Whilst Labour has subsequently questioned why Johnson refused to participate in said discussion.
But has the mainstream broadcast media been guilty of favouring either Labour or the Conservatives in the run-up to December’s general election?
And are live debates really beneficial to the general public?
We spoke with political commentator Bob Lister to get his views on the matter.
Sputnik: Has the mainstream broadcast media in the UK been biased towards either Labour or the Conservatives in the run-up to December’s general election?
Bob Lister: Most definitely. Channel Four should have allowed Michael Gove to appear, he is the cabinet member who is responsible for the environment, and clearly he had more information at his fingertips than the rest.
Not many people watched the programme judging by the ratings, they found that listening to Sturgeon and Corbyn and Plaid Cymru talking about climate change, was a bit of a joke really, from the start Corbyn was talking about planting two billion trees, but it’s not in his manifesto and he’s not costed it and it would take somewhere the size of Wales or twenty-five times the size of Greater London to plant two billion trees, and could take something like seventy-five years and the cost would be enormous, so you can’t really take what Labour say seriously.
My own take on it, is that nobody seems to be pushing for the use of LED lighting, if everybody were given a grant to change from conventional lighting to LED lighting; we’d save a fortune, plus we’d use far less energy from the national grid, but nobody seems to think about these logical things which could be done very quickly and very easily.
I think the debate was pointless, and so few people watch Channel Four, I don’t blame Boris Johnson for not attending it. However, I would like Boris to be interviewed by Andrew Neil, I think that is something that he should attend, he does seem to be attending a number of interviews at the moment, but they are only short interviews with interviewers who are probably not as robust as Andrew Neil.
I think Boris Johnson should really be interviewed by Andrew Neil, who let’s face it; is really one of the leading figures in political interviewing at the moment, not biased but true and accurate, so why not?
Sputnik: Could the Conservatives win a large majority following the general election?
Bob Lister: The problem with declaring already that the Conservatives will win by a majority of sixty-eight, is that it will put some people off from voting Tory, and if they’ve got a Brexit Party or independent candidate in their constituency; they might think there’s nothing to lose if there’s such a large majority and vote for somebody else.
I think Dominic Cummings has taken a backseat now, and I think that he regrets whoever said that there will be a big swing to the Tories, but time will tell.
Sputnik: Would a Labour government be disastrous for the UK?
Bob Lister: Corbyn would be an absolute disaster. What people seem to forget is that it’s not just the rich who will suffer, but everybody will suffer, they will lose money from their pensions, they will lose money from their inheritance tax.
Nothing is costed from Corbyn. He’s coming up with ideas which are really very pie in the sky, and some people who may think they are goodwill suffer, but really it will benefit the view and be paid for by the majority.
