The Election Debates will be Dreary. What would Improve Them? Debating!

More on the “exciting” debates between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg that are, inevitably, going to become the most “important” moments in this year’s election campaign. As I suggested at the Daily Dish, these are problematic for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is that they won’t be debates at all – at least not in the sense that anyone who’s ever taken part in any real debating would understand the term.

Mr Eugenides puts it well:

What’s ironic about this is that in the debating I know, it’s usually the quality of a team’s arguments that wins the day, not their style. Beyond a certain level of competence, everyone in the final of the Oxford Union intervarsity (say) is assumed to be confident, quick on their feet, at ease in front of an audience. Sure, delivery matters, but when it comes to deciding who has won, the main focus of judges’ discussions is the debaters’ content.