Tv Debates

[lindapalmara]

Further to the thread yesterday about whether Theresa May should participate in US style TV debates I have just read this snippet in my paper which describes it all to me.

A Squalid sideshow

WE all know what happened when TV debates turned the 2010 election into a shallow, X Factor- style talent show. We were saddled with five years of Nick Clegg – a telegenic pipsqueak most had hardly heard of, and now wish they never had.

So this paper is right behind Mrs May when she agrees only to appear on a Question Time format, refusing head-tohead debates with the likes of Jeremy Corbyn, Tim Farron and Nicola Sturgeon.
Why should she demean her high office by accepting equal billing with a superannuated Trot, a boy-scout Lib Dem and a devious, scheming nationalist – three misfits united only in their hostility to Brexit and the Tories?

[ichkeria]

I don't think Theresa May is a "coward" either. But here is a chance for the party leaders (or whoever) to debate with each other. We really don't get this very often, if at all, on TV. Let's face it how many people go to hustings?
She's been told "don't do it, you don't need it, it can only go badly" which may well be true, but I just think it is a real shame.

[emmie]

i would love to see Mrs May take the floor and wipe the smiles of their smug faces, but i don't think it's about to happen. I don't think she is chicken, just has a lot on her plate, with Brexit and the coming snap election. Going around the country as well talking to the people will take up time, i wish her well whatever she decides.

[New Judge]

“But unlike xf.I think political debates are important to the electorate.”

Then they should tune in to the BBC’s Parliament Channel where they can see proper debates in the House of Commons. They can see, every week, the PM face questions from all sides of the House. They can watch political analysis programmes where politicians face interviews on matters of importance.

Nobody (who takes an interest) can be in any doubt what sort of manifesto Mrs May will be asking Tory voters to vote for (and it will be published in about ten days’ time). Half an hour with attention-seeking creeps shouting at each other will achieve nothing.

Judging by the entrenched attitudes displayed on AB (mine certainly included) very little that politicians do between now and June will result in many changed votes. People should form their voting intentions on what goes on 365 days a year, not what happens on a 30 minute stage-managed TV debate. As I said in the other question on this topic, people who rely on such an event to make up their mind really ought to consider whether they should be voting at all.

[Jackdaw33]

The problem is that they are not debates in the true sense of the word. They are soundbites and policy statements where one just talks up his own side and talks down the others.

[Peter Pedant]

// They are soundbites and policy statements where one just talks up his own side and talks down the others.//

sort of like the average 'debate' on AB ven ?

and Sqad - the OP wrote 'squalid side show' not 'sqad side show'
be calm, baby the call will not come quite yet

[anneasquith]

Emmie, do you think Mrs may will be much more busy than the other party leaders ?

[Peter Pedant]

sudduv running the country and so on ?

hmm not much evidence of that

[Jackdaw33]

Of course she'll be much more busy than the others. She still has a government, as well as a campaign to run.

[Dee-M-See]

The Daily Mirror is making a big fuss about Mrs May refusing to go on TV for a debate, but if my memory serves me correctly didn't the Mirrors hero Blair refuse to go on TV for a debate

[emmie]

they all have a lot on their plates, but i think Mrs May
has enough to contend with, without sticking her in front of cameras for a largely pointless tv debate.
i wish she would do it in a way, perhaps like the election she may have a change of heart.
as others have said she is on tv most days, on PMQT
for one.

[ToraToraTora]

the sooner we bin this silly US idea the better in my view. The PM is correct to not partake.