20/04/2022
Thanks to everyone who turned up this evening - I was a bit busy at times and although I counted everyone I kept getting different numbers, with people hiding behind each other and a few late arrivals. I think a fair number would be 53 plus one primary school age boy. Add three Candidates, myself, and one dog and the place was busy enough!
We eventually had three Candidates who spoke as long as they were allowed to on a range of subjects. The multi-format approach seemed to work well, with speeches, a list of pre-prepared questions to choose from, questions directly from the floor and questions voiced by myself on behalf of people who’d written them. Some questions were amalgamated with others or were covered in other ways - I only missed one of which I am aware, but it was asked directly at the end anyway.
All Candidates shook hands, and I think all benefitted from their exposure to the community. The audience and the dog were well behaved and the only unseemly moment was when I unfortunately told my Official Joke (it filled a much-needed gap in the proceedings). Everyone seemed to enjoy when I asked the Candidates to applaud their audience as a thanks for coming - it was a happy meeting.
The matter of the missing seven Candidates did not go down well with the meeting. I explained that two from one major political party had both simultaneously discovered ‘prior engagements’, that one independent Candidate had also discovered such an engagement, and that one other Candidate had been hit by a last-minute work commitment (and whose Electoral Agent was present to pass on her apology, which seemed genuine). Both Candidates for one other major party actively boycotted the event, explaining their decision in a lengthy e-mail describing their conspiracy theory about the Hustings. This news was greeted with derision by those present. Our other Independent Candidate simply did not turn up and made no apologies. This was not unexpected as he had earlier bombarded me with a series of e-mails (seven over 24 hours) which also expressed the same views as the ones who boycotted tonight.
All in all, the Candidates who turned up will have gained votes - and those who didn’t show their faces did themselves no favours at all.
We raised £125 plus some smash in some 99p B&Q buckets - the expenses for the evening were £120, so a donation of £10 will go to Cancer Research.
At the end of the meeting I asked the audience if they felt the Hustings were a good idea, and there was unanimous approval. I then brought up the subject of the next General Election and said that I hoped to create an alliance to promote Hustings across a wider area - this was also popular and resulted in several people volunteering to help at the end!
Thanks are due to various volunteers on the night, my fellow flier distributors and to the excellent and welcoming Elders of Netherlee and Stamperland Parish Church and their IT crew. And, of course to the Candidates and the most important people of all - the community!
