A Televisual Feast!
The role Sky News played in achieving these leadership debates should not be forgotten. Adam Boulton will no doubt be toasting his success having aggressively got the ball rolling with this. As TB is feeling lazy and festive he thought he would rehash a post from back when the leadership debates were first mooted. A look as some classic moments. Will these debates be election game changers? Probably not. Will the blogosphere be the place for the fact checking, rabid rebuttal and quicker than you can say Nick Robinson post match analysis? Probably. Should Nick Clegg be given such undeserved publicity? Absolutely not.
There is lots of tonight about the fact that this is a big risk for Dave. TB disagrees. Cameron has been up and down the country facing the public for months and months at Cameron Direct town hall events. He has taken and tackled pretty much every conceivable question that could be thrown at him, from cuts and spending to aliens and cocaine. Clegg has been on a desperate "me too" tour but frankly no one cares what the Lib Dems think and letting a schoolboy play with the big boys in these debates isn't going to change a thing. In the mean time Brown has been cowering in his bunker, is crap on television and all it will take is few of those paedo grins, a few "Can I I I I I er er er finish Adam" lines and a snap of temper and it's a sealed deal. As long as Cameron remains the cool, calm and articulate debater he is known to be then there is very little to worry about these debates. He is easily the most telegenic, expressive and emotive of the three and that will be conveyed.
TB thinks the expression he is after is "Game On!"
Unless they are careful, the UK debates could turn into nothing more than soundbyte ping-pong. These are moments we want to see:
Who's got some good put downs for Dave to use?
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4 comments:
Some good put downs?
You mean he needs some while debating with Brown and Clegg?
Are you kidding?
Let Brown start with his facts and figures and as long as Cameron has done his homework he should royally stuff him. Unless of course he is still in the 'let's be nice to everyone even our enemies' mode like he has been for a year or two, like most Tory bloggers.
Yes, TB - we KNOW that Cameron is articulate and intelligent and we KNOW that Brown is a bullying half-wit.
But so does the electorate, so a debate that confirms that is unlikely to change voting intentions.
The risk - however small - is that Brown produces one of his rare strong performances, that Clegg's mere presence serves to legitimise the LibDems' credentials, that Cameron makes a rare stumble or that the two trailing party leaders gang up on Cameron.
Given the Tory poll lead, there is absolutely no way that these debates on these terms (particularly with Clegg present) should have been accepted. Someone at CCO should be shot.
Cameron will tear into Brown and dismiss Clegg, I am sure, but he will have to be either very high-on-horse or very common to trounce the PM's inevitable class war comments. I also hope that DC goes easy on the matador-style barbs; references to the Nasty Party are the last thing the Tories need right now.
Still, if current trends continue, Cameron need not worry. Were he up against Blair and Ashdown, it would be a battle of titans. As it stands, it could just be the source of some very entertaining political bloopers.
Disagree on the Lib Dem front.
Allowing what is basically a South-West regional party onto the big stage is to afford them undue significance.