Wednesday 28 April 2010

Possible legal action against the BBC

The Hereford Times reports that UKIP is considering legal action over that last debate tomorrow evening.
Party leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch has written to BBC director-general Mark Thompson arguing that the corporation is breaching its own election coverage guidelines by refusing to allow Ukip equal footing with Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

Lord Pearson said that if the BBC does not agree to allow him to participate in the debate by noon on Wednesday, Ukip will apply to the courts for a judicial review of the decision and injunction overturning the ruling.
The Daily Telegraph, reporting on the SNP's legal action, adds that UKIP is supporting it and demanding the right to participate in the BBC's debate.

UPDATE: The SNP's attempt to prevent the last debate being shown by the BBC in Scotland without the participation of Alex Salmond has failed, as the Daily Telegraph reports. How this will affect UKIP's potential challenge is at present unclear.

2 comments:

  1. It would be interesting to hear what actually happened here and how the decision was made to invite only the three old players...?

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  2. I think all parties that represent the United Kingdom as a whole should be allowed to debate. I do think it was right to exclude the SnP and Plaid Cymru as they only represent regions of the the UK and do not speak for all of the people.

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