What a total waste of time---the debate in Kumeu?

If you were in attendance last night at the much vuanted 'debate' between the candidates, you could have been forgiven if you yawnws your way through it. The rules for the audiecne and particiapnts were pathetic. No cheering was allowed fomr the audicne, no mentioning of other parties' policies or 'persons' was allowed and generally one had to sit on his o her hands.The loudest and possibly only 'allowable' cheer came at the end whne the moderator received applause for calling the evening to an end. Yes, the audience was relieved to have it finish, such was the level of boredom. What one earth was the point of the evening; such was the 'contolr' as to take away all that most of us love about these evenings. They are ususally ones full of spirit and a great deal of one-up-manship, calling out, generally bad behvaiour and plain old good fun. Hey, lets face it, the winner in the election is going to be subjected to a hell of a lot more than good manners in the parliamentary chamber, so they should have had some practice last night! I hope that the meeting last night did not set some sort of precedent for the meetings coming up around the country, because if it does, expect lots of empty halls. OK, get real moderators and candidates. We want to hear from the real you about your 'promises' and predictions. We want audniece interractions, right upto the point of ejection, something just short of violnce but certianly robust. Yeah, we want entertainment along with the real 'you.' ow are we going to make up our monds of we do not witness you acting under 'stress?' Sure, chuck out the more extreme in the audience who insist on stopping porcedings, but have that tip point at a pretty high level. Sure, make sure that any one candidate does not 'hog' the floor but let's see how the others react when that does happen. New Zealand has a long history of 'energetic' political meetings and long may the continue. If we are going to be dragged away from the TV or computer screens, then we will need a damned good reason! Last night did not provide that!