support in the first instance – Brown or Cameron?

Beverley Hope is clear that in her mind, the party with the most votes across the UK, and not the highest number of seats, has the right to try and form a government first – which is the first time I’ve heard a Lib Dem actually answer that question.

[audio:http://www.ewanspence.co.uk/podcast/lfm_noiseuphusting_votesorseats.mp3]
Download clip (MP3)

Here’s the full two hour interview, hosted at Archive.org…

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/LeithFmNoiseUpElectionDebateApril292010/LeithFM_NoiseUpElectionDebate_20100429.mp3]
Download show (MP3)