Tv

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Young voters show up why Cameron wants to avoid TV debates

From our UK edition

David Cameron and Nick Clegg naturally had the toughest tasks today when they faced young voters for the Sky question-and-answer sessions because they are having to defend policies their government has pursued. Clegg, who is normally very good at Q&As, grew rather wound up when having to defend the tuition fees U-turn and seemed more on the defensive than he needed to. Cameron has just finished his session, where his demeanour that normally makes him appear commanding and Prime Ministerial gave him a slightly wooden quality as he answered questions.

Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband proves he can be normal

From our UK edition

What do you say when asked what life experience you have as a politician? Probably not ‘I was an economic adviser in the Treasury’ and ‘I taught at Harvard’. But to be fair to Miliband, his answer to one of the trickiest questions levelled at him this morning on Sky wasn’t much different to the one the other party leaders would give, which is essentially ‘not much’. A political Four Yorkshiremen skit wouldn’t be particularly competitive.

Isabel Hardman

Two U-turns in one morning: Greens drop citizens’ income and hug-a-jihadi policy

From our UK edition

Natalie Bennett has just been taking questions as part of the Sky leaders’ debates for younger voters, and delivered the second Green U-turn of the day, this time on terrorism. After struggling on the Sunday Politics to explain why her party thinks that membership of a terrorist group alone should not be a crime, the Green leader decided to say that actually, her party thought that it was: ‘Obviously [Islamic State] and al-Qaeda are hideous terrorist organisations that advocate and support violence. If you are involved in them, support them in any way, then you are participating in inciting violence, that’s a crime, rightly, and should be pursued to the full extent of the law.

Thursday

Rory Sutherland

How consumer habits are subject to the law of unintended consequences

From our UK edition

Some time in the 1960s, a group of people in an advertising agency (among them Llewelyn Thomas, son of Dylan) found themselves debating the direction of causation in the purchase of electric drills. Their dispute revolved around one question: do men a) conceive a need for making a hole and therefore go and buy a drill or b) buy an electric drill in a shop because it looks cool and then wander around the house desperately looking for any excuse to make holes in things. (One joy of working in advertising is that you get paid to have the kind of conversations when sober which other people are only allowed to have when drunk or stoned.) Yet the question is not quite as silly as it sounds: your approach to selling drills would differ depending on which of these two theories is true.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron wriggles further away from the TV debates

From our UK edition

David Cameron had clearly planned his answers to his Today programme so that a casual listener might think that he really is very keen for the TV debates to take place. He sounded ever so earnest, and repeatedly said that he does want the debates to take place. But when Justin Webb asked the crucial question - which was tell us you're going to do the TV debates, rather than that you just want them to happen - the Prime Minister's pretence was exposed. listen to ‘Cameron: Debates ‘take all the life out of the campaign’’ on audioBoom He doesn't want the TV debates to happen, and now that his original condition of the Greens being included has been met, he is attaching more conditions before he will say 'I will do these debates'.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Labour signs up to debates as broadcasters threaten an empty chair

From our UK edition

So the broadcasters have done what many thought they’d be too afraid to do and have threatened to empty chair David Cameron - or anyone else who refuses to take part - in the TV debates. In a statement released this afternoon, BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel 4 said ‘in the event that any of the invited party leaders decline to participate, debates will take place with the party leaders who accept the invitation’. They have also said the debates will all take place within the short campaign, which Cameron didn’t want either. Labour has said it will sign up to the debates, while others continue to grumble. But naturally David Cameron has said very little.

Rod Liddle

I can’t stand the Green Party but they probably deserve their place in the TV debates

From our UK edition

An email arrives from the excellent Zoe Williams, Guardian columnist and leftyagitfem middle-class propagandist. It requests that I should sign a round-robin petition to ensure that the Green Party is included in these proposed TV general election debates – much as David Cameron has, rather disingenuously, demanded. I couldn’t sign the petition. I can’t think of a reason why the Greens should be excluded from the debates if, say, Ukip is to be there as well. The Greens’ current opinion poll standings put them level with the hapless Lib Dems. They have an MP. They should probably be in there, somewhere – even if they lose their sole MP come May, Inshallah. But I couldn’t sign the petition because I can’t stand them.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

TV debates: Cameron sits comfortably as smaller parties complain

From our UK edition

If his condition of including the Greens in the TV debates was to be met, David Cameron’s next hope of scuppering them was that the other parties got upset with the new proposals. Well, the proposals have only been out a few hours and already a lot of people are satisfyingly upset. The DUP is complaining that it deserves a place if the SNP and Plaid Cymru are to be involved. And the Lib Dems are cross too because they are now relegated to two debate with six other parties where they will have very little opportunity to say anything of note. This evening a Lib Dem spokesman issued this statement: ‘We have only just received these new proposals. We have always been clear that as a party of government, we must be able to defend our record in all the TV debates.

James Forsyth

If you’re going to have seven parties in the TV debates, you’ve got to include the DUP

From our UK edition

Having seven parties in two of the TV debates, as the broadcasters are reportedly proposing, is an admission that what matters is not whether the party will provide the Prime Minister but whether it might have influence in a hung parliament. On this basis, there is no justification for excluding the DUP. The DUP currently have eight seats in the Commons, more than Plaid Cymru, Ukip and the Greens put together. Even after the next election, the DUP are likely to have more MPs than any of these parties. It is baffling that the broadcasters have ended up concluding that Plaid Cymru, who have fewer MPs than the DUP and also only stand in one part of the United Kingdom, deserve an invitation but the DUP don’t.

Isabel Hardman

Broadcasters to propose new set of TV election debates

From our UK edition

The broadcasters have reportedly come up with a new set of proposals for the TV debates in order to force David Cameron to sign up. The Radio Times reports that they now want to hold one debate where the Prime Minister will face Ed Miliband, and two debates that feature almost everyone - Conservatives, Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens, Ukip, SNP and Plaid Cymru. This doesn’t just answer Cameron’s stipulation that the Greens must be involved, but answers the next question that would then be posed, which is what about the nationalist parties. Unless he suddenly starts talking about the importance of George Galloway, the Prime Minister will find it very, very difficult to wriggle away from these debates.

Steerpike

Here’s why nobody has been able to verify the ‘Green Surge’ membership numbers

From our UK edition

'The Green Surge’ has already become a fixed feature of the election campaign, but are we just reliving the giant damp squib of ‘Cleggmania’? According to Green Party officials, their membership stands at 45,558. Since Cameron declared they should be in the TV debates, thousands have supposedly signed on the dotted line. Apparently, of the 14,780 new members that have signed up since 1 Jan 2015, just 151 are renewals. But there has been zero independent verification of the numbers; they are asking us to take their word for it. A spokesman tells Steerpike that the party was not prepared for the influx of new members: ‘Our servers did become overwhelmed for short periods. This was due to the quantity of hits to the site.

Monday

Sebastian Payne

Watch: Green leader Natalie Bennett backs Cameron on TV debates

From our UK edition

What are you afraid of boys? The Green Party posed this question on Westminster's College Green this morning as they launched a new poster campaign (driven around on pedal bikes, natch) calling for the Greens to be involved in the TV leaders debates. Leader Natalie Bennett also announced that the party's membership is up to 44,175 today — 52,000 including Scotland. I asked Bennett how she feels about being used by the Prime Minister for his own political gains. She doesn’t seem to mind too much: ‘Mr Cameron is certainly speaking for his own political advantage – but he’s only able to do that because it’s a fair and responsible thing to say.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Clunky Conservative machine still causing unnecessary problems

From our UK edition

There is considerable frustration in the Tory ranks about the way the Prime Minister is handling the TV debates. Both those who think David Cameron should be doing the debates and those who think he should be doing everything in his power to avoid them are frustrated that the issue is beginning to take up the time that the Tories should be using to talk endlessly about the economy. They point out that they’ve been told not to talk about immigration or Europe - or indeed the NHS, if they fancy it - and focus relentlessly on the economy but are ending up having to contort themselves into strange positions that involve them talking about the value of the Green party or the importance of the SNP in order to defend their leader's reluctance to sign up to the debates.

James Walton

Channel 4’s Cyberbully: an unashamedly old-fashioned drama in being both well made and moral

From our UK edition

Channel 4’s Cyberbully (Thursday), written by Ben Chanan and David Lobatto, turned out to be a brilliantly gripping drama, even if the average middle-aged viewer might have found the early scenes as baffling as Finnegans Wake. Teenage Casey Jacobs (Maisie Williams) was alone in her bedroom, although not in the way we used to be: with an LP playing and the latest NME to hand. Instead, she was skyping her friend Megan (‘Hey, bitch,’ they greeted each other cheerfully), while also tweeting, texting, instagramming and wondering who’d hacked into her Spotify playlist and replaced all the good stuff with dreary old Led Zeppelin. But then she saw a tweet from her ex-boyfriend Nathan: ‘I’m not surprised Casey Jacobs is on anti-depressants.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

The debate about TV debates dominated today’s PMQs

From our UK edition

PMQs today was dominated by the debate about debates. After a few statesmanlike questions about the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks, Miliband started to needle Cameron about his reluctance to take part in TV debates while Labour MPs made chicken noises. Cameron claimed that he was happy to take part in TV debates as long as the Greens were included and accused Labour of being ‘chicken when it comes to the Greens’; he seemed to back one 5-way debate and one head to head between him and Miliband. Downing Street believes this to be a perfectly defensible position but Cameron is taking a risk by setting it out so clearly because those running the Tory campaign would really prefer no debates at all.

Isabel Hardman

Sign up to TV debates or we’ll go ahead without you, leaders warn Cameron

From our UK edition

Labour, the Lib Dems and Ukip are having quite a bit of fun with their identical letters from their respective leaders demanding that David Cameron take part in the TV debates - or risk having something done to him that is even worse than a noun being turned into a verb (the latest threat is that he will be ‘empty-podiumed’, which sounds considerably more unpleasant than being ‘empty-chaired’ and possibly as bad as someone ‘weaponising’ something).

Sunday

James Forsyth

Why Cameron doesn’t want any TV debates

From our UK edition

Before Christmas, David Cameron tightened up the rules about ministers going overseas. He wanted them in this country campaigning as much as possible. But, unsurprisingly, his visit to President Obama in Washington this week hasn’t fallen foul of his edict. This trip to Washington is the source of much satisfaction at the heart of government. There are some serious issues on the agenda—the world economy and cybersecurity—but as one of those involved in preparing for it admits, ‘‘There’ll be some crunchy stuff, but it’ll be a very nice photo op, too!’.

Friday

James Walton

James Walton’s five favourite TV programmes of 2014

From our UK edition

1. Fargo, Channel 4 In a particularly strong year for thrillers (Line of Duty, The Missing and Homeland ­among them) this was for my money the best of the lot, with a fantastically sinister central performance from Billy Bob Thornton, and story-telling that remained entirely sure-footed throughout, no matter how weird the events became. 2. Detectorists, BBC4 When it comes to sitcoms, the words 'gentle' and 'idiosyncratic' are often euphemisms for 'not funny' - but not in the case of Mackenzie Crook’s affectionate and affecting story of two metal-detecting friends in small-town Britain. 3.

Tuesday

James Delingpole

Poor Farage was stitched up by Steph and Dom

From our UK edition

Steph and Dom are the posh-sounding, drunk couple from Gogglebox - the surprise hit programme where people are recorded sitting on sofas giving a running commentary on the TV shows they are watching. If they had been reviewing Steph And Dom Meet Nigel Farage, I like to think, they'd have been very rude. ‘What a right pair of slippery tossers,’ they would have yelled, chucking canapes at the incredibly bad mannered, disturbingly callous pair of smug hypocrites on the screen. ‘Leave the poor sod alone. He's supposed to be your guest.’ All right, so the poor sod can take it. He's Nigel Farage - taking it is what he does.

Thursday

James Delingpole

How to win MasterChef – and why salmon is the fish of the devil

From our UK edition

If ever my near-neighbour William Sitwell is killed in a bizarre shooting accident and I end up taking his place as one of the guest critics on MasterChef: the Professionals (not likely, I admit, but you never know), here are some tips for competitors who wish to avoid a stinking review. 1. Don’t serve me salmon. Salmon is the fish of the devil, which is why Satan coloured it that particularly vile shade of pink. It is evil because it is almost certainly farmed and therefore pumped full of antibiotics to destroy all the parasites with which it would otherwise be pullulating. If it’s not farmed, well, it still tastes of salmon, doesn’t it? 2. Don’t serve me anything cooked sous-vide. Yeah, maybe to you chefs it looks all cutting-edge and technical.