The Welsh Leaders' Debate, the audience and Huw Edwards

Time for yet another post about a BBC-hosted election debate (how exciting, eh?) - this time last night's Welsh leaders' debate, hosted by Huw Edwards. 

Call me easily pleased, but I enjoyed it. 

There were six politicians involved - 

For the Welsh Conservatives: Stephen Crabb
For Welsh Labour: Owen Smith
For the Welsh Liberal Democrats: Kirsty Williams
For Plaid Cymru: Leanne Wood
For Wales Green Party: Pippa Bartolotti
For UKIP Wales: Nathan Gill

- and the host was Huw Edwards.

As seems to be de rigueur these days, the audience played a large part in the debate. 

Like the Question Time debate earlier this week, this was not a typical BBC audience (of the kind we'd all got used to expecting - until this past week). 

The range of views expressed was wide and various (left, right, anti-nationalist) and every one of the politicians on the stage received a decent amount of applause (except, oddly, for the Lib Dem's inoffensive-seeming Kirsty, who barely got a clap all night).

There was also quite a lot of jeering and mocking laughter. 

Leanne Wood of Plaid came off best on that front but, to my great surprise, UKIP's quietly-spoken Nathan Gill (someone UKIP should ensure gets on air more often), went down well with the audience too - receiving only one heckle (followed by laughter).

Even Pippa, the Green (a startling mixture of Margo from The Good Life and very left-wing politics) fared worse, receiving jeers and mocking laughter on a couple of occasions. 

Lib Dem Kirsty got the first jeer of the night and received a few more later. As did the Conservatives' Stephen Crabb. 

However, unquestionably, the politician who was on the receiving end of the most jeers and mockery was Labour's Owen Smith. He really didn't have a good night - especially with the audience. 

All the biggest audience reactions of the night went against him, including the derisive burst of laughter when he said voters "can trust us". Also, the 'zinger' of the night, brilliantly delivered by Leanne Woods - "I think time is up on taking people for granted, Owen Smith" - provoked the only outburst of whoops and huge cheers of the debate, and, again, was targeted at Labour.

The election results from Wales could be very interesting next week if this audience is reflective of the public mood there.

As for BBC bias, well, of the four questions chosen to kick off the four sections, the first two came from the Left, the third one seemed ideology-free and the fourth was vague and similarly ideology-free (despite the camera, twice, lingering on the man later applauding left-wing points when no one else around him was applauding at all - an amusing pair of camera shots). 

Still, given the range of subsidiary questions from the audience, and how ideologically wide-ranging they were, to accuse the BBC of bias for that would be mere quibbling.

My main beef with the programme concerns presenter Huw Edwards. 

He did a fair amount of questioning and interrupting, but he didn't do so consistently. My tally of his questions and interruptions to each politician runs as follows: 

Stephen Crabb, Conservatives - 11

Kirsty Williams, Lib Dems - 5

Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru - 4

Owen Smith, Labour - 3

Nathan Gill, UKIP - 2

Pippa Bartolotti, Greens - 1

He certainly seemed to have the Tories much more in his sights than Labour - and to a rather striking extent.

Perhaps even more striking is the content of his questions - which I will now list in evidence. Please take a read of them and see what you think:

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives: "It is trying to square the circle, isn't it? I mean, when you're talking about an extra £30 billion of extra spending cuts in the first two years of a future Conservative government, lots of people take the view that austerity has actually acted to suppress growth already. Where's the logic there?"

To Kirsty Williams, Lib Dems (interrupting): "Yes, but just so that we understand where you are, I mean, you know, this is just in fairness, Kirsty...The tough decisions in this context are...what would you give us as an example of a tough decision?"

To Kirsty Williams, Lib Dems: Do you think the Lib Dems were right to back the so-called bedroom tax?

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives: For more than one reason, people bring this up all the time, being one of the most unpopular certainly and, for lots of people, one of the most damaging things you've done in five years in government. Is there any element of regret, as far as you're concerned, where the bedroom tax is concerned?

To Owen Smith, Labour: It was very important, Owen, wasn't it? Because it was that moment when Ed Miliband said he did not agree with the questioner, he didn't think the last Labour government overspent, there was an audible reaction from the audience. Do you think that the last Labour government spent wisely?

To Pippa Bartolotti, Greens (interrupting): OK, the question was what would you not go anywhere near cutting? What's your bottom line there? We've had some examples from the others, what would be out-of-order...?

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives: Not cutting, Stephen. There was a debate yesterday about whether the Conservatives had an appetite to cut child benefits at a fairly drastic level. Any comments on that?

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives: It would be fair to say, Stephen, that you have £10 billion worth of projected cuts in welfare cuts which haven't be spelled out. 

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives (interrupting): But it still doesn't get you to £10 billion, does it?

To Leanne Wood, Plaid: Leanne, your perspective on this? There were two parts to the question, weren't there? It was to do with the future of the NHS as an institution and how it's run but also to do with wider health issues around preventative medicine. So your thoughts on that?

To Leanne Wood, Plaid: But just to be clear now...It's 6% of the total NHS budget which is going into the private sector, in terms of private provision. It's 6%. So when you say 'privatisation', clearly there's an element of it, but 6% suggests it's a pretty modest element, doesn't it?

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives: Stephen...Is it true, Stephen, that David Cameron still is of the view that the Welsh NHS is a "disaster area"?

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives (interrupting): He's implied that. 

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives (interrupting): He's constantly suggested it. He's constantly suggested it. 

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives (interrupting): Of course! No one's denying that. No one's denying that.

To Owen Smith, Labour: So two points Owen....two points I want to put to you: You're not committing the extra £8 billion and you are certainly in the position where the Welsh Labour government was taking a bit of an axe, I suppose, to elements of Welsh spending on the NHS where, in fact, it was ring-fenced in England. Those two things.

To Nathan Gill, UKIP: I suppose, Nathan, let's start with you on one of the points, which is that at least to recognise, something that you mentioned, in fairness, a short while ago...on the question of people coming to this country either from the EU or outside the EU, they've been a massive valuable resource to the NHS.

To Kirsty Williams, Lib Dems: You're making a big promise, Kirsty, in NHS spending. UK-wide, you're talking about £8 billion certainly in terms of, you know, spreading the money around a bit. Again, just to ask you in terms of your commitment to the voters here, is that costed? Do you know where that £8 billion is coming from? Because the Conservatives have certainly been accused of throwing a lot of money around without costing it...I'll give Stephen his chance to come back...do you have that fully costed?

To Owen Smith, Labour: Owen, quite a few things there said about Labour and its record. Just to conclude on this section here...Money...the fact that you're not prepared to match the £8 billion that they're promising. Why? Because lots of people would expect Labour to match that. What's the reason for it?

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives: Stephen, the £8 billion, first of all. Can we, sorry, it's not costed. Can you explain where that comes from?

To Stephen Crabb, Conservatives (interrupting): It's a kind of 'trust us' argument. Yes? 

To Kirsty Williams, Lib Dems: So where we stand today, Kirsty, is that you are quite possibly going to work with Stephen in the next few years if that's how the maths add up. Are you happy to do that?

To Leanne Wood, Plaid: And, Leanne, I'm just wondering, when you look ahead to a possible collaborative with whoever it is in a new parliament, at what point do you fall out with your friends in the SNP when they say 'We want to stick with the Barnett Formula', which, as we all know, doesn't do many favours for Wales at all...but you're going to happily work with them, are you, and cooperate with them in a new parliament? 

To Leanne Wood, Plaid: Hold on a second, why do you say that, Leanne? Why do you say he's [Owen Smith] in denial?

To Nathan Gill, UKIP: Nathan, your thoughts? You want a referendum - an in-out referendum where Europe in concerned - and David Cameron is offering that, so I'm assuming that's the natural access, yes?