Political Debate

So it all begins. The three main political parties battle it out in a modern coliseum which looks suspiciously like a left over set from the Krypton factor (thanks Christina) to try to let the public believe that that they have an iota of charisma between them. An interesting move in British politics and one that I would have welcomed had it been more like Total Wipeout, with more mud. And nail bombs.
Sadly, it’s a little bit drier than that. Instead of Richard Hammond commentating on a knackered politician clambering up a foam staircase before smacking a red button, we have a TV debate about as interesting as Alistair Darling’s inner monologue.

Taking this idea from American politics it certainly is an attempt at sexing up a topic that 98% of the population find dull as creosoting the fence. But is it the best way of gaining voters? Certainly ITV think so, perhaps that’s because their current lack of quality output and dwindling viewing figures has left them no choice. Maybe it is a glitzy showbiz-esque call to the apathetic youth in an effort to get them off their methadrone or whatever the Daily Mail say is corrupting them this week.

Certainly a recycled set from a game show isn’t going to help the younger generation flicking over to E4, you can have the best set money can buy (not a lot If ITV are paying for it) but the biggest issue are the politicians themselves.
Obama they ain’t. And herein lies the problem. Love him or hate him Barak got everybody interested in politics, especially people under the age of 25. He is David Palmer, ex president of ‘24’ fame, personified. Inspirational and compelling. Even if you didn’t live in the United States you wanted him to win. You believed his policies and what he stood for, you actually believed he could and would change the mess that Bush left the country and the world in.

None of our current three have this level of sincerity or personality between them. When they talk, instead of becoming excited in the change they are proposing we are all rolling out eyes like bored school children, “yeah, whatever granddad, heard it all before”. Its like watching three caricatures of stereotypical British awkwardness.
The whole experience has so far been one convenient anecdotal retort after another. Unsurprisingly, the audience’s questions to the potential PM’s are skirted around and given a wider berth as possible. When discussing health policies it turned into a debate on who’s mate of a mate died because of lack of NHS drugs, or that they know someone who has been on the operation waiting list since the invention of time itself. If it wasn’t some teary eyed recollection of fictional relatives it was a desperate grab to be perceived as normal, functioning human beings that are “down with the kids”. It is evident that they are all bumbling, insincere and dispassionate morons that have become so detached from real society they simply have no idea how to talk to normal people.

All three worry me in their own right. Brown should probably go, he has made a mess of things too many times and sadly the labour party seem to have slowly shifted more right wing over the years. Cameron is frankly terrifying, purely because his policies give the public the right to set up their own schools and police chiefs if they are not happy with the service they are currently getting. Imagine this in far right wing areas of the country and we have problems. Clegg, although a current favourite with many, perhaps lacks the nous and experience of the other two. It does feel at times as if it’s a case of different masks, same faces. I have no idea who I will vote for at the moment, but I know I’ll be scrutinising the manifesto’s more than I have previously.

On the back of this televised event you can almost expect the BNP, UKIP and the Green Party to organise their own TV-debate. Here is hoping its in the vein of a Saturday dinner time game show. I think we’d all love to see Nick Griffin falling from a podium, face first into some shitty water.