The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

TV debate: it's on

Gordon Brown confirms ITV, Sky News and BBC participation

By Brenda Goh Published 21 December 2009 18:58

The main British party leaders, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, have agreed to lock horns in three televised election debates in the run-up to next year's general election, the Telegraph has reported.

The paper notes:

It will be the first time that British party leaders have gone head-to-head in a live television battle similar to those in American presidential elections. It comes after fierce negotiating between Number 10, David Cameron's office and the BBC, ITV News and Sky News.

ITV will host the first debate, to be chaired by Alastair Stewart; Sky News will go next with Adam Boulton as host. The third and final debate will be chaired by David Dimbleby.

Sky News has been pushing for live leaders' debates on television since September, with more than 15,000 people signing an online petition in support of the campaign so far.

The BBC and Sky will make their programmes available to other broadcasters simultaneously, while ITV will make its show available immediately after transmission.

Tags: Nick Clegg David Cameron Gordon Brown

More from Brenda Goh

View the discussion thread.

3 comments

Mon, 2009-12-21 21:31 — Richard B (not verified)

This is another step in trivializing politics and pandering to show biz and celebrity culture. See the following:

http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/19646/we_mustnt_judge_le...

Mon, 2009-12-21 21:45 — Satan's Prophet (not verified)

Three debates, all of which will exclude the smaller parties including, in Scotland, the SNP who currently form the Scottish Government. Is this really democracy in action or a tool to perpetuate the dominance of the top three parties i.e. business as usual?

Tue, 2009-12-22 03:33 — greggegg

That article linked to by Richard B highlights some of my problems wityh this idea. Image is already too important in UK politics, I worry that it would be taken further.

Also, as Satan's Prophet has posted, these debates exclude anybody who is not a member of the big three. The UK public are already too absorbed in the big three and do not need to have those boundaries further confined.

The problem I will add to this list is that at the very least, if the debates go ahead then they should at the very least be viewable live by any member of the public. That one of these shows has been given to Murdoch's Sky is UTTERLY UNFORGIVABLE. Despite what he and his cronies believe, they are a far more damaging force in our media than the BBC, and the idea of a third of this (even if it probably will be panto-farce) being broadcast exclusively to people in Murdoch's pocket... ugh, words simply cannot portray my disgust.