YouTube and Facebook take on leaders in Digital Debate

YouTube and Facebook users have weighed in on upcoming general election, with some 180,000 users voting for which questions were to be asked in the UK's first Digital Debate.

Over 5,300 questions were submitted by YouTube and Facebook users and, in the end, the 10 most popular questions were used.

Digital economy questions

As these questions were answered before the Thick Of It style Brown / bigot shenanigans of this week, there were no apologising from Gordon Brown, but he did sound off on banking, mephedrone and interestingly had this to say about the Digital Economy Bill: "I think there's got to be a lot more debate about the digital policies of the future."

Which does sound like the Bill is not yet set in stone.

The questions were definitely aimed at a more youthful audience, with the problems of methedrone highlighted. Liberal Democrats' leader Nick Clegg said about methedrone that these things should be looked at "on an entirely independent statutory basis so that experts once again lead this debate, not populism, not scaremongering."

Web video

It may not be as scintillating as watching the leaders sweat under hot studio lights in HD, but the web videos do show the politicians in a different light.

Well, David Cameron and Clegg were tie-less and – Shock! Horror! – Cameron decided to answer his questions outside.

Brown chose the safe environment of a school where there was presumably nobody named Duffy on the register.

Unfortunately, some of the questions which didn't make the list were: "What's your favourite type of Pokemon?" and "Where are the jobs. Where are they?" Also "what is your favourite food?"

To see for yourself what went on in the digital debates, log on to www.youtube.com/ukelection and facebook.com/democracyuk.