Wednesday, April 1, 2015

TV leaders debates could make or break campaigns

By Dan Whitehead, @danwnews

On Thursday 2nd April, seven UK political leaders, including the Prime Minister David Cameron, will go head to head in a televised debate.

It has taken months of negotiations to lock down, with long-running arguments between parties and broadcasters over who would be invited and, just as crucially, exactly when the debates would take place (before or after party manifestos were launched).

Broadcasters got far from what they had initially asked for: an actual face to face debate between David Cameron and opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband never materialised, instead a Q&A with both was broadcast last week.

But on Thursday night, a 2-hour live debate will be broadcast on ITV. David Cameron (Conservative), Ed Miliband (Labour), Nick Clegg (Lib Dems), Nigel Farage (UKIP), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP), Natalie Bennett (Green) and Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru) will go head to head.

The leaders will not be told the four "substantial election questions" in advance and each will get one minute to answer uninterrupted (we'll see) - before 17 to 18 minutes of "moderated" debate on each topic.

ITV says around 80% of the around 200-strong audience will be made up of voters who express a voting intention (at the time of recruitment) and around 20% of the audience will be “undecided”.

For the politicians, these debates can make or break an election campaign. "Cleggmania" erupted for Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg last time round and he ended up in a coalition government as the Deputy PM. However, he admitted in a Telegraph interview on Tuesday that he will "not triumph" this time round.

With seven leaders all vying for limited air-time, the pressure will be on all participants to do enough to persuade voters in the studio and across the country. 

Two further shows of differing formats will take place on the BBC on the 16th and 30th of April.

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