TV Debate Desperation

by Graham Davies

I am delighted to have been proved wrong: Gordon Brown will take part in a series of televised pre-election debates. Perhaps I underestimated his level of desperation.

This will be the first time in British Politics that the viewing public will be able to see genuinely spontaneous reaction by Party Leaders to views which have just been expressed by their opposite numbers. Deliciously, they will not have the chance to have their immediate responses sanitised by their PR/Spin departments.

We might actually see Cameron, Brown and Clegg blurting out stuff that they really believe.

Whatever the format, they will each have to avoid the Politician's tendency to make their points by going into over-complex depth on a given issue....something which is often unfaily characterised as avoidance by the typical viewer.

Instead, they will have to get into the knack of immediately encapsulating and crystallising their views in such a way that is both memorable and compelling.....and keeping this up for an hour at a time.

Political presentation could actually become rather exciting.