Yellow Belly Dave finds another excuse to bottle out of TV debates

Yellow Belly Cameron is still trying to bottle out of the televised leaders' debates by demanding the TV companies invite more party leaders to take part.

Cameron's first excuse for bottling it was that the Greens weren't invited. He said that you can't invite some "minor parties" like UKIP and the Lib Dems (two of the four parties that OFCOM have ruled are major parties) and not others and he wouldn't take part because it wasn't fair.

So the TV companies hedged their bets and invited not only the Green Party but the SNP and Plaid Cymru as well to the first two debates which made a slightly farcical 7 parties involved in the TV debates, two of which only contest elections in Scotland and Wales. Now he's demanding that the DUP be invited to represent Northern Ireland because it's not fair that Scotland and Wales will be represented in the debates but not Northern Ireland.

He's got a point about it being unfair but the answer isn't to drag an eighth party in to make sure Northern Ireland is represented, the answer is to include only the parties that have a chance of winning a seat in the British parliament and are contesting elections in at least three of the member states of the UK. There is already a separate Scottish leaders' debate planned so do the same for Wales and Northern Ireland with the parties that have a chance of winning seats there and then there's no need for the UK leaders' debate to descend into farce.

Cameron isn't interested in what's "fair", he doesn't want the debates to take place. If he has no way of squirming out of taking part he wants to get as many parties into the first two debates as possible so hardly anyone gets a chance to say anything and half of what is said is irrelevant because of devolution. He wants the SNP and Plaid and the Greens involved to saturate the left wing representation on the debates. The DUP will make no difference to any of the other parties because Northern Irish politics is so completely alien to English, Scottish and Welsh politics and only UKIP contest elections in Northern Ireland (the NI and Scottish Green Parties are separate parties to the Green Party of England & Wales).

Demanding the DUP be involved is just Cameron making unreasonable demands on the TV companies so he can try and get out of the debates. The TV companies should go back to the original plan of just the four major parties (or the four major parties plus the Greens) and  empty chair Cameron if he doesn't turn up. If he wants an excuse not to take part then give him an excuse.