Thursday 6 March 2014

Green Party complains about UKIP being designated major party

Green MP being arrested for
public order offences
The whiny Greens are complaining that OFCOM have given UKIP major party status for the EU elections, meaning that UKIP will have to receive equal media coverage to the LibLabCon parties.

The Green Party has 2 MEPs and received less than half of UKIP's share of the vote in the last EU elections in 2009 so why would the Green Party expect to receive equal media coverage to the mainstream parties? Not because they're popular or because they expect to do as well as the mainstream parties but because they think they have better policies than the mainstream parties.
It is a decision influenced by what can be easily measured, polling figures, rather than considering the fact that the Green Party is the only party representing significant majorities of public opinion on issues ranging from re-nationalising the railways, to making the minimum wage a living wage to having a publicly owned and publicly run NHS.
The last thing a media regulator should be doing is forming opinions on political party policies. Election performance and opinion polls - facts, not opinions - are absolutely the right things to base a decision on. Just because the Green Party base their manifesto on unevidenced opinion doesn't mean OFCOM should.