Ending the rowing over TV debates at election time: the case for an independent commission

Uproar soon ensued over who should be allowed to take part in the TV debates, with the smaller parties criticising their lack of representation on our screens. They—rightly—argued that televised leaders’ debates should fairly reflect the choices facing the electorate, rather than attempt to retrofit the diversity of political discourse into an outdated binary format which is no longer representative of our fragmented party system and fading electoral loyalties.