OVER 150,000 people have signed a Change.org petition (1) in the last 36 hours alone calling for the broadcasters to include the Green Party in the TV Leaders' Debates ahead of the 2015 General Election.
At some points yesterday the petition, which spread like wildfire on social media, was receiving 7,200 signatures an hour, 120 a minute on average, and more than two a second.
The huge popularity of the petition chimes with polling released today by YouGov (2), which reveals that if the debates do go ahead as proposed, the debate that includes Nigel Farage should also include Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett. 47% are in favour of including the Green Party, with 32% against.
Bennett said:
"With these proposals the broadcasters are demonstrating just how out of touch they are with the public mood, and how ridiculously they cling to the idea that the future of politics looks like the past.
"It is clear from votes and polls that the public are fed up with the three business-as-usual parties and are looking around for alternatives.
"That is also demonstrated by the astounding popularity of this petition and by the Green Party of England and Wales’s soaring membership, up 56% in 2014 alone.”
Green Party Deputy Leader Amelia Womack delivered a letter to broadcasters today calling for an urgent re-think on their Leaders’ Debates proposals (3).
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For more information please contact 07889 809 070 / archie.thomas@greenparty.org.uk
For more information about Change.Org please contact Nadia@change.org
Notes:
2 http://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/10/15/voters-include-ukip-tv-debates-include-green-party/
3 http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/15/green-party-ultimatum-tv-debates-exclusion