TV time won’t fi ll glaring gap in voter knowledge

FiRST minister alex Salmond has said he wants to face Prime minister David Cameron in a TV debate on Scottish independence. even before any words have been exchanged in front of the cameras, the battle lines have been drawn up. a survey by YouGov from the Better Together campaign claims that 71 per cent of people want mr Salmond to face alistair Darling, while a separate poll, published by the SnP, shows 67 per cent want the Prime minister to meet mr Salmond in a TV debate.

The live TV confrontation has become a central feature of general election politics. The TV debates were of particular significance in the 2010 UK general election, generating considerable viewer support for nick Clegg – though the actual poll result fell short of the personal ratings accorded in post-TV debate pollreadings for the Liberal Democrat leader. and there is no doubt that a televised clash between mr Salmond and mr Cameron would be a feisty and widely viewed affair.

But popular though these TV battles may be for political pundits, they are no substitute for the challenging task ahead in filling out extensive areas where voters feel they simply do not know enough and where detailed information is now needed.

This matters, because the latest batch of YouGov polls reveals a glaring gap in voter knowledge. The Better Together campaign’s poll showed 73 per cent of people did not feel they had been given enough details about how independence could work. arguably more telling was the response of SnP voters in this survey: only 49 per cent said they had enough information on which to base their decision. So campaigners on both sides clearly have their work cut out.

But there is another important concern. Televised debates between party leaders in a general election campaign are of limited value in setting out details of party policy. They are essentially summaries, while the main focus is inevitably on the personality, competence and style spective leaders.

a referendum campaign is by its nature quite different. it is not about personalities. Voters are not being asked to choose between leaders, but on an issue of major constitutional change. and it is the detail of that constitutional change – how it would work, the economic, financial, defence and social welfare arrangements – that needs to be fleshed out and put before the public for examination.

This does not render a live TV debate irrelevant. But it is a reminder that more attention needs to be paid to the substance of the issues at stake rather than the debating styles and the personalities of leading politicians. We are voting for a fundamental change in Scotland’s relationship with the UK and with the outside world that will long outlive the political personalities of the day. Who should be pitched against the First minister is less relevant. There is a longer and more urgent road on which the independence issue has to travel.

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