Public sees UK Green Party debate appearance as appropriate considering obvious national presence

Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

From the Green Party website post by Robyn Meadwell, “Include the Green Party in the TV Leaders’ Debates ahead of the 2015 General Election“:

It has been announced that the leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage has been invited to join the leaders debates on national TV before next year’s general election. However Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party, has been excluded from these debates.

UKIP has just gained its first MP; the Greens have had an MP (Caroline Lucas) for 4 years.

The Green Party beat the Liberal Democrats in the 2014 European Elections and is polling neck-and-neck with them in General Election opinion polls. In May 2014 more than 1.2 million people voted Green – more than 150,000 more than voted Liberal Democrat.

Natalie Bennett has just as much a right to be on that panel as the men. Apparently it’s too “messy” to have too many candidates in a TV debate. By excluding a party with a female leader, we are sending a clear message to the public — politics is still an old boys club.