Has Dave's Bluff Been Called?

[ichkeria]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30955379

[ToraToraTora]

Not bluff, He's now engineered a much safer shoe. Now 7 take part, less questions = less chance for c0kcup. I still think It's a waste of time but this actually helps Dave/Ed if they choose to take part.

[ToraToraTora]

for shoe read show!

[Old_Geezer]

Rather than being asked fewer questions, now that more party leaders are taking part it should go on for longer; and the highlights related to those with a chance of having influence after the election being the bits that get broadcast. (With the whole of the live show going out on the parliament channel for those interested, if anyone.)

[ichkeria]

But he also has to go head to head, or should that be 'ed to Dave :-) in one of them.
I'm wondering what they'll do if he does pull out of that one ...
Maybe replace him with a bacon sandwich ...

[naomi24]

No. He's been smart in getting the debate expanded.

[vetuste_ennemi]

The more contributors to the "debate" the less chance of real discourse. We'll get just the repetition of sound bytes, rhetorical flourishes (from the more articulate) and cheap gibes. Bit like Question Time (or most of the "News" threads on AB). Arguments and premises will not be exposed to honest scrutiny and criticism. The usual response to a contrary view will be the (louder) restatement one's own position, or the misrepresention of one's opponent's position, or a sneer, depending on whether the moral or intellectual inadequacy of the "debater" is the stronger constituent of his or her character.
The US head to head format is also flawed with its artificial "opening statement followed by first rebuttal followed by...". I would prefer to see one to ones where opening statements are followed by a sit-down face to face real discussion which would allow the viewer to assess what differences between the two sides are genuine differences of principle or philosophy, and which differences of method only.

[ichkeria]

And Mr Cameron has duly accepted.
??

[mikey4444]

If 7 people are going to up on the stage, standing behind lecterns, these facile TV debates run the very real risk of descending into farce, with overtones of the Muppet Show. But from a comedic point of view, I am looking forward to them immensely !

[DTCwordfan]

I'll go down the pub, I think, as is my democratic right.

The debate will be so farcical that it will be the yawn of the decade. By the way I hear the DUP and Sinn Fein also want to participate and are prepared to take legal action.....Blessed are those that live in Dublin and The Vatican.

[THECORBYLOON]

Why are the Ulster parties not included?

[BlackadderV]

Ulster parties are probably excluded because although the major parties will contest seats in England, Scotland, Wales, they will not contest any in NI, where the choice is usually between one of the Unionist parties, Sinn Fein or the Alliance party.

[mikey4444]

Blackadder...the same could be said of Plaid Cymru, as they will not be contesting any seats outside of Wales !

[BlackadderV]

That's not the point, Mikey. Tory, Labour, LibDem et al will be contesting seats in Scotland, Wales, so the nationalist parties have a right to state their case. This is not the case in NI.

[ichkeria]

I agree. It is ludicrous including the Scottish and Welsh parties but not the Northern Irish ones.
In my view SNP and PC should have been invited to one debate only, along with the Irish parties. Or else no non-national parties should have been invited at all. This illustrates the problem with these debates: we have a multi-party, multi-national system now unlike the US, on which these debates allegedly are modelled.
But it will be interesting to see what the Tories do now: it seems clear that they hoped that the whole thing would be scuppered, and now they face the prospect of being forced into a head-to-head with Labour or being accused of running scared.

[ichkeria]

Lib Dems team up with Alliance in NI, Labour with the SDLP and the Tories normally do stand. And so will UKIP and the Greens. So excluding the NI parties is wrong.

[THECORBYLOON]

UKIP will be putting candidates in Ulster and the English Green Party has links with Green parties in Scotland and Ulster so they should include the main Ulster parties too.

[ichkeria]

Snap Corby :-)

[BlackadderV]

I repeat: The NI parties face no competition from the major GB parties, unlike PC and SNP.

[ichkeria]

Incorrect. As already stated

[Ken4155]

Saw on the news that gorgeous George wants in, too. He points out that his Respect party has as many MPs as the Greens and just one less than UKIP.