Bernard Dineen: Charade of great TV debate solved nothing

They have not been in government so don't have a record to defend. They wouldn't be forming the next government so they could promise whatever they liked with no fear of having to deliver it. Ask the average voter what the Lib Dems' policies are and you would get some strange answers. Attacking the two main parties with "A plague on both your houses" is a surefire winner. Calls to clean up politics go down well because no-one remembers that they were just as mired by sleaze as the other two parties.

I detest these American-style debates because they give the illusion of substance without having a solid basis. Viewers are judging on trivialities. There could never be a "killer blow". In Gordon Brown you have a man who has reduced Britain to bankruptcy and betrayed the Armed Forces. But he hasn't been in politics for decades without knowing how to dodge.

Surveys show that only 40 per cent of TV audiences follow the arguments. The rest just look at the pictures. Did anyone really change their minds? I doubt it. Alastair Campbell thought Gordon Brown had triumphed. George Osborne thought Cameron was the best. And Paddy Ashdown was sure Nick Clegg came first. Now there's a surprise. What has been completely obscured it just how left-wing the Lib Dems really are. They backed Brown's punitive tax on business. They favour a link-up with Labour rather than with the Tories. And they are obsessed with the EU.

This whole charade solved nothing. And there are two more to come. Wake me up when they've gone away.

Hysteria over the nurse wearing a crucifix around her neck has been overdone. Of course the hospital managers were stupid for making an issue of it but what else did you expect?

The real scandal is not that she was being "crucified" as she distastefully put it, but that other religions are given privileged treatment. Rules on hygiene mean that staff involved in patient care must either have short sleeves or

sleeves rolled up, to combat MRSA and C-difficile. But not if you are Muslim because Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed to opt out of the NHS dress code. The Department of Health has announced that female Muslim staff will be permitted to cover their arms to "preserve their modesty".

One Muslim medic refused to "scrub up" because she would not leave her forearms exposed. So now the NHS is buying disposable, detachable sleeves, elasticised at the wrist and elbow. An MRSA action group believe these disposable sleeves could compromise patient safety unless they are changed with every patient. You may be interested in the working party which drew up these concessions. Two Health Department officials, two female Muslim hospital chaplains, an Imam, and two members of the Muslim Spiritual Care Provision in the NHS.

Don't ask for details of the working parties for the Church of England, Catholic or Jewish staff. There weren't any.

WHAT a deeply unpleasant place Britain is becoming, with people scared to speak freely or make jokes. A medical technician has killed himself after someone complained that he had made a racist, politically incorrect joke.

When he noticed that immigration officers were outside the clinic, he said to a black colleague, "You'd better hide." The colleague happened to be a close friend and saw the joke, but a politically correct sneak overheard and lodged a formal complaint. The boss promptly suspended the technician and asked him to respond to the allegation. He was so upset that he went out of the house and shot himself in the head.

The black friend, who attended his funeral, is said to be "shattered". The disgusting sneak who caused his death remains anonymous. As for the various managers who carried out the suspension, they are "not available for comment." If there were any justice, they would be suspended. I can think of no more tragic tale. A decent man having his life destroyed and his family plunged into mourning. But it is far from unusual in this increasingly intolerant PC society we have become.

A WELSH family has found the perfect formula for an easy life. They have seven children (eventually aiming at 14) and neither of them has worked for nine years. They get 42,000 a year – 815 a week – and live in a four-bedroomed house. They run an 11-seater minibus and a seven-seat automatic Mercedes. As a tribute, they have named their youngest child Mercedes. As the children kept arriving, he thought, with impeccable logic: "It cost too much to carry on working. We were better-off unemployed."

They don't think they have anything to be grateful for. "It doesn't bother me that taxpayers are paying for me to have a big family," says the wife. "I'm just working with the system that's there. If the Government wants to give me money, I'm happy to take it."

Two years ago, the man filed for bankruptcy after piling up 20,000 of debt on mail-order catalogues. They still insist on four presents per child at birthdays. Last Christmas they spent 2,000 on presents.

What a picture of Britain 2010. And people wonder why the country is on the verge of bankruptcy.