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Inclusion of green party/plaid cymru/SNP etc al in TV debates

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Link 1 (guardian)

Link 2 (38 degrees)

Link 3 (BBC)

Personally, I feel the exclusion of any party (especially one who has more experience in goverment in favour of one who is more sensationalised by the media) is incredibly undemocratic, and potentially illegal.

what are your thoughts?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Miss_Riot wrote: »
    Link 1 (guardian)

    Link 2 (38 degrees)

    Link 3 (BBC)

    Personally, I feel the exclusion of any party (especially one who has more experience in goverment in favour of one who is more sensationalised by the media) is incredibly undemocratic, and potentially illegal.

    what are your thoughts?
    Miss_Riot wrote: »
    Link 1 (guardian)

    Link 2 (38 degrees)

    Link 3 (BBC)

    Personally, I feel the exclusion of any party (especially one who has more experience in goverment in favour of one who is more sensationalised by the media) is incredibly undemocratic, and potentially illegal.

    what are your thoughts?
    What about BNP? Monster Raving Loony Party? One of the thousands of small left wing parties?

    You have to draw the line somewhere and neither Plaid or SNP will form a Government (they don't put up enough MPs) and are essentially 'local' parties rather than ones aiming to run the UK

    That said I think there is an argument that the Greens should be treated as similarly to UKIP, though the evidence from the 80s is that giving the voters greater exposure to the Green's policies tends to result in support falling dramatically away

    That said a more partisan argument is that by having UKIP, Tories and the Lib Dems right leaning voters are being split three ways and Labour will be seen as the only vote of the Left, adding the Greens would split some of the left vote, which is why David Cameron is supporting their inclusion (though he's not saying that is the reason)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Inclusion of green party/plaid cymru/SNP etc al in TV debates

    I do agree with the plaid Cymru/SNP thing, but those debates should be able to be seen by all not just Wales and Scotland!

    I think that the way they campaigned in the 80s was part of what lost them support. The number of people who do a blind test to see who they should vote for has been coming out highly in favour of the greens. But it's still a personality contest!

    I'm not sure I understand your point about the vote being split tbh!
  • Danny!Danny! Deactivated Posts: 560 Incredible Poster
    I also agree that there doesn't seem to be an argument for not including the Greens. But where to draw the line is an interesting question.

    This Buzzfeed article says that Britain First is now the most popular political party on Facebook. While that maybe says as much about social media as the British public, it's a worrying sign ...
  • SkiveSkive Posts: 15,282 Skive's The Limit
    Danny! wrote: »
    I also agree that there doesn't seem to be an argument for not including the Greens. But where to draw the line is an interesting question.

    This Buzzfeed article says that Britain First is now the most popular political party on Facebook. While that maybe says as much about social media as the British public, it's a worrying sign ...

    I think that's misleading though. A lot of BF's traffic comes courtesy of the click bait pictures they post, such as 'like if you are against animal cruelty'.
    Weekender Offender 
  • Danny!Danny! Deactivated Posts: 560 Incredible Poster
    Skive wrote: »
    I think that's misleading though. A lot of BF's traffic comes courtesy of the click bait pictures they post, such as 'like if you are against animal cruelty'.

    I'm sure you're right :)

    It does raise an interesting question as to how you decide which parties are worthy of airtime though - do you base it on media popularity (which I suppose is the current argument for UKIP), or votes in the last elections, or opinion polls, or to represent the broadest possible range of political views ... ?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Miss_Riot wrote: »

    I'm not sure I understand your point about the vote being split tbh!

    If your centre right the debates remind you there are three centre-right parties (assuming the Lib Dems aren't centre-left anymore, if they ever really were) and the vote get split between them. Centre left parties only see Labour so more votes gravitate towards them, if they had the Greens as well at least some of the centre left would go Green and split the left wing vote.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Nope...I still don't get how that is better than giving them no platform at all! Not everyone simply says "oh I'm no voting for them even though they have sense, I'm an ardent daily mail reader and thus my mind is made up???" Infact I'd love to hope no one does that but hope has been known to fail me!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The Green Party have had their TV privileges suspended until they collect my recycling. Six weeks uncollected at last count in Brighton & Hove. In the bottom 25% of the country when it comes to recycling.
  • AndyAndy Deactivated Posts: 185 Helping Hand
    The Green Party have had their TV privileges suspended until they collect my recycling. Six weeks uncollected at last count in Brighton & Hove. In the bottom 25% of the country when it comes to recycling.

    Wow, that's amazing. The last party you would expect to do this. Are they fairly ineffectual then in Brighton and Hove? What's the likelihood they will retain that seat next May?

    Also - on the subject of the Green Party - they are a bit mad, great policies on housing and local issues but they too would withdraw from the EU and NATO http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29642613. Not things that I'd necessarily comfortable with and it's amazing that people are looking at them as an alternative left when they're really something else (I'm just not sure what yet, and they probably don't know either)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The Green Party have had their TV privileges suspended until they collect my recycling. Six weeks uncollected at last count in Brighton & Hove. In the bottom 25% of the country when it comes to recycling.

    I've certainly heard some other anecdotes about Brighton and Hove Council having gone downhill and being unable to manage the simplest tasks, though how much its down to the councillors and how much to the executive (ie the full time staff) isn't as clear (probably a mixture of both). I imagine it not doing much for their being a future Green MP though...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    They are trying to work in a minority administration so it may not be down to them why that's happening it could be to do with others putting roadblocks in the way - or a renegotiation with the company that collects or processes it?
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