New format proposed for 2015 Political debates !!

BBC - Con, Lab, Lib, Green, UKIP, Plaid, SNP....

ITV - Same as above............

SKY - Con v Lab.............

Seven parties..............What's the point !!

Might as well just scrap the things..........

Trying to call Cameron's (stupid) bluff.

You think they'll happen ??

Can't see it myself..

Think it's all a crock of sh!t to be honest.......

Never understood why anybody would choose who to vote for on the strength of a manufactured debate.

There's a fairly clear delineation between the parties (except the Lib Dems who are neither one thing or the other) and it's not difficult to work out which party, if any, best represents your own preferences or if voting tactically, where that tactical vote should be laid.

Yet another example of real political debate and thought losing out to the lowest common denominator.

superflyweight wrote:Never understood why anybody would choose who to vote for on the strength of a manufactured debate.  

There's a fairly clear delineation between the parties (except the Lib Dems who are neither one thing or the other) and it's not difficult to work out which party, if any, best represents your own preferences or if voting tactically, where that tactical vote should be laid.  

Yet another example of real political debate and thought losing out to the lowest common denominator.  

Whilst I agree.....I imagine that Cammy boy thinks..........Ed Miliband is a big drawback on the Labour vote and is worried those who like Labour but not him may be persuaded.......

It does not matter who you vote for the GOVERNMENT always wins

Congratultions on that observation OneTwo, I look forward to the tinfoil hat brigade getting int.

A 7-way debate is just a bit daft IMO. Not sure it will work as a debate, becomes either a free-for-all, or more likely (because broadcasters - esp the BBC - will be mindful of trying to give each party roughly the same airtime so as not to be accused of bias) a succession of mini-speeches without anybody challenging anybody else on the specifics.

From that point of view it probably plays more into the hands of Miliband, who can carry on talking vagueries (apparently not a word, but you know what I mean) about cost of living crisis, etc. without having to actually spell out how he's going to fix things.

I'm not surprised though that Cameron wasn't keen on the debates in their original form. The fact is everybody would have expected him to trounce Milliband in them, so if he had no biggie, whilst Ed's personal ratings are so low that it couldn't have done much harm. In fact, I tend to think that the 2010 debates played against Cameron overall, for similar reasons (the consensus was of Gordon Brown not having much charisma, and Nick Clegg being a bit irrelevant). Moreover TV debates in general tend to favour the challenger over the front-runner, and whatever the opinion polls say, given the economic facts the Conservatives are the front runners.

Or rather they should be, if they stick to that pitch. But they seem hell-bent on getting distracted by things like Europe and immigration, and incapable of being honest or coherent about them, wanting to be both populist (Europe!! A world of excess!!! They're wasting your hard-earned money on fine wine and expensive dinners! As for immigrants, they're just taking advantage of our generous (well, OK less so than a lot of other European countries, but let's keep quiet about that) benefits system!) without damaging their economic credibility (actually both Europe and immigration have massive benefits for the economy). So they just come out as a confused rubble, and this dilutes their overall message (which should be an easy election winner).

All IMO of course.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2927225/Now-ELEVEN-party-leaders-TV-debates-Labour-says-Northern-Ireland-s-party-s-spot.html#comments

Maybe even eleven parties can take part, not just seven!

Can I have a turn as well?!

I'm in the swingers party............We haven't had an invite yet..

How about the people who hate people party?

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:How about the people who hate people party?

I think UKIP's presence is a given already...

(sorry, couldn't resist)