POLITICAL parties including the SNP and the Greens have banded together to protest at their exclusion from next year's scheduled General Election televised debates.
The parties have the support of a number of peers, including Baroness Helena Kennedy, the Labour peer; and Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompson, as well as Labour MP Paul Flynn.
In a letter to the new head of the BBC Trust they say that more than a quarter of a million people have signed a petition calling for the Greens to be included, while membership of the SNP is at record levels.
"There is clear public support for broadening out the Leaders' Debates," the letter said.
"Regardless of their politics, most people have a strong sense of what is right and fair.
"Whilst we welcome the BBC's recent decision to consult on its draft election guidelines, we believe that the corporation's public service remit makes a clear case for wider representation than is currently envisaged."
SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson MP added: "The broadcasters have the cheek to say that their proposed format factors in 'changes in the political landscape' to justify including UKIP.
"This entirely ignores the fact that the SNP are now by far the third largest political party in the UK in terms of membership."
SNP membership surged to record levels in the wake of September's independence referendum.
Indeed, the SNP overtook the Liberal Democrats as the UK's third largest political party last month.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article