Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Yeovil Election Hustings, 30th April

Update: there's been a tweak to the format.

Just had this through:

Just a note to say the Town Centre LEP are arranging an Election Hustings on Friday 30th April 8.00pm at Vicarage Street Methodist Church. We are inviting the three main parties. This is an open meeting for anyone in our churches (town centre and beyond) and members of the public. The meeting will be chaired by a clergy person. We would love to receive questions for the candidates - these are to be brought along on the night in written form (stating the name of the questioner) -given to a steward at the door - the questions will then be grouped into themes by a small team of people before the start time and given to the chair.

At the moment two of the three main parties have agreed to attend - we are awaiting a third response!

I've just had my first bit of electioneering, a Libdem at the door just as we sat down for tea. The leaflet about David Laws was fairly brief, and reasonably positive, but had the mandatory Libdem bar chart showing that Labour/Tory/UKIP/George Bush 'can't win here' (in our case it's Labour), and the claim that the local Conservative candidate lives in Kingston.

I checked this, and Kevin Davis (for it is he)'s blog bears it out. Having been selected in July 2007, it does seem to be taking a while to sell up and relocate. Kevin writes : They of course neglect totally that I have been trying to sell my house for two years during Brown's recession, that I have pledged to move her and have a home here (and I still will, win or lose), that neither Laws nor Ashdown came from this area. Kevin also comments below about his housing situation.

The blog is a real curates egg - all I'll say is that I much prefer reading people who are being positive about what they stand for, rather than just having ago at everyone else.

More Yeovil Election info:
David Laws site (sitting Libdem MP)
Lee Skevington (Labour candidate) twitter.
Kevin Davis on twitter
list of candidates (BBC)

Looking forward to the hustings, just need to think of some questions that the candidates won't have pre-digested answers to. Like how they'll promote immigration from overseas to the Yeovil area so that we can continue to have NHS dentistry.

4 comments:

  1. Of course. SW politics. Imagine having a LibDem MP. It's like another country.

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  2. Dear David,

    I have confirmed my attendance for the hustings, as you probably already know. I eagerly await your questions on NHS dentistry!

    Best Wishes,
    Lee Skevington

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  3. To complete the picture I am currently renting here.

    I agree about the need to be positive and it is a shame that we have already had to call the Police in twice because of the appalling nature of the David Laws' campaign team. I thought this was going to be a reasonable and positive campaign but I have been sadly wrong.

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  4. Thanks Kevin, you might have an interesting take on the housing market in Yeovil too!

    From what I hear, the hustings event itself is compromised because if we do x then candidate y won't show and if we don't do x then candidate z won't show. I personally think this short-changes Yeovil voters, and would like to lock all the candidates in a room until they can thrash out a way to all appear at the same event at the same time! Speaking as a voter, this is immensely frustrating and makes me feel very annoyed. Kevin, Lee, if you're still there, can you sort this out?

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