As many people outside of the UK don’t know, the British general election has unofficially began and for politico nerds such as myself, this next couple of months amounts to porn – porn which gradually gets more hardcore the closer you get to polling day.
The back and forth election manoeuvrings has slowly started to take hold of the national press, political pundits have started to warm up their magic 8 balls and this is all fine apart from the fact that this year, for the first time ever (or at least in my life time), there are going to be a series of three American presidential like debates featuring the leaders of Britain’s three main political parties.
What’s the problem you ask? The problem is three fold:
One – I’m not convinced presidential debates are anything more than theater and PR exercises. In theory they are supposed to give voters the opportunity to access more information about the perspective candidates and their suitability for the role of President/Prime Minister.
Two – The format doesn’t quite make sense in the UK given the difference in the political systems. Having only three “contestants” insinuates that no other party, come Election Day, will outperform the three parties represented at the debates. It also therefore makes the assumption that voters don’t want to hear from other party leaders.
Three (and most important of all) – It just isn’t cricket. It reeks of Americanism, which is fine if you’re American. Here in the UK we have a fine tradition of political leaders actually going around the country (and get this) talking to people.
Now I have absolutely no problem with the American political system, it works just fine for the country. In the UK we are used to seeing our leaders knocking on doors, literally on soap boxes in the middle of our town centres and yes, sometimes they get eggs thrown at them but hey… it’s our democracy.
I know the argument that the debates will make politics more accessible to a younger population and will increase the voter turnout for this year’s elections but is that enough of a reason to lower the quality of political debate in this crucial year? There are rumors making the rounds that the presenter for Britain’s X-Factor will also be presenting debate coverage, that is reason enough for me to truly and utterly believe that with these debates Britain is heading down the wrong direction.
We have to take this process very seriously. Politics is boring because, well its politics. It’s supposed to be tedious. You are entrusting a party to run the country, not voting for which celebrity you think can dance best. They have to be pretty much the smartest person in the country as well as being the most pragmatic and empathetic – these debates will lower our politics further and turn our leaders into celebrity/comic book figures.
Just a normal everyday bloke writing about films.