Our broadcasters should hold their nerve and “empty chair” the Prime Minister if he doesn’t want to take part in debates with other leaders before the election.

The TV stations don’t serve Downing Street – they exist to protect our interests. This once happened to Roy Hattersley on Have I Got News For You – his place on the panel was taken by a tub of lard. An empty pedestal would send the message this time.

We deserve the chance to see our leaders go head-to-head. The broadcasters’ plan was reasonable, giving us – the paying, voting public – the chance to see all seven major party leaders twice, with an extra discussion between the two men who could be Prime Minister come 8 May, David Cameron and Ed Miliband.

The debates would allow us to reach better-informed decisions about who we’re choosing to govern us. They would bring drama and spontaneity to stale, sanitised, stage-managed campaigning. Our democracy needs it.

This shameless obstruction – penned in the name of Downing Street’s Director of Communications, Craig Oliver – is an insult to our intelligence. Mr Cameron betrays his earlier enthusiasm for the debates, which he once described as “here to stay. They clearly engage people in politics which is what we need… They even happen in Mongolia for heaven’s sake and it’s part of the modern age that we should be in.”

The debates are not dead – if the broadcasters hold their nerve. The PM’s team simply calculated that it’s riskier for him to participate in them than to take flak for sabotaging them. No 10 is counting on the BBC lacking the cojones to proceed without him. This is a huge test for the director-general, Tony Hall. Prove them wrong, Auntie.