Local election hustings *EDIT*

So, last night Friends of the Earth held hustings for the candidates for Middlesbrough. Well, some of them anyway.

There are six candidates running for election in Middlesbrough. However, it turns out that the candidate from UKIP (Robert Parker) wasn’t invited because of his party’s stance on climate change (they don’t believe in it). As for the BNP candidate (Michael Ferguson) there appeared to be a bit of confusion. The person hosting the event claimed that he was invited but hadn’t turned up. However, there was only room on the stage for four candidates, not five as I’d have expected if that were the case. I’ve since heard that he wasn’t invited but turned up anyway. (It’s a shame he wasn’t there because the guy is so batshit insane that it could have been glorious.)

(Side note: I disagree with the policy. FOTE were running the event, so I suppose they can set the rules, but my attitude is that ALL the PPC’s for Middlesbrough should have been invited. The BNP is a difficult case, however. The event was being held at a church and I know they have been barred from churches before.)

Also not in attendance was Sir Stuart Bell, the Labour candidate and current MP for Middlesbrough. He said (though this was later attacked as false) that he had another event that day for the church commission and left it so late letting the organisers know they couldn’t rearrange the event, which they would have been happy to do.

I met up with my friend Nikki and we headed to the church in question. I have fond memories of this place, having literally left my blood in the place but I hadn’t been there for a while. We went in, Nikki got herself a cuppa, we found seats and I wrote down a question to be read out. The whole thing wasn’t that well organised TBH, but more on that later.

Then the candidates were called to the stage. When they were sat down, we were introduced to them. From left to right the order was Chris Foote-Wood from the Liberal Democrats, John Walsh from the Conservatives, Joan McTigue running as an independent (who kept being introduced as being from the independent party) and from Labour…

Yes, you are reading that right. Despite the fact that Stuart Bell was a no show, the Labour party sent Barry Coppinger, a local councillor, in his place. This was a bad move from Labour. He didn’t get an opening speech, as those were about the persons history in politics and why they wanted to represent Middlesbrough. He was hopelessly lost with most of the questions as they were about what the candidate would do if elected, which he won’t be. And someone did have a go at him for claiming to be speaking for Bell. They would have been better not bothering and sending a statement or something.

As for the rest? Chris Foote-Wood was quite good but a bit long winded, usually taking up all of his allotted 3 minutes and quite often going over it. John Walsh seemed a bit lost. He’s only been a member of the Tory party for 6 months and it shows. It’s a classic case of a potential party star being parachuted into a seat so they can get some election experience without having the pressure of winning and without the loss affecting him. (Cos, let’s face it, when the Tories win Middlesbrough I’ll be able to ice skate to New York.) His one big idea is to start an animated film festival in the area. Because, y’know, we haven’t had one of them in the last 10 years. Joan McTigue seemed a little bit, well, mad. She did keep her answers short, but constantly asked to be allowed to speak again arguing that she didn’t use up her allotted time. The fact that she ended the debate having a screaming match with someone who lives in her ward didn’t look too impressive either.

The actual event, as I’ve said before, could have been better organised. No-one seemed sure if the questions needed to be submitted to someone before they were asked (it turned out they didn’t), they hadn’t worked out a speaking order before hand, which they really should have, and they should have enforced a rule that once you stop speaking on a question, that’s it.

There were some good questions asked (both Nikki and myself got to ask our ones) and there was a level of debate but it was pretty much sticking to the party lines.

As for me? I’d already decided to vote Lib Dem anyway and last night did noting to change my mind. I’m not sure if it would have made much of a difference to floating voters. I did feel sorry for Coppinger being in that situation but feeel it would have been a different event had Bell turned up.

Hopefully someone will have the guts to do something like this for the next election. And if that does happen, I’d hope that all the PPC’s for Middlesbrough are invited and actually attend.

Will

*EDIT*

A (all too) brief article about the hustings in the local paper.

Will