Debate lost in the melee with multiple speakers, say experts
TELEVISED debates involving multiple political parties create a “bickering match” and fewer participants would allow for more policy discussion, experts have said.
The latest seven-way prime-time showdown broadcast on the BBC has been branded by some commentators as “truly dreadful” and as “lively and entertaining as a pub-lock in”.
It was during the 2010 General Election that clashes taking the format of political party leaders challenging each other on screen, often standing at a lectern on stage, were first seen in the UK.
Professor Tony Travers, of London School of Economics and Political Science, described British politics as “competitive and combative”, and said televised debate events are a “bit of a mess”.
“They are inevitably a bit of a bickering match because they encourage, as the one did last night, people to turn to each other and challenge each other and chip in,” he added.
“[But] in a sense, that is how British politics works.”
Branding televised debates a “slightly ungainly process”, Prof Travers added: “At one level you can see why the Prime Minister did not want to get involved in it. Yet on the other hand, her not being involved in it seems to have done her political harm.”
Comparing the debate broadcast earlier in the week on Channel 4 and Sky, which featured an interviewer and audience, Prof Travers said that was “no more elegant”.
He said debate audiences watching on television can end up focusing and making judgments on what those taking part look like, their body language and how they react.
“Then quite what their negotiating stance on Brexit is, or how old people should be treated, can get lost in the melee,” he added.
“It is theatre, and it is like the House of Commons in that regard, it is designed to be slightly theatrical, which is why the broadcasters love it,” Prof Travers said.
Professor Justin Fisher, of Brunel University London, said the current inclusive debate format on a national level “does not work”, and that the first televised political spars were significant for two reasons.
“One they were novel, and two there were only three participants,” he said. “The desire to be inclusive has meant the debate format is much less useful or indeed interesting. It is impossible to have a debate with seven people.”
Stephen Barber, of London South Bank University, said: “You clearly get more light when it is fewer people.”
Referring to the 2010 television debates, which featured Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg, Tory David Cameron, and Labour’s Gordon Brown, he said although these featured bickering to some degree, there was a “lengthy period” where there was real discussion about policy.