Two Tribes
Did Alliance's Naomi Long produce tonight's UTV debate between the four main party leaders? I only ask because at lunchtime she put out a statement condemning "tribal politics", then tonight the debate went on air to the strains of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "When Two Tribes Go To War".
So how did the "Two Tribes" do? Gerry Adams looked more relaxed than Margaret Ritchie, who needs to learn not to read her opening statements. Gerry Adams thought the big unanswered question was why the SDLP's Thomas Burns went to Afghanistan, but others may think his less than informative answers about the IRA beg more questions. Undoubtedly the SDLP's low attendance figures have somewhat blunted their assault on Sinn Fein's abstentionism.
Peter Robinson managed to counter Sir Reg Empey's talk of being part of a future government by suggesting he would be merely lobby fodder for David Cameron. But Reg kept chipping away at scandal and land deals, and although the DUP leader answered him point by point he must nevertheless be annoyed that so much of the programme was taken up by his personal affairs.
Right now Jim Allister is pronouncing it "rather boring". Certainly the difference between our local debate and those across the water is the absence of public feedback - by which I don't mean the studio audience, but the phone polls and on screen "worms" that have given an instant idea of what the voters make of what the leaders are saying. Of course this requires technology and resources, but it's part and parcel of making an election debate a campaign changing event rather than just another TV programme.
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