Anti leaders debates

February 6, 2017 University

Anti-leaders debates

Earlier this month both the BBC and ITV announced they would hold seven-party leader debates involving pretty much everyone who holds a seat in Westminster or the regional assemblies. As I already loathed the TV debates as they stood in the last election, this move has further irritated me.

First, there is no place for the SNP or Plaid Cymru in these debates as the vast majority of the population cannot vote for them; they are not nationwide parties so, therefore, do not belong in a national debate. These parties have nothing to lose and everything to gain from these debates and how they function. For me, the TV debates are all about showmanship and personal likability with genuine policy mattering very little.

Parties can therefore take advantage of the fact that the leaders of the established parties are universally unpopular and criticise the current system without providing viable alternatives other than the fragmentation of the United Kingdom. This is not something I want or the whole of England can have a say on the matter as English people cannot vote for these parties

Secondly, the Green party of England and Wales is also a regional party, and therefore does not belong in these nationwide debates. Although they do have sister parties in Northern Ireland and Scotland, each party has their own slightly different policies and agenda. Consequently, any statements made by the Greens in the TV debates may or may not apply to the whole ‘Green’ movement nationwide.

Thirdly, if these debates are to go ahead and include regional parties then it would make sense to include parties from Northern Ireland, these debates are undemocratic as none of the major parties (UUP, DUP and Sinn Fein) of Northern Ireland are present in the debate line-up. This creates a democratic deficit where almost 2 million people will not have any representation at these events, as these parties combined  have well more than the one seat in the Commons that the Greens occupy then why are they not a part of the debates?

TV debates are an awful idea, they focus on the person rather than the policies; with seven people on stage I fear they will dissolve into little more than shouting matches with very little substance. The UK is not a presidential system, we do not vote for party leaders, each constituency has their own candidates with their own agendas and political alignments, some parliamentary candidates will toe the party line others will be rebellious backbenchers.

If we must have debates then they should be local with constituency candidates battling it out in town halls and on local radio stations; unfortunately this will not happen, as it does not make good entertainment which in itself means there is something deeply depressing about politics in Britain these days.

Post navigation

Search for: Search

Latest News

Monthly News

Monthly News Select Month August 2018  (1) July 2018  (1) February 2018  (1) November 2017  (2) October 2017  (2) September 2017  (1) August 2017  (1) May 2017  (1) March 2017  (2) February 2017  (3) January 2017  (1) October 2016  (3) September 2016  (2)

Thanks for visiting the South News Updates website.

Here we provide news articles about a number of situations, but mainly about university issues.

Please see a list of other relevant news sites.

searchnewsmedia.co.uk newstank.co.uk yakeo.co.uk fgth.uk infopool.org.uk christianparty.org.uk talkingto.co.uk kingsfieldpublications.co.uk  argus-btn.co.uk

Send Us Your Article Requests

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Subject

Your Message

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookie name Active

Who we are

Suggested text: Our website address is: https://southafricantimes.co.uk.

Comments

Suggested text: When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

Suggested text: If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

Suggested text: If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select "Remember Me", your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Suggested text: Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

Suggested text: If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

How long we retain your data

Suggested text: If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

Suggested text: If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where your data is sent

Suggested text: Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Save settings
Cookies settings