THE great news from the weekend BBC TV debate is that everybody won. It comes as a relief to know this, thanks to the headlines and analysis emanating from the onscreen “spin room” that accompanied the main event. The man from The National said that Nicola Sturgeon had won, while the man from the Daily Record thought otherwise. The man from The Spectator was sure independence is a jolly bad thing, although he had a few criticisms of the “Unionist” parties too. A couple of women did sneak in their asides, but in the “spin room” it seemed clear that chaps know best.

Perhaps the dominance of male opinion represented some kind of unconscious response to the female-centred “debate” in the main hall. True, there were male actors onstage, but Patrick Greenie, Willie Liberal and the large chap from Ukip were mere extras as power-dressed Nicola, Ruth and Kezia snarled and seemed really annoyed with each other.

I put “debate” in inverted commas because this show failed to rise as far as that description. None of the three leading women is standing for election, which might explain why so little of the subject matter concerned Westminster policy, bogged down instead in a she said/ she said battle about health and education.

The excuse for this descent into the rump-end of Scottish domestic politics is that, oh the public don’t care about reserved and devolved powers, they’re just going to call the issues that concern them. Nonsense; the programme makers have a strong influence on its content. They filter the audience “for balance” and vet questions. If the “debate” is to concentrate only on Westminster matters, they can make it so. But if the parties wanted that to be the case, the “leaders” on stage might have been Angus Robertson, Ian Murray and David Mundell, which probably means only the partisan and sofa-ridden would have watched.

The Brexit experience seems to have suspended rationality. We face one of the most seismic political and economic dramas of our time as Mrs May’s party prepares to suppress debate as it drags the UK out of the European Union in this hardest of hard Brexit. Yet the snarling is whether the better off should pay more tax or nurses should get a pay rise. I have seen two near-identical Tory leaflets lately. Both head their candidate’s “priorities” with “opposing a second Independence referendum”. I doubt if that is really the top priority for voters in those constituencies – Rutherglen & Hamilton West and Glasgow Central – however loudly it is proclaimed.

Of course the SNP position is intriguing. Ms Sturgeon wants another poll before Brexit is signed and sealed. Theresa May says she is not getting one. But right now, with Brexit uncertainty, an economy that shows many signs of weakening and years of austerity ahead, do people really wake up worrying about the potential of a second independence referendum?

Then again, SNP supporters must be troubled too, judging by the over-reaction on social media towards a nurse in the audience who had a pop at Ms Sturgeon on health service pay. The strident response from her critics was barely prompted by whether or not the subject was a devolved matter. Instead it demonstrated a touchiness betraying the special brand of campaign nerves experienced only by the partisan.

We stand at an economic precipice, amidst a nakedly opportunistic election campaign, called by a Prime Minister who perceives her opposition to be so weak that it presents the chance of a massive Commons majority.

The only conclusion to be drawn is that the parties believe the average voter is too stupid to understand the realities of the situation Britain faces. That conclusion may be drawn from an analysis of last year’s banal and embarrassing EU referendum. Whatever they may believe about the electorate, our parties are not serving politics well.