Leaders’ Debates: Why the hype?

From a distance the UK might seem like a country that could proudly call itself one of the most modern in Europe. But, as many of you will have experienced by now, this is not always the case.

The latest sign of the, well, somewhat conservative attitude towards change that we find in this country is the hype around the leaders debates on national television. “Wow,” we hear you say, “live political debates?” Yes, believe it or not, in the UK this is a brand new phenomenon.

While in the rest of Europe televised political debates have been going on for decades, the British political leaders have only just come to realise that instead of twittering and putting status updates on their Facebook pages, they can also use the ‘new’ medium of television to get their message across. Indeed, it is truly amazing…

Worldwide debates

In neighbouring Holland the first ever debate on television took place in 1967. France saw its first televised debate occurring between François Mitterrand and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1974, and in Germany the debates started in 1998.

Even Afghanistan, a country torn up by the recent war, saw a general election debate last July, almost a year before the campaigning for the UK election began.

The trendsetters

First to come with the idea was of course America. The first ever debate took place 50 years ago in 1960 and the battle was on between Nixon and Kennedy. Like here there was a series of debates, only then it was four, not three. For those of you who are not so familiar with it – Kennedy won.

Britain 0 points

So, without being flippant, how can it be that the UK never adopted the television debates? They don’t normally leave a chance to become more Americanised one could say? Well, there have been attempts, but never before did a British Prime minister agree to a live debate. Labour leader Harold Wilson was the first to suggest it in 1964. But the Conservative PM Sir Alec Douglas-Hume said no to the idea saying: “TV debates will give us the best actor as leader of the country, delivering lines written by a script writer, and turning politics into a kind of “Top of the Pops.”

Ever since the 1964 election various people have tried but were always stopped by the parties who had a lead in the polls. Tony Blair once challenged John Major, but the two rivals eventually couldn’t agree on the set-up of the debate. When Tony Blair became Prime minister himself he always refused, saying that in the House of Commons he already debated weekly with his opponents.

The rules of the game

So in a way, Brown could be said to be a trendsetter in the UK. However, the Leaders’ Debates are highly protected by spin doctors. After long, long, long negotiations with the broadcasters the parties agreed on three debates and a set of terms consisting of no less than 76 rules.

The debates all last 90 minutes and have a selected audience. A panel selects the questions and the audience is not allowed to react. After every question each leader may speak for a minute and then there is room for discussion. But all the parties have their own control room in the studio and a direct line to the producer, so in case something goes wrong the plug can be pulled straight away.

Tonight

The first debate took place two weeks ago and was broadcasted on ITV, last week SKY broadcasted the second one and tonight the BBC will be the host of the last television debate before the elections.

Much depends of the outcome. For the Conservatives it is a (small) chance to get back on top and win a majority vote, for the Liberal Democrats it is the last chance to convince Britain that they are different from the ‘usual two’ and a solution to the general discontent, for Labour it is the last chance to convince the floating and leaving voters and steer the elections towards a hung parliament.

And as you may well have gathered from the news of Brown’s encounter with a ‘bigoted’ voter, his personal reputation could depend on how well he conducts himself tonight.