THE petition (1) demanding the major broadcasters invite the Green Party to take part in the 2015 General Election debates has now reached over 200,000 signatures and is continuing to spread like wildfire on social media.
Under the broadcasters’ current proposals, the Greens are excluded from the Leaders’ Debates.
The broadcasters’ proposals have been widely criticised by the public and questioned by politicians including Prime Minister David Cameron (2) and leading political commentators including Owen Jones (3).
The BBC Trust has today officially launched (4) a public consultation on its draft election guidelines. Although the BBC Trust statement makes no specific mention of the Leaders' Debates, the Green Party welcomes a thorough public consultation.
The Change.org petition has racked up an average of 50,000 signatures per week since launching exactly four weeks ago, on the 13th October.
The petition, started by Young Green activist Robyn Meadwell, states: “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.
“By excluding a party with a female leader, we are sending a clear message to the public — politics is still an old boys club.”
The 200,000 signatures follow Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion’s, appearance on BBC Question Time last Thursday, which led to the hashtag #InviteTheGreens trending across the UK.
Green Party membership stands at 24,435 and is up a whopping 77% increase from the start of 2014. The ‘Green surge’ means a new member is signing up approximately every five minutes.
2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29595529
4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/search?lang=en&term=leaders%27+debate