So it has been over a week now since the European elections, with a 34.19% turnout in the UK. The media has bombarded us these past few months with UKIP and as expected they made significant gains in the local and European elections. Taking 161 council seats in England, and increasing the number of MEPs by 11 to make a total of 24. However one party which also made gains is the Green Party. Although the gains they made are small in comparison, the amount of media coverage they have received is unjustifiably small.
The Green Party which can be described as a center-left party, believes in promoting policies of sustainability both in terms of environmental and economic.
In the 2010 national election they gained their first seat, in Brighton Pavilion. UKIP has yet to gain a seat in the UK parliament, however it has been predicted that they will in the May 2015 election. The point being that the Green Party has representation at a local, European and national scale. UKIP does not.
Compared with representation in the media however it is a completely different picture. Nigel Farage as many of you will know, has appeared on Question Time 15 appearances since 2009. Caroline Lucas, the ex leader of the Green Party and Natalie Bennett, the current leader have appeared 12 times since 2009 combined, with Caroline Lucas having 10 appearances and Natalie Bennett having 2 appearances.
UKIP has also been mentioned approximately 23,000 times in 2013 with the Greens being mentioned below 5000. Some of this increased mention has been due to UKIPs increase in the polls, however does this justify the amount of coverage the party which still has no national representation fair?
After the European elections a lot of people were asking why has UKIP received this surge in support?
Is it that people are so anti-EU? Is it Nigel Farage and his charisma? Or was it just a protest vote against the 3 'mainstream' parties? Or, is it the fact UKIP have had large amounts of media coverage? It would not be without cause to believe it was the latter of these reasons.
