There will be nine "cabinet contender" live television debates, on BBC 2 at 2:15-3:00pm and repeated on BBC Parliament and the News Channel. Politicians will be cross examined by Andrew Neil and specialist BBC journalists. The debate details are as follows:
Monday 19th April 2:15-3:00
The Foreign Affairs Debate. David Miliband for Labour, William Hague for the Conservatives and Ed Davey for the Lib Dems, cross examined by Andrew Neil and BBC Security Correspondent, Frank Gardner.
Tuesday 20th April 2:15-3:00
The Crime Debate. Alan Johnson for Labour, Chris Grayling for the Conservatives and Chris Huhne for the Lib Dems, cross examined by Andrew Neil and BBC Home Editor, Mark Easton.
Wednesday 21st April 2:15-3:00
The Chancellors' Debate. Alistair Darling for Labour, George Osborne for the Conservatives and Vince Cable for the Lib Dems, cross examined by Andrew Neil and BBC Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders.
Monday 26th April 2:15-3:00
The Environment Debate. Ed Miliband for Labour, Greg Clark for the Conservatives, Simon Hughes for the Lib Dems and Darren Johnson for the Greens, cross examined by Andrew Neil and Newsnight's Justin Rowlatt.
Tuesday 27th April 2:15-3:00
The Business Debate. Peter Mandelson for Labour, Ken Clarke for the Conservatives, John Thurso for the Lib Dems and John Swinney for the SNP go head to head in live debate, cross examined by Andrew Neil and BBC Business Editor, Robert Peston.
Wednesday 28th April 2:15-3:00
The Health Debate. Andy Burnham for Labour, Andrew Lansley for the Conservatives and Norman Lamb for the Lib Dems, cross examined by Andrew Neil and BBC Health Correspondent, Branwen Jeffreys.
Monday 3rd May 2:15-3:00
The Education Debate. Ed Balls for Labour, Michael Gove for the Conservatives and David Laws cross examined by Andrew Neil and education expert, Mike Baker.
The Immigration Debate. Phil Woolas for Labour, Damian Green for the Conservatives, Sarah Teather for the Lib Dems and Lord Pearson for UKIP, cross examined by Andrew Neil and BBC Home Editor, Mark Easton.
Wednesday 5th May 2:15-3:00
The Trust in Politics Debate. Harriet Harman for Labour, George Young for the Conservatives, Lynne Featherstone for the Lib Dems and Adam Price for Plaid Cymru, cross examined by Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn.
And if that lot don't put you off voting, nothing will!
9 comments:
Why wheel in UKIP?
Debate overkill - mass overexposure of the LibDems.
Having said that there are usually these sort of things at election times.
@Trevorsden
Completely agree. This is ridiculous... and boring.
WAY too many debates.
I say this as a self confessed political geek so I imagine others who aren't as interested will just totally switch off. There is absolutly no need for all of these.
I wonder if Woolas will be a no show? , I see no date .
Neils going to put him on the spot , after this ....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/dailypolitics/andrewneil/
You really have to wonder how some "people " get elected ?
Hang on, people go on about not knowing what the main parties stand for, so how can anyone complain about a comprehensive set of debates across several crucial areas?
There are some potentially fascinating programmes coming up. I can't see Mandy looking forward to crossing swords with Ken Clarke following the NI debacle and continued tax assault on business (and he won't be allowed to munch on a packet of crisps) and Milliband and Hague could be a good tussle too. Balls v Gove will be fun as long as Andrew Neil has the right stats about how badly education has performed under this Government, while Burnham could very easily be wiped off the map after the horror stories of Stafford, donor parts, PFI waste, training and then mass unemployment of junior doctors etc.
There are so many debates now. Mant towns are now holding local debates, theres about 4 in Bracknell plus radio debates.
Today on BBC news 24 they had a debate in Bolton with Tories, Labour and Lib Dems. which was very well done. These debates are great. lets hope they continue into the next election.
Remember when you used to get debates between politicians all the time on the radio and TV ?
That was before 1997 and before the BBC saw its duty as to ignore any viewpoints not in the project so many of their staff supported.
Hang on there - did I see the words "Harman" and "trust" in the same sentence ? Not possible.
Mobile phone while driving and Harman, yes.
Leaving the scene of an accident and Harman, yes.
Pathological hatred of anyone with a penis and Harman, yes.
Need I go on ?
Alan Douglas
WV ; sporatch : what you get when hearing Harman raving on about gender issues.
All of them announcing sweet F.A
The big global/local investment bank where I looked after credit derivatives IT for the past 2 years (and now middle office risk) have the figure of £250 billion cuts a year as the absolute minimum in the emergency budget to stop a bond crisis. As neither party has announced this figure yet I believe the markets will hammer the next Government into a crisis just about in time for silly season when we all get back from holidays.
If they don't have the balls to do something about the debt we'll have to leave it to the West Ham bond and FX traders.
... by then end of all these interviews Andrew Neil will have such a good overview of Politics that he should be considered for PM!
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