Why is Britain's Political Debate so Immature?

I hope the Party Conference season will clear ground for some actual policy debate. Currently, all the political parties aren't really addressing the balance sheet problems of the government, or what will be needed over the next Parliament.

Normally, I would go into a diatribe about how Brent Liberal Democrats stand for nothing at this point, but instead lets look at David Cameron.

In the run up to the 1997 election, I well recall how Labour was questioned over and over again about its spending plans. Details like the Yacht Britannia were picked over. Now, Cameron seems to get away with nothing very much.

His speech on cutting the cost of politics (which dressed up a number of measures designed to help the Tory party, like reducing the number of seats) came up with only two sets of proposals. The cost cutting package was worth only £120 million, hardly a significant contribution to the budget deficit, but he wasn't really pressed to come up with more.

The other scheme, cutting ID cards, is also an old Lib Dem standby. I have always thought it rather odd,as I understood that each ID card would be distributed on receipt of a fee, like getting a passport. If you have abolished the ID cards, presumably you can't charge people for getting them. So where is the saving?

All three parties need a media that really does it job of scrutinising their policy proposals instead of concentrating on gossip and personal indisgressions.