Is Gordon Brown chicken?

and

Should we allow someone who is not standing for Parliament to be in them?

I should say that I am a big supporter of the debates. I think they will provide a key focal point to the campaigns and offer a politically neutral platform for politicians to engage with the public and, crucially, with each other. And if the West Wing is anything to go by, they could also be good fun.

Given the current political landscape, I think a debate between the various candidates for Chancellor would be pretty useful as well.

Unfortunately, Gordon Brown doesn’t agree with me. He thinks he already faces enough democratic scrutiny at that weekly farce that is Prime Minister’s Questions (which as we all know is even weekly during General Election campaigns…).

In Wales we had two televised debates in the run-up to the 2007 election; one on BBC and one on ITV. They were a little bit uninteresting but at least they gave people the opportunity to see politicians lay out their cases under scrutiny.

But the real question the Labour party need to answer is this – if Rhodri Morgan, who answers questions once a week for more time than the Prime Minister on fewer policy areas to fewer parliamentarians, feels he is able to take part in such debates, why can’t Gordon Brown? Perhaps it’s not because he feels he already has enough democratic scrutiny. Perhaps he is just chicken.

Related posts:

1. Pointless debates…
2. Assembly debates new Gwent Parkway station and M48 link
3. Jilted Sky: Gordon is a Moron