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Ancient and modern

Today’s TV debates are pointless – here’s the real thing

Modern politicians only really engage with each other behind closed doors

28 February 2015

9:00 AM

28 February 2015

9:00 AM

Ancients would have been astonished that parties never debate against each other in open, public forum except on the telly before general elections — and even then they do their best to resist. The reason is that politicians understand ‘debate’ only in terms of internal parliamentary procedures where the outcomes are entirely predictable.

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