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Dugher attacks “weak” Cameron over plan to avoid TV debates

December 10, 2012 6:17 pm

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After David Cameron confirmed at a press lunch earlier today that he wasn’t keen to repeat the three TV debates format from the last General Election, Labour’s Vice Chair Michael Dugher has gone on the attack, saying:

“David Cameron is weak, out of touch and running scared of the public.

“At the next election, David Cameron should have to defend his decisions and his record – from a disastrous economic record to the fact that we now have fewer nurses in our NHS and fewer police officers fighting crime.

“The public will rightly want to see him and Ed Miliband questioned properly about what changes we need for the future of the country, including during the General Election campaign itself.

“Ed Miliband relishes the chance to debate with David Cameron. Cameron cannot be allowed to ditch the TV debates simply because he is too scared to defend his record.”

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  • robertcp

    This could be a very bad move by Cameron. Most voters will expect there to be debates in 2015.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=715486331 Alex Otley

    To be honest I didn’t much like the leaders debates. It’s more suited to a presidential system than a parliamentary one.

  • http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts

    The Guardian article linked to the story is peppered with phrases from the Prime Minister such as:

    “I am in favour of these debates” and “”I think TV debates are good. I enjoyed them last time”.

    Which is not what you would think he has said if you believed Dugher. There is no evidence from this article he is ‘running scared’ and neither is there evidence he is trying to “ditch the debates because he is too scared to defend his record.” All he has said is that he thinks the format could be looked at – which I suspect many people agree with as they did become a bit stale.

    In other words, Dugher is lying to the public to try to convince them the Prime Minister has said something he has not. Stuff like this does my head in. There is plenty of stuff to criticise Cameron for in an objective and truthful way. But the Party carries on making stuff up, twisting the truth and telling lies – it really annoys me and makes me question whether there is any integrity in the party at all.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=715486331 Alex Otley

      The integrity situation seems to be improving since Blair/Brown went.

      • http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts

        Don’t see any evidence for that, either.

    • robertcp

      Oh dear! Dugher was lying and Mark should be more careful.

  • JoeDM

    A sensible move by Cameron for once.

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