Labour have been busily feigning outrage for weeks that Alex Salmond wasn't taking part in two of the three Scottish side-debates, so you'd probably imagine they will now be pronouncing themselves thoroughly satisfied with his change of heart about tomorrow's final BBC debate. Er...no, actually. If the early reaction of a Labour activist on Twitter is anything to go by, it appears they're attempting a seamless switch back to the "what-does-he-want-to-take-part-for, he's-not-even-a-candidate-in-this-election" line.
Jeez. Sort it out, guys.
In spite of what I said about this a couple of weeks ago, I'm sure this is absolutely the right call by the SNP. The three rigged UK-wide debates have now been broadcast, and strategies for preventing a repeat of that outrage can be left for another day. For now, it's all about taking every last opportunity to maximise the SNP's vote in this election. Jim Murphy will be privately horrified that his slightly creepy Jackanory-style storytelling approach to debating is about to face the full Eck treatment for a second time.
Assuming this debate gets a decent share of the audience (speaking of which, do you have any idea what the viewing figures have been for past Scottish debates, James?) this should be good for an extra point or two for the SNP.
ReplyDeleteSalmond = Master Debater
Murphy = Mastu...you know where Ezio is going!
I can't find any reference to the ratings for the Scottish debates, but I'd guess they've been pretty poor, especially given the scheduling of the Sky one. On the plus side, apparently Question Time is normally viewed by 2-3 million UK-wide, so hopefully plenty of people will have seen Salmond's fine performance on Thursday night.
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