Dave welcoming the debates 5 years ago

It is being reported

Downing Street has issued a “final offer” to broadcasters over the election television debates, declaring in a pointed email that David Cameron will take part in just one debate featuring seven party leaders before the formal campaign begins next month…..

…..The intervention by the prime minister’s director of communications, Craig Oliver, prompted an angry backlash. Nick Clegg accused Cameron of trying to hold the debates to ransom by dictating terms. Douglas Alexander, the chair of Labour’s general election campaign, accused Downing Street of an “outrageous” attempt to bully the broadcasters into dropping their proposal for a head-to-head debate between Cameron and Miliband.

The risks for David Cameron are that he ends up looking like a bully and gets the blame if there are no debates. There is polling that showed 67% of the public would view Cameron as a coward if he didn’t take part in the debates. Whilst a recent poll showed that 70% of the public wanted the debates to take place during the election campaign.

Dave is on the wrong side of public opinion, and like immigration yesterday, his past comments, in the above video shows, on the debates, have the potential to come back and damage him, two months from an election, that’s not a good place for any politician, especially the sitting Prime Minister to be in.

Some might cite Tony Blair’s agreeing then rejecting debates, but I would argue that was different, as we’ve now had debates in 2010, and that effects the whole situation in 2015 as they are considered part of the political landscape now.

TSE