Sunday, April 12, 2015

At last! A leaders' debate with rules.

I'm thrilled that BBC Scotland have heeded my call on Thursday that much stricter rules should apply to future leaders' debates. As far as I could gather, the rules for this morning's Sunday Politics Scotland debate went as follows -

1) When Nicola Sturgeon is answering a challenging question, the moderator should personally ensure that SHE CANNOT COMPLETE ANY SENTENCE WITHOUT AGGRESSIVE INTERRUPTION.

2) Jim Murphy, Ruth Davidson and Willie Rennie should not be asked any challenging questions by the moderator.

3) When Jim Murphy, Ruth Davidson or Willie Rennie is attacking the SNP, the moderator should allow them to continuing speaking WITHOUT INTERRUPTION, AND AT HOWEVER MUCH LENGTH THEY WANT.

4) When Nicola Sturgeon is attacking the other parties or asking them questions, the moderator must personally ensure that HER VOICE IS COMPLETELY DROWNED OUT.

5) When Jim Murphy, Ruth Davidson and Willie Rennie are talking over Nicola Sturgeon and preventing her from being heard, they must be ALLOWED TO DO SO.

6) If Nicola Sturgeon shows the slightest sign of opening her mouth when someone else is speaking, the moderator must TELL HER TO SHUT UP.

Did you spot any others?

42 comments:

  1. Gets some popcorn.Waits for "Simon" to show up.

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  2. I have some experience with US debates and can tell you that people do not tend to react well to rudeness, aggressiveness and/or shouting down your opponent. I predict it will come back to bite them in the ass though of course the presstitutes will say that Murphy won.

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  3. I saw the edit version on Wings. The producer of the show should be taken to task for the shambles. The broadcasters meet a better format that that. These stilted staged debates are a turn off to viewers. Thankfully I was cooking at the time.

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  4. You missed out the totally insane cackle coming from Ruth Davidson.

    I've never seen anything like that debate. Murphy's arse was making buttons trying to get at Nicola! Unbelievable.

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  5. Thankfully I missed this, but it sounded terrible. I may attempt it on the iplayer, but what's that - 3 in 6 days is overkill by the broadcasters.

    I think there's one final Scottish debate on the 3rd of May. I notice they have not yet decided to hold one in Dundee, Glasgow or even Sneckie, Inbhir Nis. Interesting.

    Scotland in Sunday in full panic mode today. Thankfully, no one reads that and those who do - are most likely not voting SNP.

    3.5 weeks to go, folks. Keep on workin'.

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  6. Gordon Brewer’s negligence rising to the level of journalistic malfeasance during the BBC’s Sunday politics “debate”, unintentionally served to uncover the clinical controlling aggression of Jim Murphy.

    This spectacle had the feel of three hyenas on the Serengeti Plain harrying and baiting a brave and dangerous prey. Ruth Davidson certainly managed an uncannily authentic laugh.

    But it was Murphy playing top dog bully who most bared his teeth and arguably his pathological controlling nature. To tell the truth, it was kinda creepy.

    Can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s something of the night about Jim.

    Watch if you dare

    http://www.weourselves.com/the-ugly-side-of-jim/ …

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  7. Well... I rather suspect that Gordon Breweer came up with the crafty dodge of letting people see what these four are actually like - and the pretty clear result was that Nicola is head and shoulders above the rest in terms of coherence, skill and being generally 'on-top' of the subjects; Ruth Davidson is a better bruiser than the other two who were dreadful; Willie Rennie is as pathetic as he always seems - and, the big reveal, Jim Murphy is a mannerless, shouty oaf with as little control over policy ideas as he has over his tongue or his gestures. If this was a car crash - Jim Murphy was the corpse who was stupid enough to cause the accident. Dreadful and wonderful all at the same time. Loved it!

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  8. 7) If Nicola Sturgeon is speaking and Jim Murphy interrupts her, cut to Murphy immediately and keep the camera on him throughout the exchange, preferably in close-up, so that Sturgeon is shut out visually as well as verbally.

    8) Allow Murphy to do anything he wants and then show his gratitude by ridiculing the presenter ("Are you still here, Gordon?") for letting him get away with it, then smile at this sheepishly like Richard Hammond fagging for Clarkson.

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    1. Murphy is the horrible kid at school that punched and spat at others, bullied those that he didn't like, insulted the teacher for cheap laughs and didn't do his homework but got away with it because of his cheeky grin.

      The dregs at the bottom of the Scottish Labour barrel would have been a better leader than Murphy.

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  9. Didn't watch it because these things are always the same unequal 3 or 4 against 1 format. You'd be forgiven for thinking they were afraid of free speech. Why wasn't there a representative from the Greens and the SSP ? Sounds like they followed your instructions to the letter though. You can only admire and respect Nicola and all the other SNP politicians who voluntarily enter these bearpits.

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  10. It seems to be even more impossible to make a complaint to BBC Scotland than it was even a couple of months ago. They seem to have added many layers to the process, where even a professional onion peeler would give up.
    I gave up at layer 4.

    Those of you still paying the state broadcaster for this pish, cancel your licenses. You are not allowed to complain about what you are paying to view.

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  11. 7) There must be a low background noise that is the cackle of the willing accompaniment to the leader that wishes to bully. This background noise should be provided by Ruth Davidson and should be tuned to the perfect pitch that it lingers in the ears and rattles the minds of those that supported her on feminist and LGBT terms as they realise that Scottish Conservatism is no different from that practiced in the UK and that Ruth Davidson is equally hateful and vile.

    That is what has lingered with me the most. I knew Jim was misogynistic and conducted himself like a hooligan in a pub, Gish Galloping and Spreading, while yelling at people. I knew Willie Rennie was an opportunist that would take any chance he could to stick the knife into someone if it meant another sniff of power but I had, foolishly, thought better of Ruth Davidson. She behaved in an utterly repulsive manner and despite having been on her side (but not her party's) due to shared LGBT experiences I no longer have any respect for her.

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  12. I was phone-polled by Populus this morning. Questions asked included my opinion on the governments economic performance and my preference in the event of a hung parliament. Options offered were very limited on this latter question - I had to opt for Lab/SNP coalition, even though I don't want a formal coalition. They also didn't list the Greens among the voting options, which, even though I'm not voting for them, I thought was a bit poor. It all seemed very UK-centric - Independence question was not asked - which makes me think it was a UK-wide poll.

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    1. I'm sure it was - it's been years since Populus last did a full-scale Scottish poll (although they do the fieldwork for Ashcroft's constituency polls).

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    2. Update on this. I live in Ross, Skye & Lochaber and it seems a number of folk in the constituency were contacted today. Another Ashcroft poll in the offing?

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    3. I live in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, and my neighbour did the same poll on Sunday morning. She had the same objections to the questions, and actually told the interviewer (who had a Geordie accent and talked too fast) that they needed to remember that it wasn't a coalition being proposed but confidence and supply. She also refused to answer some of the questions.

      She thought it was a Tory poll. Of course if you cut her she'd bleed SNP, so she was probably a bit of a trial for the interviewer.

      A poster on Wings called Lanarkist also got the poll.

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    4. It might conceivably be Ashcroft revisiting the Scottish constituencies he's already polled to see if there's been a change (he's done that in English seats), or it might well be internal polling of some sort. Having said that, if it's only in select seats, I can't think of any reason why the Tories would bother polling in Charles Kennedy's patch, so that might point more towards the Ashcroft possibility.

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    5. Also did the Populous Poll last night in Fife.

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  13. Murphy is just thick ,and we shouldn't credit him with anything of any substance. Machine politicons are all the same. He can't think for himself outside the machine code. The fact that he is rude ,obnoxious and mysoginistic. Is all related to a lack of intelligence.

    I wouldn't worry too much about him. Look at his personal poll ratings, and no one likes a bully either.

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  14. Oh yes, it is absolutely essential that in such debates for the moderator to be positioned behind all of the leaders (at the tip of an inverted arrow) and therefore from the start less able - as proved - to assert themselves and crack down on any verbal bullying. I ask you, you just can't make it up, can you - with BBC Scotland living up, once again, to our expectations of bias and display of really poor production values! Kudos to STV.

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  15. Come on, deep down you all know that you love Murphy! Scottish politics would be so dull without him!

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  16. BBCLabour in Scotland has been politically designed for years which is why many journalists with integrity left the state propaganda broadcaster. Control over broadcasting needs devolved ASAP after this election.

    Another demo at Pacific Quay is scheduled for next Sunday.

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  17. In a shocking development the Libby Carroll report on sleazebag murphy and his bollock faced ranting is not allowing comments.

    PS. If Ruthie Davidson gets any fatter they're going to have to reinforce the studio furniture. Action Krankie no more!

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  18. I'm not British myself, and I'm familiar with political debates in other jurisdictions. They tend to vary from ferrets in a sack to glib generalities. I've never seen anything like what happened on this programme I'm my life. It was a disgrace, and I don't know how the BBC has the face to hold itself out as the doyen of objective journalism. Simply scandalous, and all BBC staff associated with it should be ashamed of themselves.

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  19. I'm not normally one for political debates, but this was glorious. Ruth Davidson's maniacal cackling was a real high point for me!

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  20. Stoat...Remember Rangers? Everybody hates us we don't care. That's Murphy.

    Even when he gets relegated he will show no humility like Newco. As for missing Newco...nah not me.

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  21. It's a shame it was so badly chaired that the very interesting outcome wasn;t made clear.

    Sturgeon - to tackle any potential Scottish deficit we will grow the economy,

    All three - nonsense

    Then.

    Murphy - we won't cut we will grow the economy
    Irrelevant - we won't cut much we will grow the economy to cover most.
    Davidson - we will cut but mainly we will grow the economy.

    Hilarious.

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    1. The problem all politicians have is that haven't got a clue where money comes from.

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  22. This is turning out exactly the same as the referendum. No rules, no fairness...

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  23. It is simple really 2 point's to address.

    1) Ensure it is illegal and unlawful for a politician to act in a mendacious fashion

    2) Remove corporate funding and involvement from the political process

    Ambitious and definetly idealistic but it is also honest and true. We as a nation deserve better than this unrelenting monstrosity that masquerade's as mainstream media organisation.

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  24. TNS Scottish poll:

    http://www.tnsglobal.com/uk/press-release/snp-increases-its-lead-in-latest-tns-poll

    SNP 52% (+6), Lab 24% (-6), Con 13% (-1), LD 6% (+3), Green 3% (-1).

    Conducted face to face, 18 March - 8 April.

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    1. Wow - no wonder Murphy is acting like a mad dog. He must be feeling the heat. But 6% support for the LibDems seems a bit ambitious!

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    2. Is that Cons switching to LibDem?

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  25. Anon 1:14 - Correct.

    Murphy and MSM have no where else to go. They think that they ran a successful no campaign, with the scare stories. So are going back to this like a comfort blanket. Hence letters going to pensioners warning the SNP will steal their pensions.

    The part they don't get is that the campaign was not successful. They started with a 30% lead and fisnished with a 10% lead. That in an election would be a failure. In any case just let them carry on as no one is listening anymore.

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  26. Brewer did a 5 minute one to one trash job on Nicola as a warm up act

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  27. And that typical pack abuse we witnessed Sunday, invites the People's Judgement

    TNS
    SNP 52% (+6)
    Lab 24% (-6)
    Con 13% (-1)
    LD 6% (+3)
    Green 3% (-1).

    http://www.weourselves.com/the-peoples-judgement/

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    1. It could get worse - I think this poll was conducted before the Sunday rammy. Only three weeks to go, and it looks like the SNP have still not peaked yet.

      Squeaky bum time for the red tories.

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    2. Concerning that we can't get Labour down into the teens. Who says Murphy has been a Slab disaster?

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  28. I strongly suspect that if this had been another nation's democratically elected First Minister, or similar, it would have triggered a serious diplomatic incident.

    Revolting behaviour from Mr Murphy - aided and abetted by the other three against Miss Sturgeon who made the mistake of thinking she would be taking part in a heated debate at worst but not a public act of sickening gutter thuggery.

    I presume the SNP membership and voting intention has consequently increased? Very well done BBC.

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  29. I see Nick Robinson is to-day back on the BBC! Sympathy of course for his illness but on an anti-SNP front expect a resumption of his normal service :-( .

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