Thanks to Mike for this report …
The latest in the series of hustings took place in Abingdon’s Guildhall on Wednesday, 15 April. Organised by the Church In Abingdon it saw attendance from Nicola Blackwood for the Conservatives,
Sally Copley, the Labour Party candidate, Nick Foster for the Socialist, Layla Moran for the Lib-Dems, and Larry Sanders for the Greens. Harriett Salisbury did a sterling job representing her sister, Helen of the National Health Action Party who was unwell. Alan Harris of UKIP wasn’t present. Also of note was that Nicola and Sally had a pact to wear colours appropriate to their parties on the night.
Unlike the CPRE event, the Abingdon hustings were extremely well moderated by Chris Bryan who took questions that had been submitted prior to the event. These ranged from the economics of the Abingdon Hydro scheme to replacing the Trident missile system, while other topics included the need for continuing austerity and a one on the acceptability of the various parties to one another in the likely event of a hung parliament. This variety thankfully allowed the candidates’ mettle to be tested on topics other than planning and housing issues.
Despite the apparent non-functioning of the soon to be re-vamped Guildhall’s air conditioning system, the audience were extremely well behaved after Chris Bryan stated he wanted 21st century manners, and not those of the 18th when hustings began and often ended in a riot. Hecklers were threatened with a mandatory obligation to see every Oxford United match of the season which served to keep interruptions in check. However, it would have been nice to see more young people turning out.
All of the candidates made some good points although the best spontaneous applause of the night went to Sally Copley when she wished that Prime Minister’s Question Time could actually feature sensible debate rather than political point scoring.
In his closing remarks, Chris Bryan reminded the audience that it was only three weeks to the election. Oxford West and Abingdon is a key marginal and, with the polls close, the political atmosphere can only get hotter.
