Wednesday, July 29, 2009

New Labour tries to freeze out other parties by limiting debate


Dear All

In an act that shows just how fearful New Labour has become Peter Mandelson has said he is "open" to the idea of a televised debate between Gordon Brown and David Cameron.

Given Brown’s pathetic attempts on Youtube, why bother?

It is not in the interest of the Tories to get involved in this farce as it can only benefit Labour.

Mandelson told the BBC that ‘the public had to choose between the two leaders and the more debate about this choice the better’.

The fact is that there is no real difference between voting New Labour and Tory, the difference is the window dressing, they have no "competing" values and policies.

The Downing Street view is that Gordon Brown's attitude to a TV debate has not changed.

So, it looks like Mandelson is flying a kite to see what the reaction is.

David Cameron is said to be backing the idea, saying it would be good for democracy but since other parties won’t be involved it is hardly democratic at all.

Lord Mandelson made it clear that it would be the prime minister's decision on whether to agree to take part but as we all know that statement is nonsense because everything New Labour do is by clique.

Although Cameron is publicly backing such an idea; I suspect that he knows this won’t come to pass as other parties will raise objections with the BBC.

In the USA such debates are common place but then there are only two parties to choose from Republicans and Democrats.

Another thing about the “debate” is that the audience will be hand picked by the BBC with the real public frozen out and marginalised.

This idea in my opinion is an attempt to try and rig the election by providing the public with only two options when they have several to choose from.

My preferred option is that the General Election produces a hung Parliament then real democracy and reform can take place.

The public have seen precious little of either.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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