Cowardly Cameron flees head-to-head TV debate with Miliband

This would have been a great opportunity to us the picture of a chicken appearing at the debates next to Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband - but this illustration from the Daily Mirror depicts the situation just as well.

This would have been a great opportunity to us the picture of a chicken appearing at the debates next to Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband – but this illustration from the Daily Mirror depicts the situation just as well.

What are we to conclude from David Cameron’s cowardly refusal to take part in all but one televised leader debate ahead of the general election – and said this must be with no less than six other party leaders?

That he’s running scared from Ed Miliband after coming off the worst in all their recent Prime Ministers Questions clashes?

That he hopes sharing the platform with people like Natalie Bennett means he won’t be the only person putting his foot in his mouth on the night?

That he knows he doesn’t have anything to say that the voting public wants to hear?

Cameron’s office has said he will agree to only one debate, before March 30, and he wants the Democratic Unionist Party to be considered for inclusion, meaning seven other leaders would be vying for attention and he could stay in the background.

This is a strategy that has been tried out in Vox Political‘s local area. In a recent Powys County Council budget debate, televised on the Internet, Tory Parliamentary candidate Chris Davies did not say a single word.

He knew that keeping his mouth shut (and letting people think he was a fool) would increase his chances of election more than opening it (and proving them right).

Other party leaders have hotly criticised Cameron for trying to hold the debates to ransom and for trying to bully TV broadcasters.

“This is an outrageous attempt from the Prime Minister to bully the broadcasters into dropping their proposals for a head-to-head debate between David Cameron and Ed Miliband,” said Douglas Alexander, Labour’s chair of general election strategy.

“That it comes only hours after Ed Miliband called David Cameron’s bluff and said he would debate him any time, any place, shows the lengths David Cameron will go to run scared of a debate with Ed Miliband.”

It seems David Cameron is telling us he has nothing to say.

In that case, why give him your vote?

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10 thoughts on “Cowardly Cameron flees head-to-head TV debate with Miliband

  1. Pete B

    Well,could you imagine CMD debating on his own without his Yahoo Henries in the HOC egging him on.

    CMD is a spinning bully.He is about as shallow as a empty bath.He never answers questions at the HOC,could it be he is to thick to know the answers,or are the answers so damaging to his Propaganda that he dare not answer?

    They may has well put a empty bucket in Dave’s place,I doubt if anyone would notice the difference.Especially if you painted a red face of CMD on said bucket.

  2. M de Mowbray

    True to his name, CaMoron is not very bright. He can follow a prepared speech, statement or rehearsed agenda, but cannot think on the spot. When he is confronted with an awkward question he avoids discussion of it and resorts to Public School/Bullindonian hectoring, bullying and mud-slinging. He cannot win a debate intellectually so he angrily throws insults.

    He himself is scared of any confrontation for which the discussion might stray beyond his pre-planned words. However, I think that Tory Grandees have also noticed how bad CaMoron is when he cannot be the Big Boss of a discussion and goes into Bullingdon mode, and I think the Grandees are the ones who are trying to keep him out of the way.

    With a Tory Minister breaking ranks publicly on Sanctions a few days ago, it seems to me that CaMoron is now a Lame Duck in his Party’s eyes. This is great, but Boris is waiting, and he is more devious and clever than CaMoron. Beware: Boris about!

  3. Jonathan Wilson

    He should run scared… what he won’t be able to do is respond using his usual modus_operandi in PMQ’s “it was the last lot that did it” and reeling off a list of supposed achievements and sound bites while totally ignoring the question or the classic “look a squirrel” method of deflection.

    We have to put up with it when watching PMQ’s (while usually shouting at the screen; “answer the ****ing question”) but it won’t wash in the live debates. (But lets face it, there will be no cutting questions allowed, nor questions that have a bias towards past performance and outright lies.)

    1. Andy Robertson-Fox

      So what is the point of having these TV farces then?
      After all the country is not electing a President or even a Prime Minister but an individual to represent whichever constituency they are registered to vote in.
      Turn off the telly and go to an open meeting and listen and question the candidates. .

      1. Mike Sivier Post author

        You make a good point at the end, there, but I think there is value in the TV debates. They’re not presidential, no, but people want to be reassured that the party they elect has a decent leader. I’ve just read that the Daily Telegraph thinks Cameron ducking out of all but one debate is a “shrewd” move: “Perhaps the greatest electoral asset the Conservatives have is the gulf of public respect and confidence which exists between Cameron and Miliband. A series of TV debates would imperil that advantage” – essentially this is saying that Miliband would beat Cameron into the ground so it is better for the Tory leader to run away.

  4. Mr.Angry

    Maybe they should invite a chicken along in place of DC maybe a rode island red would probably makes mores sense than Cameron. As all we can expect is more b******it and propaganda from ham head.

    Wonder as to what time slot it will get on the screen more likely to be 5.00 a.m. in the morning. A disgrace to politics if ever there was one with that said he normally disappears on holiday whenever anything important crops up or joins a local fox hunt.

    Arrogant muppet, Ah!!! that feels better now vented my spleen go walk the dogs now.

  5. jaypot2012

    Cameron is a coward, above everything else he has done and allowed to be done, he’s hidden behind his speech writers – he can’t have a face to face discussion with Miliband ‘cos his writers won’t be there so he genuinely can’t answer most questions. He will just keep harping on about things he does know (and that’s very little).
    Miliband wanted to keep on pulling him on his “Judge me on my record” – Cameron knows he’s done for.
    As for the televised talks between the 7 leaders, he will insist on knowing their questions beforehand, and knowing what subjects are to be discussed so that he can have his answers all written down for him.
    What a bloody wet nelly he is!

  6. hstorm

    After what happened to Cameron last week, I think he has lost what nerve he had left. The very idea of any more debates with Miliband than he absolutely has to do will scare him out of his wits.

  7. NMac

    Back in 2008 President Obama described Cameron as a political lightweight. That just about sums him up – a lightweight, but a bully.

Comments are closed.