ITV debate 4th June – a shambles

Forgetting for one moment that the UK is a multi-party democracy and in the run-up to an election all parties should be treated equally and therefore conducting a debate between only two party leaders flies in the face of equality in democracy, the ITV-hosted debate on 4 June 2024 was a shambles.

Poorly moderated with two people who were constantly talking over each other desperate to get their attack lines into the other person made the whole show look like a desperate charade.

It was a predictable point scoring affair that when a participant was asked specifically ‘what they would do about ‘xyz’ subject’ they would start – and sometimes finish – with what the other person wouldn’t do… how is this meant to give the electorate confidence in these two people?!

Calling this show a debate might be the biggest farce of the entire experience. The shows formatting seemed to be a quick-fire Q&A, there was no debate in sight!

For anyone looking for serious discussion based on thoughtful considerations and evidence-led conclusions, this was not the show for you.

The ITV production had all of the editorial markings of a heavyweight title fight. A show title of surname vs surname, a quasi-stand off as the opening shot then what seemed to be a blow-for-blow format giving less than a minute for participants to respond to questions raised.  The host lost control almost immediately and struggled to get the debate back on track.

I can only assume that this was a ‘debate’ for people who don’t like debates. Who have the attention span of a goldfish and only want their political leaders to trot out soundbites and headlines without the full article.

I accept that ITV did allow other party leaders to participate in an interview after the main debate but again I assert that the formatting was woeful.

To top it all off, this debate was conducted in the late evening and the full political programming didn’t finish until close to midnight. How ITV think that this helps people to engage in democracy is beyond me. This debate should have happened at a reasonable time where people of all ages could engage and listen to the people that could end up running the country.

Our media has an obligation to improve political and democratic discourse in this country. A task that ITV failed miserably on 4 June 2024.