All the buzz in the world of political commentary is about the prospect of a grand leaders’ debate during the (overdue) General Election. People are getting carried away at the prospect. And Gordon hasn’t said yes yet – ooooh, it’s so exciting.
I think it’s a bad idea. Not because it will make Gordon look like a boring old grump, because Dave might come across as a lightweight or even because Nick Clegg will struggle to get a squeaky word in edgewise. No there are loads of reasons why it’s wrong and here are ten of them:
1. We live in a parliamentary democracy and it’s a parliament we’re electing not a prime minister
2. Selecting only these three leaders excludes other leaders – Caroline Lucas, Alex Salmond, Nigel Farage and (yes) Nick Griffin. How does that help democracy?
3. The debate (or debates – I can’t see the BBC letting Sky get away with being the only one) will come to dominate the campaign pushing out the wider debate
4. The media’s scoring of the debates will be superficial – based on instant vox pop and focus group
5. Having the focus on leaders drags us further away from a collegiate form of government and closer to an elected presidency
6.The debates will focus back on the Westminster bubble and away from the whole country – the opposite usually happens in General Elections as politicians have to reacquaint themselves with the grassroots
7. We’ll spend more time talking about Gordon’s tie, Dave’s quiff or Nick’s crumpled shirt than we will about schools, hospital or the wars we’re fighting
8. The centralisation of “debate” will act to suppress nascent local debates – real questions about jobs, schools and the local economy
9. The Party spin doctors will use debate point-scoring as the basis for campaigning – we’ll see more of the risible “we love the NHS” type approach from all the parties and less considered campaigning
10. The debates will push aside regular programming – pissing off Corrie, Eastenders and football fans everywhere!
2 comments:
Interesting points. I would say that 1 and 5 are the same point though.
And do you think it's been a problem for other countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Spain, Italy or Germany, all of whom have parliamentary democracies and all of whom had a debate featuring (at least) the main party leaders in their most recent elections?
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