When it comes to TV appearances, politicians find it tricky to box clever

If you want to know why the TV debates are such a hot topic in Westminster, just look at the experiences of politicians on telly last week.

The broadcasters are desperate to get the leaders on screen as literally one word out of place can make a story and break a tilt at power.

Ed Balls went on Newsnight to argue that Labour is not a threat to business. His appearance followed days of negative headlines as the hostile Press put up a succession of businessmen and it was always men who said Ed Miliband would be bad for the economy.

Most of these captains of industry were Conservative party donors, some even gave their money to the Tories rather than the taxman, but these details didn’t stop those bent on rubbishing the Labour leader.

This cavalcade of capitalists exposed the fine line Labour have to walk. Miliband wants the normal people downtrodden by years of recession to think he’s on their side against the fat cats.

But if the bosses turn against him, folk might worry more for their jobs than the hope that Red Ed will remodel the system in favour of the little guy.

Asked to name one tycoon tipping Labour to win, Ed Balls could only answer: “Bill”.

In turn, this handed David Cameron the opportunity to unleash a bona fide zinger at Prime Minister’s Questions the next day when he quipped: “Bill Somebody? Bill Somebody is not a person Bill Somebody is Labour’s policy.”

Balls is a bit of a bruiser so sometimes he has to suck up what he’s usually quick to dish out.

But in fairness to him he’s struggled with a stammer all his life brought on by stress. Under pressure, under the studio lights his brain was probably busy trying to stop the stammer and ended up stopping altogether.

It was unfortunate timing given one of his Labour colleagues was being lauded for her telly turn earlier in the schedules. The Inside the Commons documentary has been filming in parliament for a year. The makers have been given unprecedented access and it promises to give an unrivalled insight into how our democracy really works.

Despite being about the UK’s parliament the programme went out in primetime across most of the land on Tuesday although Scots had to scramble through the late-night schedules to find it.

It was repeated in a better slot last night in Scotland but the chances of casual viewers warming up for Sportscene with a bit of parliamentary procedure seem slim.

The show followed relatively new MP Sarah Champion as she tried to change the law from the backbenches on child protection.

Parliament looked tatty, tired and out of date. But Sarah championed her cause successfully and showed that for all there is work to be done in updating parliament’s image, both cosmetically and reputationally, both the building and the system just about work.

In the voiceover, David Cameron said Palace of Westminster looks like a school, rather giving away the sort of school he went to a posh one, just like Tristram Hunt the shadow education secretary.

But Hunt’s expensive education failed him during his television turn on Question Time when he dismissed another panellist’s plea that Labour’s policy of outlawing unqualified teachers was over the top given her educators had been OK. Hunt said: “These were all nuns, weren’t they?”

It was the sound of music to the ears of his opponents who claimed he was sneering at nuns and adopting a superior tone perhaps a mother superior tone.

One Tory MP claimed on Twitter that nuns are heroines of society doing good everywhere all the time which made them sound more like pixies than sisters of mercy.

Losing the nun vote is not important apparently many nuns don’t vote however losing the Sound of Music vote in a tight election could see Ed Miliband wave ‘So Long, Farewell’ to Downing Street.

The following day Hunt said sorry, making clear he’d meant no offence, to which the internet wags had a unanimous reply: “Nun taken!”

Listen to James Millar’s Westminster podcast here