Leaders Debates – a Waste of Time?
It’s hard to see what the televised TV debates brought to the table in terms of serious politics. If you missed it, you can see the first one on ITV’s website now, and the second interview is coming up on Sky this Thursday at 9pm.
Most recent complaints about the political system have focussed on the problem of the ‘personalisation’ of politics. Tony Blair’s own personal appeal was massive – as three straight election wins proved – but the substance of his politics was vaguely defined at best. On the one historically critical issue of his tenure as Prime Minister – the Irag war – he so closely identified his personality and belief in the personal nature of his mandate that he felt able to ignore public opinion and use his oratory and popularity to beguile a supine parliament to his will.
As the truth of the Iraq situation became clear, this presidential style of politics became irrevocably tainted by association with ’spin.’ It is a rock from under which even the ostensibly serious Gordon Brown has proved incapable of climbing from under.
And in that light, focussing the election on the ‘performance’ of just 3 representatives in a controlled debate is the apogee of this move rather than anything new. Clegg “won” the debate on the back of his personality. I’d wager you couldn’t get 1 in 100 people to accurately list Lib Dem policies on issues such as the environment and policing, yet astonishingly the Lib Dems are currently holding a 30% share of voting intention.
If you were looking for proper representative democracy, then you won’t find it in a TV studio on a Thursday night.