Lesley Riddoch

ScottishVotePod '07

Journalist and Broadcaster Lesley Riddoch is trying to put some life back into political hustings. As the first of a series of youscotland.com guest bloggers she explains why, and the story so far......

Four down – six to go. I’m fronting ten Votepod debates with voluntary groups across Scotland and a small posse of ex NCR and BBC friends. Believing in the power of public debate seems to be as last season as wearing a Dr Who scarf these days. But big, robust debates that use technology to get on itunes and YouTube are quite simply the future. And the first two votepod debates are proving it.

First up – they’re not meetings but events fronted by musicians. Well, why should you get a warm up act when you’re going to be entertained but nothing when you’re going to be proselytised? The highlights are podcast on itunes – why should you have to be in a hall to hear what’s gone on there? And videocast – why should full formal outside broadcasts be the only way political events are ever seen? Some of the events are using votepads – why should you only vote in polling booths?

All are held in bigger venues than originally planned – why should anyone want to spend an evening in a draughty church hall (no offence to churches.) And all are the product of voluntary orgs reaching beyond their own groups to break down the silos that bedevil the Third Sector – about time too. Some will have non politicians! on the panel – if Question Time can do it why shouldn’t election hustings lineups vary the mix too? The facilitator (myself) is in the audience – why add another heavyweight to the platform when the audience need a “champion” to operate effectively? And all have had months of preparation and co-ordination with halls, equipment hire, politicians, volunteers and our newspaper sponsors the Herald.In short, although these debates may look kinda normal, they kinda aren’t.

We’ve been backed by the Big Lottery Fund, BT and Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust to see if “tricks” of the entertainment trade can help restore the vitality of political public meetings. My own experience suggests people are fed up with un-entertaining events – not with politics. And until all concerned have pulled out all the stops to transform meetings from the gloomy Victorian “sage on the stage” efforts we currently call political dialogue, I don’t think anyone can dare write off the public as apathetic. Have a look and listen to the highlights so far and make your own minds up. What we’re finding is that making meetings work is enormously time consuming because it involves contact with lots of people – many of whom are volunteers themselves. Audio (as ever) delivers far better understanding and content. Video is great for small “sound-bite” moments. Anything longer takes too long to edit or contains too many distractions.

And some candidates are finding the issue focus tough. Labour’s Sylvia Jackson and Sarah Boyack for example are strong, capable Labour MSPs. But both were sent into specialist debates where they were the local candidates – not the specialists. In the face of cross questioning from an expert audience of pensioners and students respectively, and well briefed specialist opposition MSPs (not generally local candidates) they’ve come unstuck. It can make a great spectacle as Labour candidates are shown to have big gaps in their knowledge of the issue in hand. But it isn’t actually fair to those MSPs or to Labour.

The irony is that one man bands like Tommy Sheridan are like walking Wikipedias because they have to be. There is no-one else to fall back on. Labour MPSs are numerous enough that they can rely for briefing from someone else before they "do battle". And just as that strategy falls apart at exams – if only Coles Notes could sit in the exam room – so it can fall apart on hustings platforms. But most voters listening to Tommy Sheridan – Solidarity’s persuasive front of house – will not have the opportunity to vote for him. They’ll be voting for much less experienced, articulate performers delivered by the charisma of their leader. Is that fair? Are hustings fair? Maybe the beauty of them is they’re not.

In the controlled world that is political debate 2007, a haphazard and un-level playing field is a Godsend. So if you want to come … don’t just sit there.

Book tickets scottishvotepods@yahoo.co.uk

listen to what you’ve missed on www.scottishvotepods.com or at this Herald site

Where to find Votepod 07 meetings

Comments

[Ugh]

I know it's going to seem very wide of the point, but would you mind terribly just saying 'first' instead of 'first up'. Cooltalk just doesn't work for me. I'm sad, I know, but there it is. Er - rock on?

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