WITH all the talk about TV election debates, one possibility has been missed. Forget the ins and outs of who should take part. Let’s turn this thing on its head. Instead of creating a platform, the politicians could be fitted into existing shows.

When looking for the perfect format into which to insert a politician, take careful note of the programme’s title. One unkind but common belief is that politicians are not always on first-name terms with the truth. With that in mind, here is an obvious choice: the fun BBC1 panel show, Would I Lie To You.

The political leaders could be teamed up with either the enjoyable snarky David Mitchell or the indefatigable punster Lee Mack. Then they could be made to recite a possible lie to the opposing team. I say ‘possible lie’, but these are politicians.

George Osborne could recite his old line about “We’re all in this together”, while David Cameron could dust off that old routine about how he was going to run the “greenest government ever”. It turned out that the greenest in the land were the voters who believed him.

As for Ed Miliband, he could pretend that he never ate that bacon sandwich. Incidentally, if you Google the Labour leader, the sandwich is the second most popular response raised by his name, which isn't encouraging.

Mr Miliband might struggle with the format of WILTY, as he seems, for all his faults, to be fairly honest. Indeed the biggest lie attached to him concerns all that malicious stuff the Daily Mail printed claiming that his father, the Marxist historian Ralph Miliband, hated Britain, all based on a throwaway phrase from his teenage diaries.

Anyway, WILTY is a likeable programme, so it would suffer from having a surfeit of politicians foisted on it. Sticking with the porkies theme, we could always adapt a title from that old improvisation comedy show. Yes, welcome to Whose Lie Is It Anyway?

Stepping away from that theme, we could borrow the format of a recent BBC1 drama. In this instance, The Missing refers not to a lost child but to the voters who go missing at election time. There are two classes of absent voters: those who are registered but do not feel inspired or involved enough to vote; and those who are not even registered.

Many young people are said not to be included on the electoral register, so they can’t vote. Perhaps they haven’t got round to it. Or maybe they have been influenced by one of Russell Brand’s high-profile flounces in which he tells people not to vote.

I do wish the comedian, writer or whatever he is would shut up about that. Voting might seem, to borrow another TV title, Pointless. But it’s all we’ve got and if more people voted, the two main political parties wouldn’t be able to spend all their time attempting to woo the meagre slice of vaguely enthusiastic voters who can swing an election for them.

Here’s another idea. How about the Great British Bake-Off? True, it doesn’t have much to do with politics, but judging our leaders on whether or not they can bake a cake might be as good a measure as any. Or perhaps they could be asked to bake a hand-raised pie, as there would be innuendo potential in that.

As for voters already left dazed, confused and cynical by the four-month election campaign, they could call on the title of an old BBC Radio 4 comedy favourite. If asked by pollsters who they intend to vote for, they could always say, I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue.

In a world where the very funny comedian Al Murray is going to stand in his Pub Landlord guise against the very unfunny Ukip leader Nigel Farage, we are already in a mixed-up TV land. This is especially so as Farage recently appeared in a spin-off from the Channel 4 show Gogglebox.

As for David Cameron’s reluctance to appear in a TV debate, well, he liked the idea last time round, didn’t he? You can’t choose to only do these things when the wind’s blowing your way. Dear me, he seems to think he’s appearing on I’m A Prime Minister… Get Me Out Of Here.