The debate about the debates came to today’s PMQs. After David Cameron’s self-interested declaration that he won’t participate unless the Greens are included, Ed Miliband wryly reminded him of what “a party leader” said in 2010: “It would have been feeble to find some excuse to back out. So I thought we’ve got to stick at this. We’ve got to do it.” Cameron replied by merely restating his original position: “You cannot have two minor parties [the Lib Dems and Ukip] without the third minor party” (a line that prompted a cry of pain from Nick Clegg). He added: “So I put the question to him, why is he so frightened of debating the Green Party?”
It was, as Miliband later said, “a pathetic excuse”. But it was enough for Cameron to make it through the session without humiliation. To the PM’s charge that he was “chicken” when it comes to the Greens, Miliband reasonably replied that it was up to the broadcasters who they invite. But this sidestep, avoiding the direct question of whether he thinks the Greens should be included, allowed Cameron to score some points.
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