The broadcasters need to stop digging. Leaving them to say who should and shouldn’t appear in television election debates was always a pit waiting to open beneath flat feet. Leaving the Greens and the Scottish Nationalists out entirely was always a decision better taken on carefully agreed and published criteria, cleared through an independent body (the Electoral Commission). But vamping it – as the BBC is now doing with the Greens, over a debate that ITV is producing anyway – is pretty hopeless. What’s the Green exclusion formula? Too little success last time? Not as many headlines as Ukip this time? More YouGov support than the Lib Dems, but they’re in government so that doesn’t count?
There’s simply no firm platform here for a yea or a nay as mass petitions start to fly – with the SNP weighing in, brandishing poll results that Ukip would drool over. If David Cameron wants the whole show to veer off the road of its own volition, he can for once sit back and play Cheshire cat.
