Last month, the BBC said that it would sponsor three debates next year for the 2015 parliamentary election. The most inclusive of these four debates would feature the leaders of the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democratic, and UKIP Parties. The Green Party would not be included, even though it has an elected member of the House of Commons.
In response, the Green Party has gathered 200,000 signatures asking that the Green Party leader be included, and many prominent politicians from the major parties have signed. See this story, which seems to suggest that the BBC may reconsider.
I apply the same standards of fairness and justice to political parties in other countries, as I think they should be applied here.
So yes, the Green Party should be included in the Debates, and I trust their petition will change the minds of those whose decision it will be to include them.
The British have such a fair system of getting candidates on the ballot in their parliamentary elections. Why can’t our state governments – and even the Courts – be as fair as are the British when it comes to elections? Apparently power and money is not as big as issue there as it is here.
The article noted that “…Green party membership stands at 24,435…”
Richard, do you have a way of finding out what is the membership of the Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democratic, and United Kingdom Independence parties? Also, is a record kept of how many Independent voter there are in Great Britain?
And, do voters register their party affiliation with a government entity, or is this a party thing?
Those 24,435 people are dues-paying members of the Green Party. The government has no connection with the process by which people become dues-paying. Parties are much more free in Great Britain than in the U.S. The Conservative Party has experimented with party-sponsored meetings and primaries to help choose its nominees for parliament. This is all independent of the government.
Sounds like, while the parties and candidates in Great Britain have easier ballot access, the common people have little say in who their party nominees will be. Do they have a Caucus or local Convention of some type which make the nominations.
Also, somewhat surprised there is not a “Republican Party” by that name in Great Britain. I guess the Brits are content with their political system. One would think there would be some people there who feel the monarchy has outlived its usefulness.
One would think there would be some people there who feel the monarchy has outlived its usefulness.
Yes… they are called Irishmen! 😉
There is a microscopic Republic of UK, Canada, Australia movement.
The new International Parliament has several seed republics around the world.
http://www.international-parliament.org/international-countries.html
The international Green Party suffers from many of the same problems that their American affiliate suffers and monarchies are a particular problem in democracy there’s plenty of opportunity for change.
Back in 1992 to 1996 when I was debating campaigning online with computer scientists around the world in Usenet there were also programmers from the UK Labor Party Tony Blair campaign with whom I was interacting.
I ran for Governor of California in the 1994 Green Party primary and campaigned online every day when Usenet was the premier blogging system which had no controls unlike was much more universal.
The Liberal Democrats and John Cleese have had a lot of influence of the use of PR too. See this old video from around 1990 by John Cleese about proportional representation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSUKMa1cYHk
It’s too bad many reformers have implemented RCV (ranked choice voting) in single-winner districts like San Francisco and Oakland. Much greater change could have been accomplished by now had those at FairVote and others not been pushing single-winner district IRV.
I’m sure the Green Party, like many other splinter parties, is rather upset with the single-winner districts and the status quo currently existing in UK.
Great Britain is still pretty much a three-party system. They do have that going for them.
“Great Britain is still pretty much a three-party system. They do have that going for them.”
I could be wrong, but I predict the UKIP will become that 3rd major party before the Greens will. I also believe the Liberal/Democrats will eventually fade away.
Hi just to be clear its the Green party of England and Wales not the British Green Party. It is a totally seperate party to the Scottish Green party and the one in Northern Ireland.