UKIP

[geardaddy]

[shenmue]

1. Something's not right

[mwooldri]

2. Green Party representation is a little lacking.

I can understand lower appearance numbers for the (Northern) Ireland and Welsh parties since they represent a smaller population. However the Greens are nationwide. I bet whoever is deciding on who the guests are must be living in Waverley Borough since UKIP is the opposition to the Tories on the local council and no representation from the Lib Dems, let alone Labour.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. They can, however, point to their EU election figures

2009 16.5%, 2nd most popular party
2014 27.5%, most popular party

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2009_%28United_Kingdom%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2014_%28United_Kingdom%29

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010

and in the 2010 Westminster election, they got 3.1% of the vote, to the Green's 0.9%, and 0.6% for each of Sinn Fein, DUP and PC. So in 2010 they got more votes than those 4 parties combined. Sinn Fein and DUP might complain they've been left out, especially compared to Plaid.

Just because Westminster uses a screwed-up first-past-the-post system, that doesn't have to mean the BBC should do too.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. Hasn't UKIP been polling rather higher than all those parties combined?

I'm afraid I think the rise of UKIP has been primarily a bottom-up, not a top-down, phenomenon.

There's a reason populism is, and should be, a dirty word.