Friday 22 January 2010

Election Debate

According to a tweet from Peter Barron, the editor of the Northern Echo, who chaired the first Darlington Debate earlier this week, the next Debate will be an election special featuring the candidates.

But will they - should they - invite the BNP candidate?

7 comments:

neil craig said...

If it is being organised by a newspaper rather than a party it certainly should.

If there is an objection to having representatives who support Nazism, & racial genocide (not to mention child sex slavery & dissecting living people to steal their body organs) then there would obviously be no question of inviting the LibDems, Labour or Tories leaving UKIP & the BNP. However as a liberal & democrat I believe the people have a right to hear all parties no matter how reprehensible we may find their Nazism.

Mike said...

Provided the whole thing doesn't turn into a debate about the BNP, yes.

Unknown said...

More to the point Mike, would you share a platform with the BNP?

I can't see the Echo inviting any more than Liberal, Labour and Tory.

Question is, will the Tory candidate turn up. He wasn't at the first Darlo debate...

Mike Barker said...

Yes, James, I would, for the same reasons Ed Davey (or was it Chris Huhne, I forget) gave: to help expose their evil views.

But the danger is that it would descend into an undignified melee, like the Question Time event, with everyone lining up to have a go at the BNP guy and not debating anything else.

I do think you're being a bit harsh on the Honourable Tory candidate: Lingfield Point can be a bit difficult to find if you don't know your way around the town ;-).

Unknown said...

Indeed, Mike. Though I hope that the next debate is held in Lingfield House, it's a three minute walk from home, very convenient.

On the BNP, one of the issues that they have tried to capitalise on is migration occuring because of the creation of a Europe-wide labour market. A question on this issue was raised at the first debate and wasn't dealt with by the panel - perhaps because it was composed of employers, for whom a greater choice of potential employees isn't seen as problematic.

Peter Barron said...

Just to make the point that the Darlington Debate is not organised by The Northern Echo. I was happy to chair the first one and was involved in the organisation but it's a Darlington Partnership event. It will be Darlington Partnership's decision whether to invite the BNP.

Anonymous said...

Why invite Lab/Con? they are the ones who between them have ruined the country in my lifetime.