WEEK 8: EU referendum debate

EU referendum debate: Who won at Wembley?

abour's Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson became unlikely bedfellows last night to lead the Remain charge against Boris Johnson during the latest TV debate on the EU referendum.

With less than 36 hours to go before polling opens, the atmosphere was "tetchy", says The Guardian, and there was no shortage of raised voices.A six-strong line up – Khan, Davidson and Johnson were joined by Labour MP Gisela Stuart, energy minister Andrea Leadsom and TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady - argued the issues in front of 6,000 people at Wembley Arena, the biggest televised debate on the subject so far.

As feared by some in the Remain camp, Johnson seized upon Labour leader's Jeremy Corbyn's recent candid comments on immigration limits.

"Jeremy Corbyn – he's the leader – he said there was no way of controlling immigration in the EU," said the former London mayor, to laughter and applause.

The In faction wasn't alone in being haunted by a careless misstep, however. Khan got the line of the night by flipping Leave's repeated dismissal of the Remain argument as "Project Fear" to create his own buzzword.

"Your campaign hasn’t been Project Fear, it’s been Project Hate as far as immigration is concerned," he declared, to applause. Out came the now infamous Vote Leave posters, one of which warned voters of an imminent Turkish accession to the EU, which Khan decried as a "big fat lie".

Davidson was quick off the mark to attack another Vote Leave talking point. Johnson and his colleagues had urged UK voters to "take back control", she said, adding: "You lose control by losing your seat at the table."

A rising star in Scottish politics, Davidson's performance "attracted praise from Remain supporters across the political spectrum, and even from within the Leave campaign", adds the Guardian.

Despite their lack of TV polish alongside veteran spotlight-stealer Johnson, says John Rentoul in The Independent, Davidson and Khan came off best.

However, the substance of the debate itself was unlikely to change many minds.

"The principals mainly traded soundbites to enthusiastic cheers and applause from their side’s supporters, while the other side heckled and tried to interrupt," he writes.

So great was their enthusiasm, the Wembley Arena audience threatened to drown out the debate with "whooping, cheering and groaning", says Michael Deacon in the Daily Telegraph. "By the end, every halfway coherent answer was being met with deafening acclaim."

http://www.theweek.co.uk/brexit/72458/eu-referendum-debate-who-won-at-wembley

WHO: abour's Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Scottish Conservatives leader

WHAT: EU referendum debate

WHERE: EU

WHEN: 2016/6/10

bedfellows (n.) a person connected with another in a particular activity

referendum (n.) a vote in which all the people in a country or an area are asked to give their opinion about or decide an important political or social question

tetchy (adj.) easily made angry, unhappy, or upset

dismissal (n.) the situation in which an employer officially makes someone leave their job

groan (n.)  a deep, long sound showing great pain or unhappiness

coherent (adj.)  If an argument, set of ideas, or a plan is coherent, it is clear and carefully considered, and each part of it connects or follows in a natural or reasonable way.

applause (n.) the sound of people clapping their hands repeatedly to show enjoyment or approval of something such as a performance or speech

soundbites (n.) a short sentence or phrase that is easy to remember, often included in a speech made by a politician and repeated in newspapers and on television and radio