Political

Televised Prime Ministerial debates: how to ask a question

From the joint BBC / ITV / Sky news release:

All three debates will be broadcast in mid-evening slots in front of a studio audience selected by ICM. Members of the audience will be able to put questions to Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg directly. Viewers are also able to submit their own questions in advance by email via the addresses below.

Each of the programmes has a pre-determined theme for half of its airtime, with the remaining time open to questions on any election issue.

The First Election Debate will be broadcast on ITV1 on Thursday 15th April from 8.30pm to 10.00pm. Its themed section will be on domestic affairs and it will take place in the North West of England. The debate will be moderated by Alastair Stewart. Viewers can submit questions via the email address debate@itv.com

The second debate, The Sky News Debate will be broadcast on Sky News on Thursday 22nd April from 8pm to 9.30pm. Its themed section will be on international affairs and it will take place in the South West of England. The debate will be moderated by Adam Boulton. Viewers can submit questions via www.skynews.com/debatequestion

The final debate, The Prime Ministerial Debate, will be broadcast on BBC One on Thursday 29th April from 8.30pm to 10pm. Its themed section will be on economic affairs and it will take place in the Midlands. The debate will be moderated by David Dimbleby. Viewers can submit questions via the web address: www.bbc.co.uk/election

The broadcasters drew lots to determine the order of the debates and the allocation of themes. Representatives of the parties drew lots to determine the order of speaking. Mr Clegg will open the first debate. Mr Brown will open the second, and Mr Cameron will do so in the third programme.

Of course, the really big question is how many of my 10 predictions for the general election debates will turn out to be right.

5 responses to “Televised Prime Ministerial debates: how to ask a question”

  1. Would like to ask Mr brown since 1998 budget raised 12p pkt of cig to pay for NHS from that time to up to now.
    abolised married allowence,raised 1% N/I employee and employer to pay NHS
    also 22.5 billions raised on 3g license also sold cheap gold where all this taxes
    gone.he must tell voters with fully explanation.

  2. I am a widow who left uk disappointed – no pension available as I was only 40 and underage, As my husband was ill, (I had to look after him, and received no money for doing this) with his illness, we couldnt get a mortgage protection and I had a 90k mortgage, when he died, so I had to sell my house to live on. Although I am now 54, living in Spain. I still dont get a widows pension and yet the government pays out millions to immigrants. The only reason immigrants want to come to uk is for the social security. There will none left or no national health if you dont stop paying out to immigrants. My savings from my house, which I was living on, has halved due to the weak pound against the euro.

  3. Why are all the shops in the town centres closed down? The only shops open are charity shops and gaming!! If the rates were not so high maybe we could open up our town centres, instead of them looking like ghost towns. Is that all we have to look forward to – playing bingo, or slot machines. What does this tell our young people.

  4. Bring back National Service to all youngsters at the age of 20. That would get rid of all the immigrants and clean up the act of our youngsters of drugs and booze.

  5. As it is a bit late (the debate is in 2 days time) maybe you can help me.

    It would be nice if I could ask the leaders the following question in the third debate on the economy:

    Other successful economies have used government funding that led to national success in an economic area. For example, the United States through DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Procurement Agency, pumped millions of dollars into the ARPANET (the infrastructure of the Internet) much prior to the successes of Silicon Valley. For example, the Finnish government sold the spectrum incredibly cheaply which led to that country becoming a leading economy in mobile telecommunications, and the Korean and other Far East governments operate in close collaboration with large companies to promote particular technologies such as ICT and Robotics. Do you believe that your government should direct the recovery in this fashion, by directing significant strategic investment to foster a particular future area of technology, or do you believe that the free market alone can bring about our economic recovery?

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