With Alex Salmond livid over his televised election debate snub, Political Editor Ian Swanson examines what all the fuss is about

ALEX Salmond is not happy. Voters are about to be treated to the first ever televised pre-election leaders' debates, but he will not be included.

Mr Salmond and his SNP colleagues have been making their dismay clear since plans for the three debates were announced just before Christmas, with the row set to explode again today after meetings in Edinburgh between Mr Salmond and BBC and ITV bosses.

If the situation is not resolved, the SNP could end up going to court.

Mr Salmond has claimed the broadcasters are endangering a free election by refusing to allow the Nationalists to take part and he even quoted the European Convention on Human Rights, prompting one newspaper to run the headline "It's everyone's human right to see me on TV" along with a picture of a determined Mr Salmond.

Under the plans, there are to be three debates, on ITV, Sky and BBC, expected to run weekly from 15 April. Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg will answer questions from voters and debate with each other, without Mr Salmond.

The arguments have been well rehearsed. The SNP says it is unacceptable that the party of government in Scotland should be excluded from debates which are broadcast here.

The other parties claim the debates are about choosing who will be Prime Minister and Mr Salmond is not in the running. The SNP respond that Nick Clegg is not, either.

At one point, Mr Salmond thought he had a deal with Sky that would allow him to cross-examine the other three leaders as part of the programme.

But that now seems likely to fall through and the SNP will be left with only the promise of airtime in news bulletins and programmes like Newsnight in which to comment on the debates.

There will, of course, be TV debates in Scotland between the leaders of the Scottish parties. But these are a well-established feature of Scottish election campaigns and no compensation for missing out on the main event.

It was never realistic to expect Mr Salmond, with just seven MPs, to be given equal billing with the other three leaders and the chance to broadcast into homes in every part of the UK.

But some compromise, allowing the SNP some input into the programmes, or a special "prime ministerial" debate for Scotland, should have been possible.

The Nationalists reasonably point out that the first of the debates, which focuses on domestic issues, will mean viewers in Scotland having to listen to discussion of education, health and justice policies which simply do not apply here because of devolution – a recipe for confusion.

But the SNP's exclusion aside, how important are these debates?

Up to ten million people are expected to watch, but a welter of detailed rules and restrictions threaten to quash any sign of spontaneity.

Clapping is out, booing is banned and heckling will not be allowed.

Questions will come from members of the studio audience and the wider public e-mailing in, but they will be selected in advance by a panel of journalists.

There will also be tight time limits for the politicians' answers, their responses to each other and general debate.

The leaders will also have spent endless hours in preparation before each debate, trying to anticipate every possible question and guard against any gaffes.

The spin doctors and image consultants have learned from the experience of televised debates in the United States.

The first televised presidential debate was held in Chicago in 1960 between the Democrats' John F Kennedy and Republican vice-president Richard Nixon.

Famously, those who listened on radio thought Nixon had won, while those who watched it on TV and saw the vice- president's haggard appearance – blamed on poor make-up and five o'clock shadow – gave the debate to Kennedy.

The eventual election result was very close and some claimed Kennedy's victory was at least in part due to the debate.

There were no televised debates in the next three American elections – 1964, 1968 or 1972 – but, in 1976, President Gerald Ford blundered during a televised clash with Democrat challenger Jimmy Carter when he claimed: "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." The polls swung to Carter, who went on to win the White House.

As an actor, Ronald Reagan was more comfortable in front of the camera than Carter when they clashed in 1980 and he pulled ahead after their TV debate.

But there have been few memorable moments in more recent presidential debates and the chances are that will be the case with the British debates, too.

Despite all the hype, anyone expecting to tune in for a feature-length Prime Minister's Question Time is going to be disappointed. The debates will look pretty tame compared with the weekly no-holds-barred exchanges between Messrs Brown and Cameron in the Commons.

The agreement to include Nick Clegg in the debates is a huge boost for the Liberal Democrats. Unless he messes up completely, he is guaranteed to gain simply from taking part. Just his presence on the stage sends a message to voters that they have a choice of three, not two.

That's why the SNP is so upset at being excluded. Mr Salmond's target of 20 MPs may be looking more and more ambitious as time goes on, but if Nationalists are to win a respectable number of seats, they have to have a profile. And that's what TV provides – even if everyone quickly gets bored.