A Hustings is a totally new concept to me as one who for most of my life has never really been involved in politics, and that’s a fairly long time.
But after last year’s incredible journey of the Referendum, with all the highs and lows and the finality of the verdict, I am afraid my political landscape changed for the first time. I began to see that people had glimpsed a chance of what might be, and had a new energy about them.
It was like Scotland had finally woken up from a very long sleep and finally realised that there were alternatives out there.
So last night I took myself along to the Whale Arts Centre for the Wester Hailes Community Council’s Hustings to meet the parliamentary candidates for Edinburgh SW.
Who are:
Joanna Cherry Scottish National Party (SNP)
Richard Doherty Scottish Green Party
Daniel Farthing-Sykes Liberal Democrats
Ricky Henderson Labour Party
Gordon Lindhurst Conservative Party
Richard Lucas UK Independence Party
The event was attended by about 30+ people and scheduled to run from 6.30pm – 8.30pm with a break for a very ample buffet provided by the Wester Hailes Community Council. The chair of the Event was Sean Bell.
The format of the event was that the candidates were introduced by Sean then allowed 1 minute to talk about themselves, and after, questions would be taken from the floor and then each one would answer it.
I have to admit I was very impressed with the way this worked, the candidates all were very honest in their answers and very respectful towards each other with no talking over each other.
I won’t go in to all the debates or questions but will say that we ended up running out of time and had a last minute rush at the end to try and enjoy the wonderful buffet laid on by the Wester Hailes Community Council, even all the Candidates remarked that this was the first decent Hustings that had enjoyed some nice food.
To sum up I found this a very refreshing event having watched some of the current online debates, it was a very pleasant surprise to see a group of political candidates discuss and debate without the need to shout and scream over the top of each.
It was nice to see people prepared to be open to possible working together to try and resolve political differences.
Story submitted by David Jacobs
