Why's Gordo Agreed to Televised Debates?

So, it appears we will be having TV debates between the party leaders at the next General Election. Although there is potentially a lot of time between now and then, and therefore don't be too surprised if Browns bottles the TV debates. After all, he has a lot of history of ducking any sort of a contest that might make him look bad.

But this announcement does beg the question of what Brown is thinking by agreeing to the debates. I reckon it could be one of two things - either he is desperate, or he is going to play the expectations game like a madman.

The latter option would the logical one. After all, Bush Junior played the expectation game superbly in the lead up to his first debate with Al Gore. Team Bush played down expectations so much that all Bush Junior had to do in order not to lose was avoid defecating on his podium. Brown could do the same. He could send out his evil flying monkeys to spread the word amongst the media that Brown is terrified of debating Cameron and almost certain to lose the debates. Given Brown has showed himself to be utterly incapable week after week at Prime Minister's Questions, this idea could gain some traction. And then all Brown would have to in the debate would be not to burst into tears and start sucking his thumb in order to be perceived to have done well.

Of course, downplaying expectations involves telling people in the media, and therefore in the country, that Gordon Brown isn't great at something. And that would dent the stupid man's ego. So whilst playing the expectation game is the logical thing for Brown and his posse to do, I suspect that the brittle arrogance of the Prime Minister will prevent them from actually doing it.

So it is the former. I suspect what Team Brown are doing is surrendering to desperation. Quite simply, the logic behind their agreement is that they now have nothing to lose. Labour seems to have bottomed out in the polls. They've reached their current base level of support. If Brown does badly, it isn't going to dent the limited support they have left. If he does well, he might gain a few points in the opinion polls and minimise the electoral defeat facing the Labour party at the General Election. Blair didn't agree to debate because he was in a position of strength - and there was always the risk that if he did debate, then he could lose popularity. However, Brown has been such a colossal failure as Prime Minister that he has reached a point where he cannot get any more unpopular, realistically. He's doing the debate because it can't make things any worse for him. He literally has nothing to lose, even if he attends the debates and does nothing other than mutter and look sulky.

Oh, if the SNP are going to get all pissy about not been included in the debates, then I think it is an outrage that the leader of the Libertarian Party hasn't been invited to participate either. Not just because all parties deserve a say, but also because I think it would be hilarious to have the Devil himself in a room with Gordon Brown, David Cameron and that fella what runs the Lib Dems...