Debates should shed light on policy, not be an occasion for a row
cowardice. They did him no harm in the long run.
Sunak’s six-pack challenge feels a bit like a desperate last throw, upping the ante of confrontation. As Starmer’s team says, the parties had already reached a private agreement on two head-to-head debates, with the first scheduled to take place on 4 June.
Whether that goes ahead at all must now be open to question since it might be seen as Sunak acquiescing to Starmer’s terms. I think debates are important because if done calmly and fairly they generate more light than heat. To have that kind of constructive impact, debates need to be major set-piece events in the campaign beyond the control of the participants or TV channels. That is why the political leaders and “public service” TV channels don’t like them.
David Cameron, who underperformed expectations in 2010, claimed the debates sucked the life out of the campaign. He turned down debates in the 2015 election and during the 2016 EU referendum, even though he had appointed himself the leader of the Remain campaign. Theresa May (inset) now admits it was a mistake not to turn up to debate Jeremy Corbyn in 2017. She sent in Amber Rudd as a substitute instead. That was one of those multi-headed debates, with representatives of seven parties taking place.
It’s a crowded format which may make great TV entertainment but which cannot genuinely inform or educate viewers.
By the time the 2019 general election campaign came round, the British TV debate model was well and truly battered. There was a rushed head-to-head between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn on ITV and a BBC multi-header without them featuring Rishi Sunak and Rebecca Long-Bailey.
The public is being shortchanged. It seems there is more interest in whether they should take place and who takes part than what might be said in discussions about the grave issues facing the country. It is already too late for debates to matter in this campaign as anything other than something to quarrel about. It says something unflattering about our culture that we seem incapable of getting serious.