An Election Debate?
by Graham Davies

A televised pre-election debate between Brown and Cameron would make superb theatre. The Bruiser against the Smoothy. The grizzled Old Dog against the Upstart.

Jusy about everyone who is even remotely involved or interested in Politics would love to see it. Apart, that is, from a very small group: Brown's closest advisers. Because he would lose. Horribly and massively.

Brown is actually a deep thinker. His main weakness is his inability to marry that thought with successful inter-personal skills. He is a manifestly competent set-piece Public Speaker, as long as he (in conjunction with his writers) has had plenty of time to prepare and rehearse. But a head-to-head debate on television will be a contest where speed and simplicity will win out over depth and experience.

Cameron is hugely excited at the prospect of his Eton Debating Society credentials being recognised by the electorate at last. But he should wipe the saliva away, because even Brown isn't daft enough to let it happen.