The election is fast approaching and I find myself feelingtrepidation over which party may take the lead in British politics, as I haveyet to see anything that convinces me to put my trust in any of the parties.
As campaigns are stepped up there have been a large numberof news stories surrounding everything from campaign posters to individualsstanding for election just to make a point. For example Al Murray will bestanding for election directly against Nigel Farage and will apparently bedoing so in character.
Now, one of the stories to catch a lot of attention wasDavid Cameron’s declaration that he would only take part in the TV debates ifthe Green Party are also allowed to put forward a candidate.
This was probablysaid for a host of reason like garnering favour and trying to move the protestvote from UKIP back to the Green Party. However, whatever reasons are behindthis move, I personally think it is a great idea. Often labelled as a protestvote party the Green Party membership has been constantly growing and has madethem one of the top 5 biggest parties. Their positions in By-elections andlocal elections have shown them to be figuring in the list higher than theliberal democrats at some points; so why not give them the same open platformthat is provided to the other parties.
When Labour emerged as a new party in the early 1900s theywere subverting the traditional two party state that had existed.
Britishpolitics has always followed a first past the post system in elections, this doesnot allow for much smaller parties to take a position of power, and in truth itis almost impossible for a newly growing party to win an election overall, asthe support across the country will not be great enough. However, what it doesdo is allow for the smaller parties to still have members in the House ofCommons, and in the case of hung Parliaments it allows a smaller party a chanceto form a coalition with a bigger party and therefore get their voices heard.
With UKIP running and taking away a number of bothConservative and Labour supporters it would not surprise me to see a hungParliament once again, and if that is the case I believe providing a party likethe Greens an equal stance in debates will allow for them to be an option whenforming a coalition. Especially since they seem to be supporting a lot of veryreasonable policies and have actually clearly outlined their political stanceon a number of issues rather than just concentrating on immigration, a topicwhich I feel has been overshadowing everything else for a bit too long.
