Proponents of equal representation can rejoice, after weeks of back-and-forth, ITV and the BBC have overturned the decision to keep the Green Party out of the live debates (despite invited UKIP to join). As an added bonus, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru will also be taking part. This also means that David Cameron will be more or less obliged to take part, following his statement that he wouldn’t go anywhere near the debates unless the Greens were included. He’s unlikely to be too happy about that.
The Greens have been experiencing a recent uptick in membership and in recent days have surpassed the Lib Dems to become the fourth largest party in the UK in terms of membership figures. The SNP are a distant third. This is the first time in any UK election that so many party leaders have been invited to take part and whilst this doesn’t necessarily suggest that any of them will make a serious run at any kind of majority vote, it’s indicative of how far from the old 2 party mold we’re moving. How the debates will remain organised with seven party leaders all staking their claims is unclear and it may all descend into madness, at the very least I can imagine SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon taking Cameron to task about trident but hopefully things will remain fair and even-handed even when the difficult subjects crop up.
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