An antidote to power politicians

Last night we held a General Election Hustings in our local community centre (the Old School) to which all the Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) for the North Cornwall Constituency had been invited. The candidates are:

Scott Mann - Conservative Party

John Whitby - Labour Party

Dan Rogerson - Liberal Democrat Party

Amanda Pennington - Green Party

Julie Lingard - UK Independence Party (UKIP)

Jeremy Jefferies - Mebyon Kernow – the party for Cornwall

John Allman - Let Every Child Have Both Parents

Our chairman for the evening, Nigel, wondering whether anyone is going to turn up.

General Election rules (and there are many of them) dictate that all PPCs have to be invited to events such as these but they don't have to attend. In the event, we almost had a full set, with only the Mebyon Kernow candidate being a no-show. A pity, as I was particularly interested in hearing what they had to say.

The format was quite simple:
*  People submitted questions ahead of the event and the chairman made a selection based on the issues most commonly raised.
*  The candidates were given 3 minutes for an opening statement.
*  The chairman, or the individual submitting the question, posed the question and the candidates had the opportunity to answer.
*  Then questions were open to the audience for comment and further development.

It really was a successful and enjoyable evening. It was well supported (standing room only), well chaired (started and finished to the minute), wide ranging questions (with the NHS, transport and local control of affairs being the prominent concerns) and a panel of politicos who behaved themselves. Apart from a couple of relatively minor lapses, the questions were answered seriously with no personal point scoring, a complete contrast to what we see on our TVs every night of this campaign.

Getting ready for the first question.

A lighter moment.

It's very easy to be cynical about politicians (and believe me, I know all about cynicism) but it really was refreshing seeing a bunch of hopefuls in action. Although I disagree vehemently with some of their policies, they came across as a group of individuals believing in what they were promoting and, as far as I could tell, with no personal gain in mind. They were the antithesis of the commonly held view of politicians 'only being in it for their own benefit'. If only the same could be said about others of their ilk.