things like that. >> because they can't buy tv time, it has a profound effect on the amount of money. also have very tight limits on spending. because we don't have constitutional restraints as applied the in the u.s. the limit of about $30 million on spending by each of the main parties during the actual period running up the campaign, including the campaign itself. that is peanuts of any presidential campaign. >> during the official campaign, which last about four weeks, there is usually one broadcast aired each day, except sunday. these are produced by the parties and the main national broadcasters are required by law to provide tv and radio air time for free. here's a look at the labor party's election broadcast, released earlier this week. >> 5:00.

>> i'll get that. >> are you all right? >> go on, eat up. >> no, you do have to eat them. >> yes? >> he's just told us they're cutting the child tax credit. >> that's not fair. that's not fair. we work hard for our money. >> within a few weeks, the conservatives would stop child tax credit payments to hundreds of thousands of families on modest incomes. >> we have to make some changes.

>> within a few weeks of being elected, the conservatives would stop baby bond payments of families with incomes over 16,000 pounds. >> don't worry, we've got plenty. >> yes, how can i help you? >> the conservatives would end the right to see a cancer

specialist within two weeks of referral by your g.p. >> surely this is a mistake. >> they don't want you to know what they would cut if they win on may 6. there is only one way to protect your tax credit, your child trust fund, and your right to see a cancer specialist within two weeks. vote labour on may 6. >> you're watching the british political party's election broadcast. in the u.k., paid political ads are not permitted on tv. instead, the law requires that the parties and broadcasters agree on an allocation of air time that's free. conservative party leader david cameron released this broadcast earlier this week.

>> today sees the dawn of a new era in britain. >> we, the hung parliament party, aim to change the very face of politics. we've listened to the hard working people of this country. we feel the disillusionment that many of you have with modern politics. we want to do away with the old conventions and set out a new vision for britain. it's time for real change. we're going to bring in behind closed doors politics. no public allowed. we want an end to transparency. under a hung parolment government where no party has a majority. under the table deals will be the order of the day. party political rangeling will dominate and policies will be bickered over by city committees. and those more interested in serving their careers than their countries. pledge two, indecision and weak

government. at a time when our country is crying out for clear leadership, we, the hung parolment -- parliament party, promise to provide indecision, inaction, and half measures. we guarantee more dithering policies, which in real terms, means no change to underperforming schools, no change to the n.h.s., and no change to the violent crime rates that blite our streets. our third pledge is to paralyze the u.k. committee. a vote for hung parliament risks killing economic recovery. we can promise this because we know that 2/3 of business leaders are concerned about the impact on the british committee. a drop in confidence could lead to a run on the pound. finally, we pledge to hold a new election within the calendar year. we promise you, the voter, another chance to be faced by the same problem and hear the

same arguments all over again. what's more, we'll waste tens of millions of pounds of the taxpayers' money doing it. this is our vision for britain. we hope we can rely on you to create a brave new world of undemocratic processes, economic stagnation, and dithering, and getting us in couldn't be easier. a vote for any party other than the conservatives should do the job. >> the british election is may 6. there is usually one broadcast aired each day, except sunday. here to look at the liberal democrats election broadcast that aired this week.

>> broken promises. thrf been too many in the last few years. too many in the last 30 years. in fact, our nation has been littered with them. a trail of broken promises. you remember them. fairer taxes, a promise broken. better schools for everyone, a promise broken. cleaner politics, a promise broken. i believe it's time to do things differently. i believe it's time for fairness in britain. i believe it's time for promises to be kept. britain is a strong country. despite everything we've got going for us, life is still too unfair for too many people. people like you who have made us the nation we are today. and you deserve fairness more

than anybody. putting fairness back into our society is in my view the single biggest challenge we face, but we can do it. if we do it together. and here's how. fair taxes. no one will pay any tax on the first 10,000 pounds they earn. just imagine what that means. it means 700 pounds back in the pockets of almost everyone. it means tax freedom for millions of people on low pay and pensions. now, everybody knows that money is tight. we've got to sort out the mess in the government finances. but we can pay for fairer taxes by closing the huge loopholes that only benefit the very wealthy and making sure that polluters pay for the damage that they have caused. that's fairness. a fair start for all our children, cutting class sizes to

just 20. just imagine it, opportunity for every child. that's fairness. imagine too a fair and sustainable economy. let's break up the banks and make sure that they pay for damage that they've caused as well, and let's invest billions in new green infrastructure, affordable housing, green renewable energy, high-speed rail, to build a new economy beyond the city of london, with jobs that last for everyone in every part of the country. that's fairness. and finally, fair politics. there will be no more dodgey political parties and we will fix the system so that your vote will cast no matter where you live. that's the way to put fairness back into politics. this election is different from every other election. it's the trail -- the trail of

broken promises can come to an end and a new road can end. a road into the future and opportunity and fairness for everyone. we can say goodbye to broken promises and welcome back hope. we can make britain the fair country we all want it to be. so choose fairness. choose real change that works for you. choose the liberal democrats. >> you can see these three political election broadcasts again on our website, c-span.org. just look for 2010 british elections under the featured links section of the home page. the british election is may 6. >> british parliamentary elections are may 6, and for the

first time, leaders of the largest political parties are facing off in three u.s. style tv debates. tonight we'll show you the third and final election debate courtesy of the bbc. this debate will focus on domestic policy. participating are prime minister and labour party leader gordon brown, conservative leader david cameron, and liberal democrat leader nick clegg. this is 90 minutes.

>> good evening, and welcome to the hall for the debate of this election. three men, each of whom wants to be our next prime minister, the leader of the conservative party david cameron, the leader of the liberal democrats nick clegg, and the leader of the labor party, gordon brown. [applause] >> tonight, a large part of the debate will be on the state of the country's committee, the recession, the national debate, unemployment, the issues that many people will decide this election. our audience here is representative of this area. we've also selected some questioners from thousands of e-mails we received at the bbc news website. they have not been told the questions. in any case, we start with brief opening remarks from each of them. first, david cameron. >> good evening. our economy is stuck in a rut. and we need change to get it

moving. let me tell you what i would do. first, we've got to reward work and tackle welfare dependency. second, we've got to fix our banks. tax them to get our money back, regulate them properly, and get them lending again. third, we've got to start making things again in this country. it's no policy to just borrow from the chinese and buy goods made in china. fourth, we've actually got to get value for money in our public services. i want good public services for everyone, and we can only do that if we save and stop the waste. let me tell you one thing i wouldn't do. with greece so much in the news, i can guarantee i would never join the euro and keep the pound as our currency. that's the change we need, and if you vote conservative next thursday, we can start to get to work on friday. >> thank you, mr. cameron. nick clegg. >> tonight's debate is about you, about your job, the taxes you pay, your family, about the

prosperity of our economy. we need to do things differently to build a new, stronger, and fairer economy. the way they got us into this mess is not the way out. so we need to be frank about the cuts that will be needed so we can protect things like schools and hospitals. we'll need to break up our banking system so that irresponsible bankers can never again put your savings and your businesses at risk. we have to rediscover our passion for innovation, for building things, not just placing bets on the money markets, and we need fair taxes so that you don't pay any income tax on your first 10,000 pounds. of course, they'll tell you tonight that these things can't be done. i think we've got to do things differently, to deliver the fairness, the prosperity, and the jobs that you and your families deserve. >> thank you, mr. clegg. gordon brown. >> there's a lot to this job, and as you saw yesterday, i

don't get all of it right. but i do know how to run the economy in good times and in bad. when the backs collapsed, i took immediate action to stop crisis becoming calamity and to stop a recession becoming a depression. as a result of that, britain is now on the road to recovery. but as we meet tonight, economies in europe are in pearl and there is a risk of dragging us into recession. so i'm determined that nothing will happen in britain that will put us back in that position. and i want to set out my plan, and why this year is so important. support the economy now and you will ensure that are jobs and a recovery and ensure that we can have the resources for deficit reduction. shrink the economy now as the conservatives would do and risk your jobs, your living standards, and tax credits. it's not my future that matters. it's your future that's on the ballot paper next thursday, and i'm the one to fight for your

future. >> mr. brown, thank you. well, now, we take our first question of the night. it comes from nadeem. >> we all know it's going to be spending cuts after the general election. what can you tell us? >> nick clegg? >> we have set out to have a look at it. we've sent out numbers right there, specifying the savings that we do think should be made. we've set out in much greater detail than any other party, 15 billion pounds worth of savings, which are kind of up from down payments to deal with this huge black hole we have in our public fund. what are we talking about? things like scrapping, the new generation of passports, public sector pay restraint, the top 20% of recipients of tax credits shouldn't receive those credits so they can be targeted elsewhere. i'm saying no to things like the multibillion pound euro fighter

typhoon. a defense project. those are the kind of big decisions you need to take. what you can't do, this is where i really disagree with them, is trying to fool you into thinking that just official savings is enough. you can't fill a black hole by just a few savings on pot plants and paper clips. >> gordon brown? >> we've set out a four-year deficit reduction plan and that starts from 2011. and is designed to have tax rises that are fair, spending cuts that are equitable, and at the same time, growth in the economy that is essential for recovery. our four-year deficit reduction plans include a rise in the top rate of plans above 100,000, those above 100,000 and at the high rate and a national insurance rise. but it also includes spending cuts in key areas. but we have one principle that we're adopting and it's clear. we are not going to allow the front line national health service or schools or policing

to be cut. we will find the cuts in other areas, as we set out, including in public sector pay and pensions and restructuring of government. but i do say one thing that is absolutely crucial. don't believe that we can fail to summit the economy this year. if we fail to support the economy this year, then we risk a double dip recession, and that's really the problem with the conservative policy. >> david cameron? >> you're quite right. there are going to have to be cuts and we need to be frank about this, and we were the first to say that cuts would have to be made. but i really want to explain to people that if i'm your prime minister, i will do everything i can to protect the front line services. i want to see the police officers on the beat, the money go into our children's state schools, the money on the ward in the hospital. that's absolutely essential. we do have to say some of the difficult things we're going to do, and we have done that. we are not just relying on waste. we've said, for instance, there will have to be a public sector pay freeze for one year from

2011. that's not popular, but it is the right thing to do. we've said that people are going to have to retire a year later, starting in 2016. these are difficult decisions. but i believe also, we've got to get our economy growing. we've got to get it moving. and that's why we say start now with efficiency savings to stop the jobs tax next year. let's get employeing people again in britain. let's get the committee moving to help us with the deficit. >> thank you very much. let me repeat the question. we all know there are going to be spending cuts after the general election, no matter who wins. why can't you be honest and tell us -- i assume that means tell us about all the cuts we might make. nick clegg, you have a chance to respond to what the others have said. >> one thing i would like to add is this, you are quite right that none of the political parties have spilled out all the details. some are simply not possible to spill out now. but clearly more work will need to be done. something which i think would make a huge difference to us all

as we deal with these very difficult decisions about how to balance the boxes is for once to get the politicians actually working together on this. i suggested, whether david cameron and gordon brown would like to take up this, wouldn't bit a good thing to get the chancellor and the vice chancellor, all the parties together, with the governor of the bank of england with the head of the financial services authority, simply to sort of be open and be straight with you about how big this black hole is and roughly how long it's going to take to deal with it. so that we all at least are speaking from the same script about how big this problem is. i think politicians for once putting the country before themselves would be a very good thing on this issue. >> gordon brown? >> let's be clear. from 2011, there will be cuts in spending other than the n.h.s., other than schools, other than policing. we will make the commitment to maintain these front line services and build on the improvements that we have made. once you've built a school in a

hospital as we've done in the last few years, you don't need to build it again. we can have cuts in capital investment. public sector will not rise as it did the last few years and public sector pensions are being reformed. it's absolutely crucial to the times we are in at the moment in this uncertain and dangerous world, david is proposing that there be cuts in public spending now, six billion, and that will shrink the economy at a time when we need to support the economy. we cannot afford to lose jobs and businesses and lose growth now. we must maintain the recovery and support it, and please let us not make the mistake of the 1930's and the 1980's and the 1990's and let us support the economy until the recovery is assured. >> your response, david cameron? >> let me respond as directly as i possibly can. six billion pounds saving this year, so we stopped the jobs tax next year. that means saving one out of every hundred pounds that the

government spends. that is the glossy leaflet that comes to your door from the local council. that's one in 100 pounds. it's the fact that managers in the n.h.s. got a 7% pay raise. that's the one in 100 pounds. we have the leaders of britain's biggest and most successful businesses all saying that the risk to the recovery is not cutting waste. the risk to the recovery is putting up national insurance on every job in the country, which is what labour proposed. so we say roll up your sleeves now. let's save the waste where we can to stop the taxes. it's the right thing to do and it will help get our economy moving. >> can we explore some of these ideas? >> david's got it wrong. we're making 15 billion off efficiency savings now. he wants these savings on top of that without putting the money back into the economy. look, go to america, look at france, germany, the other

countries. they're saying, as all ts e saying, don't withdraw the support from the recovery until the recovery is assured. what david would do in an emergency budget in a few weeks time is for ideological reasons take six billion pounds out of the economy and put our recovery at risk. the time to do the deficit reduction is when the recovery is assured, and david, you've just got it wrong economically and it's the same mistake the conservatives made, the same old conservative party of the 1930's, the 1980's, and the 1990's. >> david cameron? >> every business leader, every leading business leader is saying that we've got it right. the government wasting money is wrong. let me tell you where i think we should start. we should start with welfare. there are five million people out of work related benefits. there are people who could work, who we train, but we should say in our country if you don't accept work, you can't go on claiming benefits. that's something that labour has left us with this mess.

as we try to get public spending under control, let's start with people who can work, who are offered work, but who don't take it. >> let's try to move beyond the point scoring. look, we are not as a nation going to be able to balance the books. we're not going to be able to fill the hole unless we also do it with fairness right at the heart of everything we do. people aren't going to accept these difficult decisions unless we also do it fairly. that's what i think. accompanying the difficult job of actually filling the structural deficit, we also need to introduce a big tax switch, so that people on ordinary incomes, low incomes, get a tax break, 700 pounds back in their pockets so they don't pay any income tax in the first 10,000 pounds they earn, by closing the loopholes at the top and using the money so that people feel that whilse difficult decisions have been made, at least the taxes are on their side. if you don't have fairness at the heart of everything you do, it's going to be very, very difficult to see us through these difficult decisions in the

years to come. >> they are not addressing the  question we face now. if you shrink the economy now, if you contract it, if you make the mistake of the 1930's, then you lose jobs, you lose growth and businesses. we've got to support the recovery until it's fully established and then my deficit reduction plan, which is a four-year plan, comes into place. but take money out of the economy now, david, for ideological reasons and you put the recovery at risk. i do feel an emergency budget in a few weeks time, putting the very work we've done to secure the recovery in jeopardy and no other country in the world is prepared to do that now. >> what labour seems to confuse is they confuse the economy with the government. we're saying saved government waste to put money back in people's pockets. you think about saving one out of every hundred pounds. that is something every small business, every large business, many families have had to do in this country, and government should do the same. gordon's argument in a way is

let me go on wasting your money so i can put up your taxes next year. it's taxes on people earning 20,000 pounds. these are not rich people. they shouldn't be paying for the mistakes of the bankers and for the dreadful record. >> surely one of the problems, gordon brown talks about a plan in the future with details on it. david cameron talks about losing something now, but has also got no details on it. surely what we can do for once is get the chancellors and all the parties together. i suggest the council for financial stability so that at least the politicians are finally up front with you, straight with you about how bad this problem is, and how long it's going to take for us as a country together to deal with it. >> well, we have a number of questions to come on the economy, so let's move on to a second question. it's from adina wright. >> the taxes are taking more and

more from the average workers. if you are aelected, what would you do? >> over the past few years, the tax man has taken more and more from the average worker. if you were elected, what would you do about taxes? gordon brown? >> well, it's been tough the last few years with the recession, but what we've tried to do when people are in difficulty is provide tax credits. and a half million people have got tax credits when they've been on short time and have tried to get through this recession. we have brought down the basic tax from 23 pounds when we came in to 20 pounds. at the same time, we raised the top rate of tax above 150,000 pounds to 50 pounds so that that's fair to ordinary, hard-working families. now, i believe in fairness. but one thing thaten i don't believe in is the conservative policy which would cut child tax credits but at the same time give an inheritance tax cut to the 3,000 richest people in the country of 200,000 pounds. now, that's not fairness.

that's the same old conservative party, tax cuts for the very rich, and cutting the child tax credits of the very poor. it's simply not fair. >> david cameron? >> well, you're absolutely right. the taxpayer has been having to pay more and more and more as the government has spent more and more and has been so careless at trying to stop wasting money. we see waste all around us, and the government's done so little about it. now, obviously, with the terrible situation we have in our public finances with the mess left by gordon and labour, it's not possible to make great big tax giveaway policies, even if the lovely thing to do, you can't do it. what we've said is let's try and stop the one tax that's going to hit the lowest paid people and that's the national insurance tax i was referring to earlier. we can't stop all of the other taxes, the top rate of tax, the extra tax on the pension. i mean, labor had put up something like 178 times.

but we are going to stop that one tax that will hit the lowest paid the hardest. let me just say this about tax credits. they will stay under a conservative government, and gordon brown has got to stop misleading families in this country like he's been misleading all the people and cancer parents as well. >> you'll have a chance to answer that in a moment. nick clegg? >> i think you're absolutely right. our tax system is grotesquely unfair. after 13 years of labor, who would have believed it, that you would have now a tax system where a multimillionaire plays a lower rate of tax on their capital gains, that's income to you and me, and they're cleaning up on their wages. we have got the bottom 20% of people in this country who pay more in taxes than the top 20%. i think we need to change this. david cameron says you can't afford tax giveaways. no, you can't. what you can do is switch the tax system. make it fair. make sure that those huge loopholes that only people right at the top, vy