London:
When Prime Minister Gordon Brown was asked in a television interview last fall whether he would agree to televised debates in the 2010 general election - breaking a taboo that has lasted in Britain since the dawn of the television age - he vacillated.
As the interviewer, Adam Boulton of Sky News, badgered him - "When is the time for it? When? Where?" - Brown stormed off the set.
The scene underscored a battle then raging in the prime minister's inner circle on an issue many see as a potential Waterloo for Brown, who has a penchant for leaden, statistics-laden lectures that do not make for compelling television.
On Thursday evening, Brown and his two principal opponents - David Cameron of the Conservatives and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats - will meet in Manchester for the first of three televised debates on successive Thursday evenings before the May 6 vote. Both opponents are nearly a generation younger than the 59-year-old prime minister and widely judged to be more telegenic, as well as more nimble debaters.
Political pundits, not to mention the parties and their leaders, are hoping the debates will inject pizzazz into an election campaign, now a week into its 30-day run, that has so far failed to generate much public enthusiasm. One poll, published on Wednesday by Populus, showed 42 percent of the electorate "unconvinced" by any of the parties, 32 percent hoping for a "hung Parliament" in which no party gains a majority. In a week when all three parties published earnest but mostly turgid election manifestos, the latest polls showed a narrowing in the Conservatives' long-held lead over Labour.
For Brown, the uncertain public mood represents a change from the situation he faced when he finally agreed to the televised debates. The decision was made in the late fall, when Labour was trailing by 15 percentage points and more in many polls, and Brown's most influential political adviser, Peter Mandelson, argued that the debates provided a potential, and perhaps the only, game-changer.
The move goes against a cardinal rule in British politics dating to the televised Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the first face-to-face encounter of its kind. For decades, British politicians seeking to avoid debates have argued sniffily that Britain did not need the drama of a TV showdown.
"Personally, I believe that issues and policies decide elections, not personalities," Margaret Thatcher said in 1979, rejecting a debate with the Labour prime minister, James Callaghan. "We should stick to that approach."