Cameron v Paxman v Miliband: what undecided voters think

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/26/cameron-paxman-miliband-undecided-voters-poll

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What do real voters think about David Cameron’s performance on Thursday night? We have 60 on standby to give their view throughout the election campaign as part of our joint polling project with the pollsters BritainThinks.

The people in the focus groups are all undecided voters from five key seats that represent the complexity of this election. You can read more about the project here.

They each have an app and some were online last night telling us what they thought of Cameron and Ed Miliband’s interviews with Jeremy Paxman as they happened.

The overall feeling is that Cameron actually fared well, says Deborah Mattinson, the founder of BritainThinks.

One describes him as “composed”. Another said: “I’m rather impressed so far.”

I have a lot of respect for Cameron – he doesn’t get too flustered even when he’s grilled by Paxman! He seems honest and down to earth.

Cameron has his facts and figures to hand and is not allowing Paxman to throw him off course in giving his answers, despite tough questioning from him.

The initial responses on Miliband were not so positive.

Ed Miliband doesn’t seem to speak as confidently as David Cameron. Also not as ready with the numbers as David Cameron.

First time I’ve listened to Ed Miliband… Arrrr 80 minutes of it.

Miliband’s words sound like a fairytale. Easier said than done.

David v Ed question put him on the spot! Do I vote for someone who would undermine his brother like he did?

Mattinson gives this summary of the panel’s initial responses: “The top-line view is that Cameron’s performance is more assured and confident than Miliband – also he has a better command of facts and figures. All our panel are undecided voters but this view cuts across geography and current party preferences. In particular we saw praise for Cameron from some Scottish participants and some Labour leaners. People in the panel are responding to the policies in a partisan way but even strong anti-Tories in this small sample tended to rate Cameron’s performance over Miliband’s.”

Nevertheless several of the panellists, although ultimately favouring Cameron, thought Miliband outperformed his expectations.

Still had more faith in Cameron by the end of the debate. However, I thought Miliband came across as far better than usual. Now more confused than ever!

EM had the edge on DC. Felt he was more passionate on his beliefs

Sad to say it but I was more impressed with David Cameron tonight. Although Jeremy Paxman went on a bit, hounding Ed Milliband, It seemed to me the prime minister answered everything just a bit better and gave a good account of himself.

Also, a number of our panelists felt that Miliband was being picked on and given a harder time than Cameron. They felt warmer to him as a result, seeing him as the underdog.

I feel he was really good and handled the presenters very well. He had to put up with more being made a joke of.