STILL almost three weeks left to the British general election and already the campaign feels as if it's been going on forever. That's bad enough news for British viewers, but with all the signs indicating that as soon as the Blairs settle down to their first breakfast in Downing Street, the Irish election campaign will be underway, television viewers here can look forward to almost two more months of obfuscation, bluster and blather.
With the British channels now up to full speed with their coverage, the BBC leads the way as usual, with a longer Nine O'Clock News every night, and a range of debate and interview programmes. Spearheading the current affairs coverage is David Dimbleby, who hosts the special election editions of Panorama and Question Time. Each week on Panorama, he goes one on one with a party leader (last week Tony Blair was made to look more than a little shifty by Dimbleby's insistent questioning).
Election Question Time gives an invited audience from around Britain the opportunity to question the party leaders. Meanwhile, David's brother Jonathan conducts the one on one interviews over on ITV at lunchtime on Sundays, although it's hard to believe that anyone apart from politicians and journalists watches these Sunday lunchtime programmes. How many viewers, for example, are likely to forsake tomorrow's FA Cup semifinal in favour of Paddy Ashdown in conversation with Dimbleby.
Following a format similar to the Question Time specials is the five part ITV 500: The People's Election, which starts on Monday evening. Four of these debates will be broadcast from key marginal constituencies, each before an audience of 125 voters, while the final programme brings together all 500 voters in London to interrogate the party leaders - who will be filmed separately. That's as near as any of the channels get to an actual debate between the leaders.
Watching John Major and Tony Blair on television last week it was clear how much the Conservatives were the losers when plans for a TV debate collapsed. Taking questions on Sky News's phone in show, Major looked far more comfortable and confident than the Labour leader, who seems increasingly ill at ease now that victory is almost in sight.
More reflective and penetrating programming is promised by Channel 4, which tries to fulfil its minority remit with programmes like Voters Can't Be Choosers, giving frustrated voters the chance to question politicians on topics they feel are not being tackled. The subjects don't seem all that unfamiliar, though Europe, law and order and taxation are under discussion next Thursday. BBC 2's Vote Now, Pay Later, starting tomorrow night, promises to reveal what is really at stake in the election, away from politicians and spin doctors, with Peter Jay looking at the big issues facing the next British parliament. Not surprisingly, Northern Ireland doesn't figure very prominently in any of these programmes.
Meanwhile, we're stuck with endless circular debate on issues of very limited relevance to Irish viewers: the desperation of the channels to squeeze some drama out of what is essentially a one horse race is likely to become more and more pathetic as the campaign wears on towards its inevitable conclusion.
The real winner out of all this in the UK is Channel 5, whose 9 p.m. movie is attracting refugees from the BBC's extended news. Most Irish viewers don't have that option yet, subject as we are to the whims of Cablelink, which insists on foisting on us the pathetic NBC Super Channel instead.
Like the Eurovision, the best part of any election is, of course, the count. The traditional high point of the BBC's election coverage is the moment when the channel's latest high tech variation on Peter Snow's swingometer is unveiled. For the 1992 election, the buzz words were virtual reality, and the producers had Snow wandering rather aimlessly around a computer generated set. Perhaps this time they will dispense entirely with the physical, and digitise Snow himself.
THE swingometer is, of course, far too crude a device to register the complexities of the Irish voting system. While the British count is a brief and uncomplicated procession towards victory for the winning party, the day after polling day (and, as often as not, the next day as well) is one of the great national televised events in Ireland, a terrific piece of nail biting entertainment in which tally men and psephologists become heroes for a day. For pure, thrilling drama, a general election count is the best thing on Irish television - it's a pity, really, we can't have it every year.
