TV DEBATES - "DEMOCRATIC OUTRAGE" TO EXCLUDE SCOTLAND AND WALES

TV DEBATES - "DEMOCRATIC OUTRAGE" TO EXCLUDE SCOTLAND AND WALES

ITV ENCOUNTER A PHONEY CONTEST IN A PHONEY WAR

Previewing this evening's election leaders' debate on ITV, from which
Scotland's voice has been excluded, SNP leader and First Minister Alex
Salmond said:

"Just as this election campaign is dominating a phoney war between the
London parties, this debate will be a phoney contest between politicians
who are all united in a cosy Westminster consensus on cuts.

"It is fundamentally unacceptable that parties of Government in Scotland
and Wales are being excluded from this debate as a result of stipulations
laid down by the three London parties and followed meekly by the
broadcasters.

"And it is a democratic outrage made all the more ironic as it comes at a
time when ordinary voters are raging against the Westminster machine.
People across the whole of the UK are looking to hear alternative views to
those coming from people who are part of that machine."