The Tories and Labour were, of course represented, as the two biggest parties by far. The Lib Dems were invited, not because they are going to win, but presumably because they're part of the coalition and of course their candidate is a gay ex-copper which ticks the diversity boxes.
So who was the fourth candidate invited on the programme? Logic would tell you it would be the candidate for the party consistently polling in 4th place (sometimes 3rd) in London, the fourth largest party in the UK. But logic doesn't apply in the BBC, just institutional bias and political agendas so naturally the BBC chose the Greens who fill the three main criteria for getting on a BBC election programme of being on the far left, environmentalists and not being UKIP.
So many times we see the BBC unduly influence elections by ignoring the UKIP candidate and promoting a no-hoper Green extremist for no other reason than because in the mind of your average BBC producer, that is how the world should be. If you're not a europhile environmentalist then you're a far right extremist who must never be given the oxygen of publicity, regardless of what the electorate says.
We've seen this happen so many times in elections. In Norwich, Glenn Tingle was polling well ahead of the Greens and his opponents were even predicting a UKIP win and then the BBC propaganda machine kicked in and suddenly UKIP was on the fringes and it was a battle between the LibLabCon and the loony Greens. Even the Tory fifth columnist Dan Hannan criticised the BBC's bias against UKIP. In 2010, Lord Pearson threatened to issue legal proceedings against the BBC if they didn't stop their political bias against UKIP in their American-style "Leaders Debate". In the run-up to last year's vote on an EU referendum in the Commons the BBC pulled Nigel Farage from an appearance on Breakfast at the last minute so they could replace him with a pro-EU Tory instead. These are just a few of many examples of institutional bias, politicking and gerrymandering at the BBC.
I have sent the following complaint to the BBC today, I would urge you to do the same:
In last night's GLA election themed Newsnight, you had four candidates for the London Mayor: Tory, Labour, Lib Dem and Green. Despite the fact that UKIP have been consistently out-polling the Greens in every opinion poll by 2% you chose to promote the Green candidate. UKIP has even been polling above the Lib Dems at times. This is exactly what you do whenever UKIP is doing well in pre-election polling: you invite on the LibLabCon and UKIP's place is always filled by a Green.
Your excuse will no doubt be that the Greens have two assembly members but that has no bearing on the mayoral election and is a reflection of public opinion in 2008, not 2012 so I don't want to hear it as an excuse. I want to know why the BBC's inherent bias against UKIP and in favour of environmentalists (with emphasis on the "mental") is allowed to so obviously surface in persistent discrimination against UKIP, why the BBC's legal obligation to be impartial is ignored where UKIP are involved and why the BBC seeks to unduly influence elections by promoting candidates that it would like to win over those that polling shows are most popular with the electorate.
I don't want excuses, I don't want denials, I just want an explanation as to why you aren't doing your job properly and a promise to put in place immediate steps to end the BBC's political bias.
Stuart Parr is a 
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