Polls give UK election debate win to Cameron

London, England (News Terupdate) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown fought to hold on to his job Thursday in a debate against the two men who hope to replace him, David Cameron of the Conservative Party and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats.

But he lost the debate decisively, according to two snap polls.

Cameron came first in both polls, with Clegg second and Brown third.

But the debate performances do not seem to have changed voters' minds about whom to back, according to one poll.

Just over a third of voters say they favor the Conservatives, and the same number back the Liberal Democrats, according to the poll by ComRes for ITV News. Just under one-quarter prefer Labor, the poll suggests.

Those numbers are essentially unchanged from the results after a similar debate last week.

In this week's debate, Brown repeatedly insisted that Cameron represents "the same old Conservative party," which would take money out of the economy for "ideological reasons."

The Conservatives are ahead of Brown's Labour party in most polls, but it's not clear that the lead will be enough to give them a majority when voters cast ballots on May 6.

A confident-seeming Cameron fended off Brown's attacks, saying time and again that Brown was wrong on the facts.

"David, you've just got it wrong economically," Brown said in one of the sharpest exchange, saying his party was "the same old Conservative party of the 1930s and the 1980s and the 1990s."

"Every leading business leader says we have got it right," Cameron shot back.

They crossed swords again about unemployment, with Brown warning "we don't want the labor market of the 1980s," when the Conservatives were in power. "It's the same old Tories."

Cameron fired back that Brown doesn't "even know what country you're prime minister of -- he's caused record youth unemployment."

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Brown continually shook his head as Cameron leveled criticism at the Labour Party, while Cameron tended to stare ahead into the studio audience when he came under attack.

Clegg, whose Liberal Democrats are traditionally also-rans but are riding high on the back of their leader's debate performances, struggled to appear relevant as the leaders of the two big parties traded barbs.

"The way they got us into this mess is not the way out," he said, gesturing to the politicians on either side of him.

The first half of the debate focused on the economy, one of the main concerns on voters' minds.

Members of the audience asked about government spending cuts, the fairness of the tax system, bankers' bonuses, and how to rebuild the British manufacturing sector.

The debate got even sharper in the second half when the hot-button issue of immigration came up.

Cameron accused the Liberal Democrats of wanting an "amnesty for illegal immigrants," while Clegg shot back that the only politician who wanted that was the Conservative mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

Voters across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland cast ballots for 650 members of Parliament on May 6. The party with the largest number of MPs traditionally gets the first chance to form the government.

Either Labour or the Conservatives usually gets an absolute majority, but polls suggest the Liberal Democrats may capture enough seats to prevent one party from having more than half of the seats in Parliament.

Quirks in the voting system mean that the party with the most votes does not always get the most seats.

The last time no party got a majority, in 1974, a new election was called within months.

Labour has been in power in Britain since 1997, first under Tony Blair, and under Brown since 2007. The Conservatives governed Britain for 18 years before that.

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Obama to Republicans: Let Senate debate Wall Street reform

Ottumwa, Iowa (News Terupdate) - President Obama challenged Republicans to allow a debate on Wall Street reforms, telling an Iowa crowd Tuesday it's not right for the GOP to prevent a proposal from coming up in the Senate.

For the second straight day, Senate Republicans blocked a motion to begin debate on a bill that would overhaul financial regulations. The GOP senators say the proposal is too broad and needs to be tightened in closed-door talks with Democrats before coming to the Senate floor for debate.

"The American people deserve an honest debate on this bill," Obama told the crowd. "You should not have to have to wait one more day."

Obama said Senate Republicans "unanimously blocked efforts to even being debating reform."

"They won't let it [the bill] get on the floor to be debated," Obama said. "It's one thing to oppose reform, but to oppose just even talking about reform in front of the American people and having a legitimate debate? That's not right."

The proposed reforms are intended to prevent another Wall Street meltdown like the one that significantly worsened the U.S. recession, Obama said.

"We can't let another crisis like this happen again," he said. "We can't have such a short memory that we let them convince us that we don't need to change the status quo."

Senate Democrats accuse their Republican counterparts of stalling momentum on the bill in an attempt to water it down. The votes Monday and Tuesday on opening debate were intended to generate public pressure on the Republicans by raising awareness of their opposition to moving forward on the popular issue.

A third vote on launching debate on the measure was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

One moderate Republican, Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, indicated Tuesday he would switch his vote from no to yes if negotiations on the bill between Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, fail to reach agreement soon.

The American people "want us to get something done," Voinovich said in explaining why he would eventually join Democrats in insisting the bill be debated on the floor.

Voinovich wouldn't say how long he would wait before switching his vote, but added, "I have an idea of how much time it takes to cut a deal." According to Voinovich, "a whole bunch" of other Republicans are likely to make the same decision.

Dodd and Shelby have repeatedly said they were close to a deal, with agreement on most of the issues. However, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, who also has taken part in negotiations, said Tuesday he was far less optimistic that a deal would come anytime soon.

"I just know where they are, policywise, and I just don't see it," Corker said."I don't think anytime in the near future there's going to be a bipartisan agreement."

Republican leaders have identified their main concern as a Democratic plan to set up a consumer watchdog agency to protect against lending abuses such as unfair credit card charges and mortgage practices.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, contended earlier Tuesday that the consumer agency would extend far beyond Wall Street to infiltrate daily transactions of all Americans.

Shelby headed to another negotiating session with Dodd after Tuesday's vote against starting debate on the bill. Asked whether Dodd is offering any flexibility on the consumer protection provision, Shelby said no.

"They've been pretty steadfast in their view of the consumer agency," Shelby said. "We think we have some constructive recommendations."

Dodd questioned the Republicans' sincerity, saying: "They don't want a consumer protection agency at all. Let's be honest about it."

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Dems say go, GOP says not yet to finance reform debate

Washington (News Terupdate) - Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has scheduled a late afternoon vote Monday to move ahead with a Senate financial reform bill, but Republicans warn they are not prepared to launch debate on the measure.

Leading lawmakers from both parties making the rounds of Sunday political talk shows said a deal is close on a reform bill, but top-ranking Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was among those saying he didn't expect debate to proceed on Monday.

"We don't have a bipartisan compromise yet," McConnell said on "FOX News Sunday." "But I think there's a good chance that we're going to get it."

Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama told NBC's "Meet the Press" that they would continue working during the day Sunday to reach a deal on financial reform, one of President Obama's top legislative priorities.

But Shelby said, "If nothing happens between now and (Monday), the Democrats will not get" any Republican support to open debate on the measure.

Republicans have enough seats in the Senate to block the start of debate; without at least one Republican vote, debate won't be able to begin.

The House has passed its version of a financial regulation reform bill intended to prevent another Wall Street meltdown like the one in 2008 that led to the U.S. recession.

Dodd and Shelby have been negotiating a Senate bill for months, though their talks broke down when Dodd recently held a vote on the proposal by the Senate Banking Committee he chairs. The committee's Democrats approved the measure without any Republican support.

Last week, the Senate Agriculture Committee also passed a measure to tighten regulations on the complex system of trade known as derivatives.

One Republican, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, joined Democrats on the committee in supporting the measure. Negotiations involving Dodd, Shelby and other senators now are focused on merging the two Senate proposals into a single bill.

Reid's strategy is to force Republicans to either allow debate to proceed or go on record opposing Wall Street reforms that are strongly supported by the American public.

On the NBC show, Dodd said he hoped the continuing talks with Shelby would yield an agreement to allow the debate to begin on Monday. Any further changes necessary could take place in the amendment process during debate, Dodd argued.

"This doesn't end the debate tomorrow. This begins debate," Dodd said of moving forward on the legislation in the Senate. "Tomorrow if another crisis occurs in this county, we're no better off than we were in 2008."

Shelby said the two sides were "very, very close" in concept, but still had to iron out differences over "two or three" provisions. "It's very tedious," he said, adding that a deal by Monday was doubtful.

Another top Republican negotiator, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, told ABC's "This Week" that talks are focused on the major elements that must be in the bill, which he identified as stronger regulations of derivatives, increased consumer protections and ensuring the orderly liquidation of failing companies.

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Brown attacks rivals in UK election debate

London, England (News Terupdate) - Gordon Brown went on the offensive against the two men hoping to replace him as prime minister at a debate Thursday, but it seems to have done him little good.

The foreign policy-themed contest -- the second of three ahead of the UK's May 6 general election --failed to produce a clear winner as Brown clashed with David Cameron of the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg over questions on defense policy, Europe, immigration and distrust of politicians.

But Cameron topped a snap poll by YouGov for the Sun newspaper, while Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg came first in a survey by ComRes for ITV News and the Independent newspaper.

Brown unleashed particularly sharp words at Clegg, who had shot up in the polls after being widely judged the best performer in last week's opening debate.

What did you think of the debate?

"Nick, get real, get real," Brown said when the politicians were questioned about defense policy.

And Brown attacked both Clegg and Cameron in a broadside intended to suggest that he offers a safe pair of hands after 13 years of Labour government.

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"David, you're a risk to the economy. Nick's a risk to our security," he said.

Can Brown make a political comeback?

In the YouGov poll, just over a third of debate viewers picked Cameron as the winner, while just under a third saw Clegg as the victor. Brown trailed in third place.

The ComRes poll put Clegg narrowly on top, with 33 percent. Cameron and Brown tied at 30 percent each in the poll. Clegg topped last week's ComRes poll by a much wider margin.

Ladbroke's, a betting shop, also declared Cameron the winner, saying betting shifted heavily to him during a question on immigration at the end of the debate.

Cameron struck an optimistic note in his closing statement, saying the British "need to make a clean break from the last 13 years (of Labour government), to have new leadership to take the country forward to solve the problems that we have, and I think the Conservatives are best placed to offer that ... rather than being stuck with what we have now.

"I still think we have incredible days ahead of us. ... We can achieve anything if we all pull together," Cameron said.

Cameron's Conservatives have led in the polls for several years, but last week's debate -- the first ever during a British election campaign -- shook up the race.

Can Cameron become the UK's next leader?

Clegg was widely judged the winner of the first debate, and polls showed the Liberal Democrats shooting from a distant third to first place in many polls.

Brown's Labour Party dropped to third place. But the tightening race has increased the likelihood of a "hung parliament," in which no party achieves an overall majority.

The Liberal Democrats are riding high on voter anger against politicians after a scandal over lawmakers' expense claims, campaigning as agents of change.

Clegg closed with a call for hope and change which echoed U.S. President Barack Obama's election 2008 campaign.

Voters are "beginning to hope that we can do something different," Clegg said. "Don't let anyone tell you that this time it can't be different. This time it can."

The refrain in last week's debate was "I agree with Nick," as Cameron and Brown appeared to try to cozy up to the man who could be kingmaker if neither of the main parties gets a majority.

But there was little affection for Clegg on display Thursday.

Cameron, in fact, twice said he agreed with Brown on defense, making a joke of it the second time.

But when the debate turned to benefits for the elderly, Cameron seemed visibly angry at Brown, accusing him of "lying" about Conservative policies.

"Every day Labour is putting leaflets through the doors and they're lies and it makes me angry. Will you withdraw the leaflets? You should be ashamed," Cameron demanded, referring to what he said were Labour party advertisements about Conservative plans to cut benefits for older people.

Brown replied that he had "not authorized" the leaflets.

Watch the candidates spar over elderly benefits Video

The debate was officially about foreign policy, but the politicians took only four questions in the part of the debate dedicated to the subject: on Europe, Afghanistan, the environment and the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the UK in September.

They later took questions on immigration, distrust of politicians and other subjects.

Voters cast their ballots on May 6 for lawmakers in 650 districts, or constituencies across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The party with the most lawmakers traditionally gets the first chance to form a government.

It's rare for no party to get a majority, but polls suggest it may happen this year. The last time it happened, in 1974, a new election was called within months.

Source : CNN

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