‘Our political parties have hijacked representative democracy’

FOLLOWING the dialogue on Twitter surrounding the “Great Debate” on Monday night, I was struck by the number of tweeters who immediately likened the set to that of The Weakest Link, and who were bemoaning the non-appearance of that show’s host, Anne Robinson.

The “conversation” then continued along similar lines for the entire duration of the debate, focusing almost entirely on the debate’s presentation, rather than on its content, as one would have preferred — or is that just my idealism showing again?

What did actually take place in that Montrose studio on Monday night? Why did an average of more than 900,000 viewers take the trouble of tuning in? What were the looking for, and did they get it? What was the end result?