Debates Come to the United Kingdom: A Functional Analysis of the 2010 British Prime Minister Election Debates

The year 2010 ushered in the first ever televised leaders' debates for the Prime Minister of Britain. Incumbent Gordon Brown (Labor), David Cameron (Conservative) and Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat) participated in three debates in the run up to the May elections. Millions of voters watched these debates. These messages merit scholarly attention as the first ever debates in this country. This study applies the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse to investigate the functions (acclaims, attacks, and defenses), topics (policy and character, along with the 3 forms of each topic), and target of attack. Acclaims were the most common function and defenses the least common; policy was discussed more often than character. The 2 front-runners (Brown and Cameron) were the targets of more attacks than the trailing candidate (Clegg). Brown, the incumbent, acclaimed more, and attacked less, than the two challengers.