What’s this going to do to the campaign?
Why’s Cameron taking such a gamble?
So now we have it. British election campaigns are never going to be the same again. For the long push by the broadcasters to get live TV debates between the three main leaders seems to have succeeded.
ITV will host the first chaired by Alistair Stewart; Sky has the second with Adam Boulton while the final one will be a BBC affair with David Dimbleby in the che chair. Each programme will last ninety minutes.
There’s little doubt that this will shape the entire election campaign and there’s also little doubt that these will become a permanent feature of UK general elections.
The big winner from this is Nick Clegg who’ll gain a lot by being seen on the same platform as the other two. That fact has the potential to hurt both the bigger parties – particularly Labour.
But the big loser could possibly be David Cameron who, in my view, has made a seriously bad decision.
When you are in as strong a position as he is then the last thing he should have agreed to is something that could be a game-changer. Anything could happen.
As we’ve seen in the US how the candidates are seen and react with each other can matter more than what they say.