As has been demonstrated again and again, there are no “rules” governing admission to televised leaders’ debates – the broadcasters just choose whatever line-up suits their own agenda, and then dream up a justification after the fact (for example, the BBC’s absurd ‘Prime Ministerial Debate’ wheeze, which ignored the inconvenient fact that Prime Minister is not an elected office, and there are therefore no candidates for it). There was a small part of me that wondered if they’d be tempted to include Alex Salmond in the Scottish election debates due to the box office/ratings potential of Salmond v Sturgeon, but a much bigger part of me always knew that it was highly unlikely due to the unionist bias (whether conscious or unconscious) of the decision-makers. If Mr Salmond had been included, his personal poll ratings would probably have recovered, and the idea of voting SNP on the constituency ballot and Alba on the list for a pro-independence supermajority might have built up a head of steam. That’s not the story the mainstream media want to be reporting on in this campaign – they want “plucky underdog Douglas Ross and/or Anas Sarwar threatens to scupper Nicola Sturgeon’s hopes of an indepedence referendum”.
On the BBC’s decision to exclude the Alba Party from the TV debate
I’m not particularly convinced by the justifications offered for the BBC’s decision, because they’re not really supported by precedent. UKIP was once represented in a Holyrood debate despite never having had an MSP – the argument being that having a representative in another parliament qualified them. Broadcasters have also relied on opinion poll evidence, not just past election results, when justifying the inclusion of certain parties – but they’re in no position to say that Alba aren’t doing well enough in the polls, because there haven’t been any polls since the party was created.
I can’t help feeling that if we were talking about a Nigel Farage vehicle for a Westminster election, and if he’d managed to get MPs and councillors to defect, that would have been enough to get him into the debate. It really is no more complicated than the broadcasters making up the rules to please themselves.
Is there any upside? Well, in an ideal world we’ll now have Nicola Sturgeon successfully taking the fight to the unionists in the debate without any distractions – which is in all our interests, because we need the SNP to be dominant in the constituency ballot. However, if there are large segments of the debate devoted to Salmond-bashing, without the man himself being there to answer back, the BBC’s decision will look ever more outrageous.
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You can catch up with Episode 5 of the Scot Goes Popcast, with special guest Len Pennie (Miss PunnyPennie) HERE.
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