Why the TV debate format cannot be repeated in 2015
The TV debate format cannot be repeated in 2015 - at least not without a huge stink from Scotland and Wales.
The crucial fact - and one widely overlooked - is that the 2015 general election (scheduled for Thursday 7 May) will be on the same day as full elections for the Scottish and Welsh assemblies.
So any attempt to re-run debates with the three main parties will be seen as hugely unfair to the SNP and Plaid Cymru, who are both now governing parties in Scotland and Wales respectively.
This is a very different situation to 2010, where the SNP lost its legal challenge to the debates - partly because it took action so late.
So another big headache for my bosses at the 91Èȱ¬, and their colleagues at Sky and ITV.
I'm Michael Crick, and I'm Newsnight's political editor. My guiding rule is that in any story there's usually something the politicians would prefer the world not to know. My job is to find that out. Follow me on
Comment number 1.
At 19th May 2010, barriesingleton wrote:GORDON BENNETT MICHAEL!
Do you really think that, with the mess we shall be, in after five years of 'Sunlit Uplands', the topic how we arrange our 'Titanics' on the oil soaked, plastic filled, fish-depleted, coral-free, jellyfish clogged ocean, will be of prime concern?
Buy shares in steel front doors and window-shutters Michael. Better still, forget the shares - just buy the items.
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Comment number 2.
At 19th May 2010, Smeagol wrote:No need for a headache, just don't have them. To me the debates were a sideshow that if anything trivialized the election turning it into the political equivalent of the X-Factor. What would have been better would be for each leader to get half half an hour to make a statement and take questions. These could be on separate nights even. This was similar to what was broadcast on 91Èȱ¬ 3, and I thought they were excellent in comparison.
And of course, as before, only the parties putting up sufficient candidates to be capable of being first past the post to win the UK election would be eligible. Mind you we'll probably have some form of PR by then. Ouch, now I'm getting a headache!
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Comment number 3.
At 19th May 2010, stevie wrote:can't imagine anything ion five years...the barricades in the streets will still be up and the Army will still be defending 'the nearly elected Tory party' in Whitehall and the Labour party will still be electing a new leader and the Prime Minister of Greece will be leading the bailout to the Brits!!
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Comment number 4.
At 19th May 2010, PoppyO wrote:Trout Mask Replica says everything that I would want to ! All so logical...
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Comment number 5.
At 25th May 2010, grahams wrote:There are other reasons why the three-way debates will be hard to repeat.
1)I don't know exactly what formula was used to come up with Messrs Brown,Clegg and Cameron but I imagine that the qualifying principle was that your party had to be (UK) national and represented in the House of Commons. But the Green Party is national and now in the HoC.
2)If the Greens are included, it would be hard to exclude other parties with more MPs such as the SNP
3)If no new parties were included ( and making the heroic assumption that the Coalition lasts the planned five years), the debates would feature two leaders defending the existing Government and only one Opposition party - hardly democratic.
4)All these parameters will undoutedly be tested in Court and at the Electoral Commission (if that still exists). I cannot imagine that the 2010 formula would survive the test.
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