Are the televised election debates a waste of time in their current format?

Are the televised election debates a waste of time in their current format?

Stuart Thomson, head of public affairs at BDB Pitmans, says YES.

Despite everyone’s hopes, the televised leadership debates have been a complete damp squib. They have been a waste of everyone’s time, revealing little that we didn’t already know and failing to apply any meaningful pressure on Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn.

These debates have come to represent everything that is wrong with current political debate — politicians sticking obsessively to a script, talking too long, and spouting their own version of the truth without proper challenge. The real battle then moves onto social media, where both sides interpret the debate in their own favour and share short clips which highlight their candidates’ best moments or their opponents’ worst.

The broadcast media need to reset and look for formats that hold the politicians to account. Arguably, the format that worked best this election was the Andrew Neil style inquisition.

The broadcasters and political parties also need to sign up to the approach in advance. No one should have the chance to dodge equal scrutiny during future elections.

Mo Lovatt, a lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries and co-chair of The Great Debate, says NO.

While the two-party system still appears to dominate the landscape as we head into this election, beneath the surface, exciting things are happening.

Brexit has broken the old left-right divide. Labour Leavers are unhappy with Jeremy Corbyn’s stance, Remain-backing Tories are looking elsewhere, and smaller parties are clamouring to pick up floating votes.

Twitterati opinion is that the TV debates are pointless. But that’s only because they’ve made up their minds. For the millions of people who are considering voting for a different party for the first time in their lives, the debates provide a great way to assess the veracity of political leaders.

True, they’re only part of the picture — people have been mulling over the new alignment for some time.

But as they work out which party best represents their views, and in which party leader they can place their trust, watching would-be Prime Ministers go head-to-head on live TV has become a vital part of that decision-making process.

Main image credit: Getty