Abingdon’s 2015 Parliamentary Hustings

18 Replies

Thanks to Mike for this report …
Parliamentary Hustings
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,
Parliamentary Hustings
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.
Parliamentary Hustings
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.

People’s Ballot: NHS Not TRIDENT

2 Replies

Thanks to Sally for this short piece about the NHS v TRIDENT Abingdon People’s Ballot that took place on Monday. Sally said …
Stop Trident
We had a good morning, the market place was busy although the market itself seemed a bit thinner than usual.

The consensus of those who voted in our “people’s ballot” was to spend the £100 billion on Health and Education rather than on Trident….

Many people didn’t even know what Trident is, much less that we, the taxpayer, spend over £5000 per minute on it… Some people still seem to think we need it for “deterrence”. Although who it is supposed to “deter” and from doing what, is not clear.

Trident is the UK’s nuclear deterrent with missiles on 4 submarines. The next parliament could take the decision to replace it with an updated Trident.

The Community Ambassador for Abingdon on Radio Oxford

Leave a reply

Community Ambassador
The Community Ambassador for Abingdon was interviewed on the BBC Oxford Kat Orman show. Dave was appointed a year ago by Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action (OCVA) to help the voluntary and community groups in Abingdon. OCVA help put volunteers and people wanting to volunteer together, and are there to offer advice and networking and training for community groups.

The picture shows Dave with Kat Orman in the studio. Also there is Linda Bains (Community Ambassador for Wantage and Grove).

You can hear the interview at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02n542n#playt=1h09m37s

Abingdon Spring Cycle Festival and Spring Art Exhibition

2 Replies

Spring must be here. There are both the Abingdon Cycling Festival and the Abingdon Artist’s Exhibition this week …
Abingdon Spring Head
The Abingdon Cycling Festival cleaned the windows of the community shop. Tom sent me a picture of Mark Utting (Festival Project Manager) buffing the glass.
Abingdon Spring Head
The drop-bar handlebar daffodil display is so much clearer as a result. More about The upcoming Abingdon cycling festival is at https://www.facebook.com/cycleabingdon.
Abingdon Artists Spring Exhibition
Also Diana emailed me to say “the Abingdon Artists Spring Exhibition is in St Nicolas Church this week, open 10-5 every day and runs until Saturday. They have a great selection of original work in a range of media and styles, and most of the paintings are for sale.”