Debating Debates ...
The current state of British politics includes two parties which have more than 200 MPs, and consistently score 30% or more in the national polls. These are the Conservatives and Labour and, for all practical purposes, one of these parties will either form or be the main component of the next government..
Then there are three parties which are represented in both the UK and European parliaments and over the past year have usually scored between 5% and 20% in general election voting intentions in national opinion polls. In alphabetical order, these are the Greens, the Liberal Democrats, and UKIP.
If you rank these three parties by the number of MPs elected at the last General Election, the order would be Lib/Dems, Greens, UKIP. If you rank them by their standing in the polls over the last year or the results in the last national election, it would be UKIP, Green, Lib/Dem. Note that the Greens do not come last in either of those sequences.
Then you have the nationalist parties - SNP in Scotland, Plaid Cymru in Wales, SLDP and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland, all of which have at least three MPs (although the Sinn Fein Westminster MPs do not take their seats), and of which all except the SDLP have at least one MEP.
The issue about whether to include the Nationalists in TV General Election debates appears to admit of a relatively straightforward solution: you have a debate on Scottish TV which includes the SNP, and one on Welsh TV which includes Plaid Cymru, so that each has an opportunity to pitch to the electorate of the seats where they are standing.
The issue of who gets to take part in TV debates for the UK as a whole is much more difficult.
I can see the logic of those who argue that any TV debates for the General Election should consist just of David Cameron and Ed Miliband, the two candidates one of whom will become PM.
I can also see the logic of including in at least one debate all the parties who have managed to get both MPs and MEPS elected and fight seats in at least three of the countries of the UK - e.g. Conservagive, Labour, Greens, Lib/Dems, and UKIP.
However, I think David Cameron has a point that including UKIP but not the Greens is unfair and unreasonable and not just to the Greens. You have to be either very imaginative or arbitrary to come up with a criteria which both UKIP and the Lib/Dems meet and which the Greens do not also pass.
(One attempt I heard was "The parties which have won a national election in the past hundred years." Actually it is 104 years and one month since the Liberal Party, as it then was, won a national election. Another would be "At least two MPs)
I don't think DC is using this to get out of the debates, because there is a good chance - if they have any sense anyway - the broadcasters will let the Greens take part, and placate the nationalists with a debate in Scotland and one in Wales which include the SNP and PC respectively.
We shall see ...
Then there are three parties which are represented in both the UK and European parliaments and over the past year have usually scored between 5% and 20% in general election voting intentions in national opinion polls. In alphabetical order, these are the Greens, the Liberal Democrats, and UKIP.
If you rank these three parties by the number of MPs elected at the last General Election, the order would be Lib/Dems, Greens, UKIP. If you rank them by their standing in the polls over the last year or the results in the last national election, it would be UKIP, Green, Lib/Dem. Note that the Greens do not come last in either of those sequences.
Then you have the nationalist parties - SNP in Scotland, Plaid Cymru in Wales, SLDP and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland, all of which have at least three MPs (although the Sinn Fein Westminster MPs do not take their seats), and of which all except the SDLP have at least one MEP.
The issue about whether to include the Nationalists in TV General Election debates appears to admit of a relatively straightforward solution: you have a debate on Scottish TV which includes the SNP, and one on Welsh TV which includes Plaid Cymru, so that each has an opportunity to pitch to the electorate of the seats where they are standing.
The issue of who gets to take part in TV debates for the UK as a whole is much more difficult.
I can see the logic of those who argue that any TV debates for the General Election should consist just of David Cameron and Ed Miliband, the two candidates one of whom will become PM.
I can also see the logic of including in at least one debate all the parties who have managed to get both MPs and MEPS elected and fight seats in at least three of the countries of the UK - e.g. Conservagive, Labour, Greens, Lib/Dems, and UKIP.
However, I think David Cameron has a point that including UKIP but not the Greens is unfair and unreasonable and not just to the Greens. You have to be either very imaginative or arbitrary to come up with a criteria which both UKIP and the Lib/Dems meet and which the Greens do not also pass.
(One attempt I heard was "The parties which have won a national election in the past hundred years." Actually it is 104 years and one month since the Liberal Party, as it then was, won a national election. Another would be "At least two MPs)
I don't think DC is using this to get out of the debates, because there is a good chance - if they have any sense anyway - the broadcasters will let the Greens take part, and placate the nationalists with a debate in Scotland and one in Wales which include the SNP and PC respectively.
We shall see ...
Comments
It makes sense in the USA's presidential elections as the president is elected (albeit via the electoral college)
In the UK, of course, they would if we had elected Prime Ministers, as per demand #3 of Harrogate in place, but currently we don't, so they don't.
Instead, a local debate would make more sense. The criteria to be admitted into each constituencies debate would then be much simpler. You have to stand for election in that constituency.
"Simples"
The national televisd debates between the leaders of the main parties are pretty meaning less