The News is Out

The news is out. Much sooner than we had planned, the mainstream media swooped down on our humble PPUK website, latched on to the announcement that we have officially launched the party, and spread it far and wide. I guess you could call it sharing the good news. We're all for sharing, though it means Andrew now has an impossible task as leader, trying to handle all the interview requests that have flooded in. So I thought it best to take a time out and keep you all in the loop. For those of you who want to get a taste of the coverage we have been getting, here is a sample:

• The good old BBC wrote a decent piece that reported the news in a fair and impartial way. I suggest you take a look - if nothing else you will help boost the article up the BBC's ranking of most popular stories, and hence encourage more people to read it.
• Politics.co.uk featured the PPUK registration and gave it a prominent position on its homepage.
• The Reuters news agency blogged about the party's formation and asked for opinions from readers.
• The cascade of publicity was started when The Telegraph was first to publish the news.
• In a sign that the party's performance will attract interest from outside the traditional sphere of politics, the registration of the party was covered by such outlets as the NME and ZDNet.
• The usual suspects are pouring scorn on us for wanting to participate in a democracy. What were we thinking? That people might have a right to vote for alternatives they feel strongly about? Look here for an example of the aggressive tosh that passes for a well-constructed counter-argument. Remember: these people get paid to use their brains.
• Stephen Fry didn't exactly endorse us, but he did mention us to his army of followers on Twitter.
• I somehow ended up on Sky News last night (Andrew was too busy with other interviews to make the journey and I was the only one in range of their studio). We have not got the video but you can hear the audio here.

Phew! And there is plenty more out there too, but I don't need to tell you people how to search the internet. With all that attention, the new memberships have been rolling in. For the few die-hards who have not got round to joining yet, you had better hurry up. At this rate, your membership number could be a lot longer than you expected...