Standard of debate / dirty tactics

Dirk Gently

Does anyone think the standard of political debate is acceptable during the election campaign? Granted there is not a whole lot of difference between LAB + FG and FF + PD but I feel genuinely sick at the sorry state of debate each time I turn on the T.V.

Prime time tonight, as per usual had only one good thing going for it, (Miriam o Callahan is a MILF.) Perhaps the chair in such debates should be allowed to mace / pepper spray / administer electric shocks to politicians who refuse to answer questions when asked and who constantly interrupt opponents while it's their turn to dodge questions and revert to their script. "Minister will you stop talking" didn't seem to work tonight. Watching Irish politicians allegedly debate issues reminds me of school children more interested in having a slagging match rather than attending class, or a drunken argument between a liverpool and man utd fan over "who is teh bestest evar". O Callaghan certainly looked like a school teacher trying to control an unruly class tonight.

Another thing which I find unacceptable is the emphasis on negative campaigning. At first I thought FG had the lowest campaign strategy but the PD's attacks on the greens and their attention grabbing antics recently put them in the lead, although the two parties now seem to be accusing each other of leaking information so it's still up for grabs.

Is this lack of proper debate and low standard a direct consequence of the two proposed coalitions not having any real ideological difference, thus making it necessary to campaign based on how bad the other lot are and not how different your own government would be?

SeanW

If you want low-blow debate, you should see www.rainbowsplits.ie which is a PD website http://www.whois-search.com/whois/rainbowsplits.ie , it headlines a bad Photoshopping of Enda K and Pat Rabbitte as Laurel and Hardy, using a flawed, selective group of quotes to show the alternative as completely incoherent and comical.

But the only thing incoherent and comical is that website, and its owner.

Chakar

Prime Time wasn't on tonight.

Dirk Gently

yeah, seen that site already. It looks like it was put together by a very young, very drunk member of the PD's as part of his transition year "design a basic website" school project. Between that and their attack on the greens, their transparent attempt to look like they care about beties dodgy dealings and their "don't throw it all away" scaremongering I think they might have some job offers from Fox news or the Sun newspaper after the election.

Dirk Gently

Chakar wrote:

Prime Time wasn't on tonight.

Did bertie tell you that.

Villain

Prime Time was on tonight, FF, Greens, FG and the PD's were represented by Dermot Ahern, Eamonn Ryan, Fergus O'Dowd and Tom Morrissey.

It was a special on Bertie's money, O'Dowd and Ahern were talking over each other a lot nothing new really, Morrissey said the PD's trusted Bertie and Bertie would make a statement this week, he aslo said McDowell and Bertie had spoke.

InFront

Election 07 special in PT format with PT Host, if chakar wants to be pedantic.

Clownbag I think you're right about the standard of debating, but a lot of it is to do with the current, uncertain, frantic political climate where everyone is jostling and jockeying for position. They can't help it, but yes it does make bad TV viewing.

Chakar

irish1 wrote:

Prime Time was on tonight, FF, Greens, FG and the PD's were represented by Dermot Ahern, Eamonn Ryan, Fergus O'Dowd and Tom Morrissey.

It was a special on Bertie's money, O'Dowd and Ahern were talking over each other a lot nothing new really, Morrissey said the PD's trusted Bertie and Bertie would make a statement this week, he aslo said McDowell and Bertie had spoke.

Really, it didn't appear in the TV listings.

Villain

Well I watched it so it was on, it was a special so I suppose it depends on how old those listing you saw were.

stepbar

clown bag wrote:

Did bertie tell you that.

He probably told him is "might" be on, but couldnt be sure....

Villain

stepbar wrote:

He probably told him is "might" be on, but couldnt be sure....

No he told him it was a "emmm Stamp Duty emm thing"

Chakar

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/pdf/a4_tv_20070507.pdf

This is the latest TV listing produced for today by the Irish Times. It's not there, they must have changed the schedule before it came out.

nicelives

Chakar wrote:

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/pdf/a4_tv_20070507.pdf

This is the latest TV listing produced for today by the Irish Times. It's not there, they must have changed the schedule before it came out.

They were announcing it during the day for anyone who was keeping up to date with election bulletins on either of the RTE tv channels. Replacing 5 Star at 8.30.

Chakar

nicelives wrote:

They were announcing it during the day for anyone who was keeping up to date with election bulletins on either of the RTE tv channels. Replacing 5 Star at 8.30.

That's so annoying. I would've watched it. Ah well I probably didn't miss anything really. The most important election programmes, will be the RTE election debates really.

nicelives

Chakar wrote:

That's so annoying. I would've watched it. Ah well I probably didn't miss anything really. The most important election programmes, will be the RTE election debates really.

You didn't miss much, mainly laying out the story so far on the finaces Bertie hasn't yet made a statement about, ended with Dermot Aherne going nuts with Fine Gael saying they had miscalculated overseas aid by a certain amount and having trouble making a point, it ended with Fergus O'Dowd and Eamon Ryan laughing at Dermot's gefuffle as the credits rolled.

LostinBlanch

Well I missed it, but I think that what passes for political debate in this country is a shambles with (mainly government) politicians talking over other people and repeating the same mantra over and over instead of answering questions.

I don't know who does their media training (didn't it used to be Carr Communications?) But it is painful to watch. I think that if someone like Miriam O'Callaghan had an button to zap them, you'd have a lot more people watching!

doonothing

fine gael lost a lot of the little respect i had for them with this...
http://www.finegael.ie//page.cfm/area/information/page/PDs/pkey/1099
childish, petty tactics.

The standard of debate earlier in this thread isn't up to much,I'll tell ye that.
Pots and kettles.
Grow up folks and quit the jibing or I'll be helping ye to quit it-at least here anyway.
Now back on topic please.

patsyh

Pretty funny showing the clips of Cowen, Noel Ahern and Micheal Martin continously saying "selective leaking" and "sabotage"