Thousands demand Greens appear on Thursday’s leader Q&As
Over 6,000 people have signed a change.org petition calling for Natalie Bennett to appear on BBC Question Time this Thursday, as part of the ‘leaders interviews’ in the run-up to the election.
Leaders of the Lib Dems, Tories, Labour, Plaid Cymru, the SNP and UKIP will appear on the show – but not the Greens.
The ‘debate’ will be the last before the election – and will be watched by millions in a production that could impact the result on May 7th.
The reason for the exclusion is unclear, but has clearly angered many.
Can this petition swing it in the same way that pressure from the public forced the broadcasters to include the Greens in the other leaders’ debates?
Here’s the petition text in full:
On 30 April, exactly one week before the 2015 General Election, the BBC will air an evening of programmes in which audiences will be able to question party leaders “one on one”, including Prime Minister David Cameron, and Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP. The Green Party has not been given the same opportunity to face the public on that date.
Recently, the Green Party has seen a massive surge in popularity, reaching 60,000 members earlier this month in England and Wales alone. The Greens were included in the TV Leader’s Debates on ITV and the BBC as a result of an earlier Change.org petition that reached over 280,000 signatures. Public pressure caused the broadcasters and Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, to change their minds after initially saying that the Greens would not be able to participate.
We, the public, ask that Natalie Bennett, the Green Party leader, is given the same opportunity as every other party leader to face questions from an audience. We ask this for fairness and transparency in the run-up to the General Election.
BBC announcement: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32360958
#InviteTheGreens
With 70,000 members of Green Parties across the Uk, only getting 6,000 odd signatures is poor.
What is going on?
Ukip has one MP who defected from another party!!!
The Greens have an MP voted in her own right.
I also here the Greens lumped in the same category as ‘others’ on many programmes.
Why is the Green Party being deliberately sidelined?
Because all they have succeeded in doing, in all the other recently afforded opportunities to engage, is progress from being a ‘single issue’ party to being a ‘zero issue’ party. Bennett has apparently nothing to say.
How do you mean. It seemed to me she said quite a lot , eg disagreeing that austerity was necessary, disagreeing with student fees, putting taxes on the extremely wealthy up to 60%, providing 500,000 additional homes to rent etc. Think she was not as charismatic as Nicola Sturgeon but should that matter? Thought she came across as an honest person struggling a bit to do her job but personally prefer that to the obvious pr of the 3 male leaders though it is hard to look at someone with views you agree with objectively.
Rob