TV debates: No 'empty chair' humiliation for David Cameron as BBC considers giving him his own general election programme

The BBC will stop short of “empty chairing” David Cameron, even if he refuses to take part in any television debates, and is considering giving him his own election programme to meet strict rules on impartiality during election campaigns, The Independent on Sunday understands.

Sources say there will be “no tub of lard moment” for Mr Cameron – in reference to the time Roy Hattersley failed to turn up for an appearance on Have I Got News for You and was replaced by the embarrassing prop – meaning there will be no empty rostrum on the platform if the debates go ahead without the premier. Despite the broadcasters’ robust intention to push ahead with the programmes in Mr Cameron’s absence, the BBC appears to be fighting shy of humiliating the Prime Minister.

The row over the leaders’ debates continued to rage yesterday when Ed Miliband formally accepted invitations to appear in all three of the live screen debates – an ITV programme on 2 April featuring seven party leaders (or six without Mr Cameron), the same format on 16 April hosted by the BBC, and a head-to-head debate on 30 April, exactly one week before the election, broadcast simultaneously by Channel 4 and Sky News. This final clash is the subject of the most controversy, because it is supposed to feature Mr Miliband and Mr Cameron. Yet last week, the Prime Minister, in his “final offer” to broadcasters, refused to take part in any of the programmes during the month-long campaign, and insisted that he will join only a seven-way format in the last week of March.

In a letter to the BBC’s head of political programmes, Sue Inglish, the chair of the broadcasters’ negotiating team, Lord Ashdown, who is running the Liberal Democrat election campaign, formally proposed that Mr Clegg stand in for the premier against Mr Miliband on 30 April.

Mr Cameron’s offer has caused consternation among broadcasters and fellow parties – particularly because it would be before the dissolution of Parliament on 30 March and the full publication of party manifestos. This weekend broadcasters were sticking to their guns, but sources at the BBC expressed caution at anything that might look as if the corporation were humiliating the Prime Minister. And, to comply with election and Ofcom rules about impartiality, if it hosts a debate without Mr Cameron, it would feel compelled to let him have his own programme, an in-depth interview or allow an extended party political broadcast. It is believed that the other broadcasters would follow a similar approach as the BBC.

Mr Miliband, in a speech to Labour’s Scottish conference, said yesterday: “This is what David Cameron used to say about TV election debates: that they were essential to our democracy. That every country apart from Mongolia had them. That he wasn’t going to have any feeble excuses to get out of debates. And now he is doing everything he can to stop them. And it is on the issue of leadership debates that David Cameron’s duplicity has caught up with him.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/tv-debates-no-empty-chair-humiliation-for-david-cameron-as-bbc-considers-giving-him-his-own-general-election-programme-10093662.html

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's the David Cameron Show.

That is ridiculous because he has the option of putting over his views on the allocated party political broadcasts. Suits him fine though in that none of the other party leaders will get the chance to challenge him and debate the points.

What a bloody coward of a man he is.