A Good Question

Helen Szamuely, Your Freedom And Ours, posts on the general election and makes a number of very good points, amongst which is this on the point of opinion polls:

"This one did actually ask about the smaller parties and the results are quite interesting. While Conservatives poll 33 per cent, Lib-Dims 30 and Labour 23, of the smaller parties, UKIP is at 5 per cent, BNP and Greens at 2 each, the nationalist parties at 2 and others at 3. If UKIP can take that up to 6 or 7 per cent (a big if), the Conservatives might find themselves in serious difficulties and the face of British politics might well change even more. Incidentally, one wonders, given these figures, why so much of the media persists in regarding the Greens as the fourth party in this election."

Which reinforces a post of mine a day or two ago, in which I made the point about the loss of percentage points suffered by Labour and the LibDems, percentage points which did not appear to be going to the Tories. Locally, I have lost count of the number of people who have, unsolicited, said they intend voting UKIP, people who do not know me and have no idea therefore of my political allegience. When asked why, the response has been that having read all the parties Election Addresses and policies, those of UKIP are the closest to the beliefs they hold. Interestingly, the subjects which concerned these people the most were immigration and cutting the public deficit, especially without cutting money going to 'front-line' services. The idea of saving £45million each and every day and cutting quangos, giving immediate, real 'cuts' and thus reducing the annual bill by £20+million a year were what swayed them.

The 'If' Helen makes is understandable but one which I believe may well happen - and yes, why are the Greens so often referred to as the fourth party? Why were the Greens included in the BBC's 'debate' programme on the Environment, when UKIP were excluded from that on Foreign Affairs, when the EU was discussed?