2015 Election and the Leaders Debates

But they can address that by just showing the debate on UTV. Viewers in England don't need to hear the opinions of the Northern Irish parties because they're not standing for election in England.

For what it's worth, I think the last UTV production on the network was Emerald Shoes, a documentary about Irish dancing, in 1999. Unless YOU can suggest otherwise...

There is a Last Leg special on the night.

The problem with alternative election programmes is that the people who are interested in them are the same people who actually want to watch the proper election programmes. I watched the Election Night Armistice in 1997 and, as you can see on YouTube, over the first few minutes they overlay the headlines that there's going to be a landslide and the biggest swing ever, and that totally distracted me and upstaged the whole show. Similarly the biggest laugh in the whole evening came not from anything the Armistice team did but from the newsflash that Portillo had lost its seat. So in the end you just felt a bit disconnected from the news and the proper shows provided all the entertainment and excitement you need.

Last time out I recorded the C4 night and watched it after the event because on the night I just want the results. It's a bit different now with second screens and Twitter and all that allowing you to keep up to date but it's a tough balance to strike because there's not really much of an ostensible "alternative" you can offer on election night because the news is constantly breaking and the results are the results.

It's also a bit of a shame that all the alternative coverage is during interesting elections and during boring elections, like 2001, when it might have been worth doing, nobody bothered.

I think that's a particularly narrow view - particularly now we are looking to another potential coalition.

Whilst I may not be able to elect an MP from the UUP, DUP, Sinn Fein, Alliance etc. if they are in power they can still be part of a coalition I may have voted for part of, or not voted for at all. I'm interested in their policies as if they DO form a coalition, they may have some sway as a result.

I think if Plaid and the SNP both got national representation on UK-wide debates, even though they are only standing in Wales and Scotland, I think it is right that the Northern Irish parties get national exposure too.

Once again there is a very BIG difference: Northern Ireland has no UK parties starting in NI, Personnel i think that debate should never been shown in NI in the first place. I fully understand why there should be included but this local debate make far more since.

Why? One of those on the GB debates are ultimately going to be their prime minister, even if they can't vote for them.

Your just answered your own question, there cant vote for those people. Its true one of them will be PM but its up to the parties to decided that..

So you think that residents in Northern Ireland shouldn't watch a debate featuring their future prime minister?

It may be interesting for constitutional reasons, but it's certainly not something that affects how viewers outside Northern Ireland can vote, especially as the debate is produced for a Northern Irish audience and the emphasis, rightly, will be on what the parties can do for Northern Ireland. What happens in terms of their influence on the government can be discussed on news programmes. And of course Sinn Fein will definitely have no role to play at Westminster.

It's not especially my view they shouldn't show it, but I wonder why ITV are showing it because they're certainly not obliged to show it. The BBC aren't networking their Northern Ireland debate because anything of relevance to the wider British public can be featured on news programmes.

One interesting thing is that despite this debate being networked on ITV and STV, UTV has decided not to show it in the Republic even though one of the party leaders is a member of the Irish Parliament and therefore it's possibly as relevant to us as it is to viewers in GB. We get Endevour instead.

Are we sure its getting networked?

It's in the Radio Times and on the EPG, so I am sure, yes.

Its not getting networked. UTV have it at 8pm. ITV are showing it at 22.40pm. STV are not showing it......