Let’s debate the issues away from toxic social media...

I AM all kinds of outraged this week. I have resisted the temptation to write about the general election in this column because it’s being adequately covered ad infinitum elsewhere by commentators much cleverer than I.

But enough’s enough.

The farce surrounding the television debates has made my blood boil.

The news that UKIP will be allowed to participate in a televised debate and the Green Party will not seems undemocratic to me.

UKIP are yesterday’s news.

They were almost completely wiped out in the council elections last week, losing 145 of 146 council seats.

They have no MPs, following the resignation of their only representative in Parliament, Douglas Carswell, who stood down after the Brexit vote.

And they have very little prospect of getting any. Even their leader, Paul Nuttall, lost a by-election.

They have run their sorry course, and it’s time to let them fade into the background or better still, disappear altogether.

So why are they still given the oxygen of publicity?

The Greens – who WON 40 seats in the local elections and do have an MP - are justifiably disgusted by the news that that UKIP’s leader, but not theirs, will feature in two prime time pre-election programmes.

It seems a strange decision, given that the party which seems to be on the rise is excluded, while the party which is on its way out, is allowed in.

Also, in what is fast becoming the most stage-managed election campaign in living memory, the Prime Minister has decided not to take part in any debates.

She will face the same Question Time audience as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn but not at the same time. They will appear consecutively, which seems to make a mockery of the whole idea.

Why won’t Mrs May take part in a head to head debate with the other party leaders?

Is this because she simply does not have the courage of her convictions?

Perhaps it’s time someone took a long, hard look at how televised debates are handled in the run up to an election.

They are essential, in my opinion – if they are proper debates.

I want to see the leaders and potential leaders of the country explaining themselves, taking criticism on the chin and putting their points across with passion.

I want to hear discussions about education, the welfare state, the health service, Brexit away from the toxic fakery and nasty nonsense of social media.

By shirking the debates, politicians don’t do themselves - or the public they believe they represent - any favours.