How the televised leaders' debates will work

wrinkled weasel

Will they ban the use of autocues? I like my leaders to actually think and believe what they are saying.

Austin Barry

"The audience will not be "asked" to applaud during the debate."

Should that be asked not to applaud?

Pete Hoskin

Austin: yes, it should be. Corrected now.

Jonathan Hall

I can't believe that the Tories have been foolish enough to allow the BBC and David Dimbleby in particular, to host the third and probably decisive debate on the economy. Will they never learn? Throw into the mix the fact that Clegg will side with Brown on most matters, and I can foresee trouble ahead.

Still the rules of engagement can’t be changed now. It is imperative that Cameron’s prep debate includes a dossier on Brown’s favourite Brownies. He must be ready to rebut each and every single one, because you can guarantee that Brown will lapse into his usual routine.

However, my greatest fear is the post-debate spin operation. In the last two weeks we have already seen that the Labour machine is far more effective in this department than Central office. We need to forget the Marquis of Queensberry rules and fight dirty just like Labour.

On final observation – the Tories should work on the assumption that the audience and the questions (especially in the BBC debate) will be rigged against them. Cameron should make his plans accordingly.

Robert Eve

Is the audience allowed to boo the one-eyed idiot?

Richard

How do you get the be a member of the audience?
I hope the chair will not allow obfiscation and will demand replies to the questions and not allow fillibustering.

euro-zone

and are they live, or will they be redacted (censored)?

lawrence greek

given how utterly biased the BBC and Sky have been the last few months, what guarantee do we have the questions will actually be fair?

Tarquin Superbus

Given the current standing of politicians in the country, "not asked to applaud" is probably right.....

Ed B

The audience will be asked not to applaud during the debate.

Good luck with that.

ollie

question - why is Clegg allowed to participate? It is a statistical impossibility for him to become PM. He should not be allowed to take part.

2trueblue

I will certainly not watch it. The audience will be selected, the questions will be selected........ Yes we know how these things are done. Bolton married to one of Gordons own, so why would anyone expect balance from the media when so far we have seen little for the past 13yrs., and more recently none at all.

David Ossitt

It all sounds very anaemic to me.

David Ossitt

Alastair Stewart, Adam Boulton, David Dimbleby, each and every one a labour lovey.

mitcheltj

I hope these broadcasts do not interfere with televising of the final stages of the European Champions League. Would you rather watch football or Messrs Brown, Cameron and Clegg trying to fool all of the people some of the time? Let's get our priorities right eh?

Ludwig von Crises

How the leaders' debates will work:

A planted question will be asked by a political activist pretending to be a disinterested voter.

Brown will ignore it, forget his Campbellson-supplied lines, lie about his record, shoe-horn in gratuitous references to his wife/father/grandfather/late child/all the above; and attack the Tories using invented statistics.

Cameron will offer vague and nebulous concepts, and triangulate desperately, leaving no one except conservatives offended, and no one quite sure of what he's actually said.

Clegg will huff indignantly, posture and chew the scenery, flattered that he's been given equal airtime with people who stand a chance, however richly undeserved, of achieving government.

Complex domestic, foreign and economic policy concepts will have been violated in a bid to reduce them to simplistic thirty-second soundbites tailored to ill-informed and uninterested 'news consumers'. The broadcast media will congratulate themselves on their crucial contribution to the democratic process. Nothing will have been achieved, a great deal of money and time will have been wasted, and the already imperilled dignity of British politics will have been brought yet lower. Well done everyone. See you again in four or five years.

Simon Stephenson

Richard : 6.37pm

"I hope the chair will not allow obfiscation and will demand replies to the questions and not allow fillibustering."

This will depend upon the quality of the questions. If the producers decide to ask tabloid-style black or white, good or bad questions, then we won't get answers to those questions. We'll get statements from the politicians that are related to the subject of the questions, but don't even attempt to answer them. This is because, in reality, top-level politics is not a process of choosing between two stances, of which one is outstandingly good, and the other outstandingly bad.

No one will become a serious politician, let alone a party leader, if he allows a loaded question to put him on the spot. Asking such questions is a totally pointless exercise other than as a demonstration of how much of a smart-arse the journalist is.

Simon Stephenson

Ludwig von Crises : 8.32pm

A pretty good forecast, I should say.

Your final paragraph is excellent, but what has to happen before it dawns on people that, far from being the cutting edge of social progress, the mass media approach to "political" debate degrades it to the extent that its contribution to such progress is totally worthless?

Bob Dixon

Does no one get it! Its the economy stupid!

The debate needs to start with the gap in the tax take & other income less government spending.

What plans do the leaders have in addressing the gap?

Who out there is prepared to fund the gap and what interest rate will they demand until such time the gap is closed?

Olaf

Will the Sky debate be broadcast for terrestrial viewers?

Rhoda Klapp

If I coin the acronym WOFT, who can guess what it stands for?

Any Colour but Brown

Will we, at least, get a definitive number of tractors produced or will Brown obfuscate, as usual?

Thomas Widmann

When will the SNP take steps to make sure the debates aren't broadcast in Scotland? Now that the format has been decided, I guess there is nothing preventing them from going to court now.