A Challenging Democracy!

Thank goodness that’s all over! You have to be a bit mad to try and arrange a hustings event – particularly when you have to deal with various shapes and sizes of political egos bouncing around and making various demands on the order, content, arrangements and structure of the evening.

As it happens it went fairly well with Allan Bosley doing a valiant job in chairing the evening. Not everyone in the packed community centre was entirely happy - but many were very impressed by the way CCAN had attempted to create an event which enabled all six of the candidates present to answer questions from the platform for at least part of the evening.

The BNP candidate did play ball in the end which was a positive for all of us and earned him a place on the platform in the second half alongside the Green, UKIP and Liberal Democrat candidate.

Splitting the evening into two halves with all candidates who wished to be on the platform except the BNP in the first half and having previously submitted questions helped dilute the potential for the BNP issue to dominate. However, as soon as a question was posed which asked why the Tory and Labour candidates had refused to share the stage with the BNP candidate it was clear how much unease there was beneath the surface.

The lesson, if there is one, is that yes it is perfectly possible to defeat the BNP arguments if they are presented as part of a fair and open debate - surely the ONLY way forward in an open democracy rather than a blanket refusal to engage at all.

The hustings have undoubtedly helped raise the profile of CCAN in this area and has no doubt gone some way in informing the local electorate of the strengths and weaknesses of their candidates - but I hope we don’t have to do a re-run in the near future!

Chippenham Constituency Candidate Hustings: This Friday - 23 April at 7pm - Corsham Community Centre

This Friday’s Hustings will be the only opportunity for the local electorate to meet and question the candidates from the new Chippenham Constituency.

I didn’t expect being involved in organising the CCAN candidate hustings to be easy but nothing had quite prepared me for the tightrope we have had to negotiate this week to organise this Friday’s event.

Our key aim in the spirit of an open and fair democratic system was to provide a platform to present the candidates for the benefit of the local electorate. We had decided we needed to invite all legitimate candidates to our hustings and give them the opportunity to respond to questions from the audience – some prepared and some spontaneous.

As I know myself from last year’s Unitary Council elections, when you throw yourself into the political arena you expect to have to justify your views and challenge those of others – often in a forum of public debate – and almost inevitably with people who hold the opposite viewpoint.

I believe that in a democracy all candidates must be treated fairly as they are legally equal. In addition, all have a legitimate right for their individual views to be presented – whatever our individual viewpoint. It is for the electorate to decide whose views are most valid – and whose are not.

It has been a real challenge to get agreement from all the candidates to enter into these hustings whilst still holding onto these basic principles. What we have arrived at is something of a compromise which reflects the respective expectations and demands of the individual candidates and it will require a level of give and take from all candidates to ensure the event is of real value to the electorate.

However, I an confident that the evening will enable all candidates to answer questions directly from the audience and be able to debate with each other. Above all I hope the outcome will make it clearer for the electorate to decide who is worth voting for on May 6.