Labour, the Lib Dems and Ukip are having quite a bit of fun with their identical letters from their respective leaders demanding that David Cameron take part in the TV debates – or risk having something done to him that is even worse than a noun being turned into a verb (the latest threat is that he will be ‘empty-podiumed’, which sounds considerably more unpleasant than being ‘empty-chaired’ and possibly as bad as someone ‘weaponising’ something).
As for why David Cameron doesn’t want the debates to go ahead, Daniel Finkelstein has a revealing piece in today’s Times in which he says the Tories forgot about Nick Clegg when they signed up to the 2010 debates – and have now realised the potency of the outsider, who this time round will be embodied by Nigel Farage. All of the reasons the Prime Minister has for avoiding the debates make political sense for the Tories.
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