The damage has been done

Interesting take from Robert McNeil at the Caledonian Mercury on last night’s Prime Ministers/Leaders debate and the damage to democracy that excluding the SNP has done.

However, having said it all, let me add that I’m not joining in the tantrums about it. There was no other way, if current constitutional arrangements were to be reflected fairly. It wouldn’t have been fair to inflict Scottish and Welsh issues about every question onto an English audience. That never made sense

On the other hand, it wasn’t fair to a Scottish audience to have the three main British party leaders presented as the only choice. In fact, it was democratically damaging. True, later debates here, in which the SNP will be allowed to speak (and be ganged up on at every question by the other three), might rectify things. But the damage has been done.

The same applies to Wales and Plaid Cymru, but i doubt you’d hear it from anyone in the Welsh Media, particularly in a part of the world that struggles to engage people with politics, last night was a opportunity lost

The question for Plaid Cymru and the SNP is will they gain anything from it.Any source