Salmond & Blair To Go Head to Head

In a responce to Tony Blairs Challenge, Alex Salmond has agreed to have a head to head debate with him on the future of Scotland.

This should be interesting to watch if this is televised nation wide. This debte should be without censorship. No scripts should be allowed.

Can just see Alex's Headbutteing Tony .

SNP leader Alex Salmond has challenged the prime minister to a debate about the future of Scotland.

Mr Blair said he wanted to go "head to head" with the SNP on independence and the future of Scotland in the run up to the 2007 Holyrood elections.

Link

mod edit:

ABOUT ATS: General ATS discussion etiquette (review link)
4) Most of all, do not use ALL CAPS in posts and thread titles.

[edit on 2-9-2006 by UK Wizard]

Now this is interesting.

I'd pay good money to watch this one.

I just hope they are both up for it and Salmond in particular is on good form because otherwise it will just annoy and disappoint.

Once you put aside the bias and all the idiotic digs and guff most British politics-watchers know Blair is a really mean-debater - one of, if not the, best in Britain today - particularly when it comes to going off-script and just letting genuine belief and passion rip.

It should be good stuff.

Wonder who out of the both of them will win though, Both guys are great debators, It is gonna be interesting to say the least.

Mmy money is on Salmond.

Would be better though, if they had the leader from each Political Party to engage in the debate also.

(On another note apologises about the Caps onthe title of the thread, Im still learning about posting).

The only thing that would maybe begin to worry me about this kind of stuff is if they were to head down the path of the present US version of a political head 2 head 'debate'.

If they were to do that all interest would instantly evaporate cos I don't think there would be many expecting any genuine debate at all, merely prepared short speeches at each other = bore and turn-off of the century.

Here's hoping they contrive to swerve well away from that pointless tedium.

Have they not done this sort of thing before here in the UK or is this something new? Was there not a debate a while back with the leaders of the main 3 Political Parties in the UK going head to head?

And agrees with you sminkey, if it is to be head to head it should ne be scripted US Style, Ordinry people like you and me or others should have the chance to ask them questions. And the questions should not be cencorsed incase it embarasses either political figure.

But if it does go ahead will be interesting.

Originally posted by spencerjohnstone
Have they not done this sort of thing before here in the UK or is this something new? Was there not a debate a while back with the leaders of the main 3 Political Parties in the UK going head to head?

- If it happens it'll be new, I can't recall anything like it before.

We usually have a few 'Question Time' type shows on the Beeb, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky where the various leaders take turns being questioned by either the public or an invited panel (usually, if not always so far, with each show devoted to each leader) but I'm pretty sure there hasn't been direct debate with each other before.

This topic and the calls for this to happen comes up at every general election.

The leaders of the opposition parties always all want a direct head to head and the leader of the governing party always says no (because they do not wish to be seen as on a straight 'par' with the contenders for the top job. All party leaders of whatever 'colour' have done it and I expect them to continue to at general election time......this may well be very different given the different elections involved re Scottish devolution etc etc.

And agrees with you sminkey, if it is to be head to head it should ne be scripted US Style

- Totally.
No scripts, no advance notice and no ear-pieces!

That's 'the British way' of how to do these things and 'we' should make sure it stays that way.

Ordinry people like you and me or others should have the chance to ask them questions.

- Precisely (the recent innovation of the QT chairperson asking questions that have been written by viewers has been welcome).

This helps combat the unfortunate truth of the supposed 'public' audience.

I can assure you that the audiences in things like Qustion Time are rarely wholly randomly invited/applying 'ordinary'' members of the public, some are of course but many are not quite so 'ordinary' at all.

They have to get the numbers from somewhere and if you are involved and/or follow politics enough to know people politically active in some areas of the country you will soon start to recognise - when the show is coming from a particular area you know - that those 'ordinary members of the public' are often nothing of the sort and that there is a noticeably significant % of active party workers and their foot-slogging supporters (from all the main parties) etc in the audience.

This is why some weeks the audience seem especially partisan in one direction and on other weeks it's another.
If one party has been especially adept at managing it's invites the audience can appear more partisan than at other times.

It's something most people watching instinctively realise and it's certainly something the Beeb try and avoid (I think they check for repeating names and addresses, that kind of thing) but when you have a political show and you're inviting politically motivated people to apply it is kind of inevitable to some degree - but you'd be daft to attempt to gauge the so-called 'public mood' from the 'public' on that kind of show.

And the questions should not be cencorsed incase it embarasses either political figure.

- Quite right; understandable tho it may be in places (security etc) the reflex shielding of the leading public figures from the public should be resisted as much as possible.

I rate the BBC's 'Question Time' show as quite good on this, they refuse to give any of the politicians appearing on it any advance notice at all (and credit to them they manage to attract almost all but the individual party leaders and the Chancellor - who IIRC don't ever appear because of an agreed convention - to it).

But if it does go ahead will be interesting.

- Here's hoping!


[edit on 3-9-2006 by sminkeypinkey]

Alex with whoop Tony's butt.

Which is a good thing, however, as long as labour keep handing out benefits to all the layabouts we'll never see they SNP voted in

Damn people, too interested in their own pocket and being lazy, stopping Scotland from being the independent country it should have been if it wasn't for nobles being greedy traitors to their country all those years ago.

Fairweel to a' ou Scottish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory;
Fareweel e'en to the Scottish name,
Sae famed in martial story.
Now Sark runs o'er the Solway sands,
And Tweed runs to the ocean
To mark where England's province stands
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.

What force or guile could not subdue
Through many warlike ages
Is wrought now by a coward few
For hireling trators' wages.
The English steel we could disdain,
Secure in valor's station,
But English gold has been our bane
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.

O would, or I had seen the day
That treason thus could sell us
My auld grey head had lain in clay
Wi' Bruce an' loyal Wallace.
But pith and power, till my last hour
I'll make this declaration,
we're bought and sold for English gold
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.

just after Salmod said independence for Scotland isn't popular, he now wants to "fight to the death" with Blair on TV regarding Scotlands future you must admit, Salmond has tried soo hard to be the Scottish version of Gerry Adams and failed so badly.

Alex with whoop Tony's butt.

Which is a good thing, however, as long as labour keep handing out benefits to all the layabouts we'll never see they SNP voted in

Yeah Alex Salmond would wipe the floor with him agrees

Always has made me wonder, what would happen if say the SNP gotmost of the votes, how would that go down south?

Would the Wwestminster Gov, withhold the payments they make to the running of the S/P and Scotland?, or would there be a civil war?

Doubtfull the civil war would happen anyways.

Salmond has tried soo hard to be the Scottish version of Gerry Adams and failed so badly.

That is so true makes me laff actually. Could you imagine Salmond in N/Ireland at the head of Sin feinn. Jesus noooooo