Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 October 2007 19:42:13
I spent the afternoon eating lemon drizzel cake and drinking tea whilst listening to a range of people explain why we should give them the chance to be a Lib Dem Candidate for the South East in the 2009 European Elections.
As is typical for these things the turnout was underwhelming, but I was glad I went. The paper information gave me the blurb on all the candidates, but apart from a brief meeting with one of them 15 years ago at a NUS conference of some sort I have to say I never come across any of them face to face. Therefore, it was going to be useful to see them standing up, giving their prepared talky bits and answering a few questions.
Now the returning officer has told me I can pretty much blog what I want, but I am intending to be responsible on this.
The candidates we heard from this afternoon were (in no particular order) Dr Jim Barnard, Catherine Bearder , Sharon Bowles , Antony Hook, Gary Lawson , Martin Lury, Ajmal Masroor, Justine McGuinness, Zoe Patrick and John Vincent .
With the wonders of modern technology in between getting the cricket and footballs scores we got to listen to 200 word statements which had been texted through from the other candidates ( Ben Abbotts , David Grace , Simon Green, Murari Kaushik and Fiyaz Mughal).
So what did I learn this afternoon. Well....
1. When in doubt fall back on the environment because, unless you ask any specific questions like the one thrown in to some of the candidates about nuclear power, everybody agrees. Liberal Democrats tend to be fluffy green type people.
2. Practically everybody is trying to walk that fine line between addressing the complex issues in detail; acknowledging the fact society generally has to change and trying to ensure that they can be electable. It is for example, generally accepted that there is a crisis in this country when it comes to the availability of affordable housing. However, the trade off between country side and the provision of that housing is such that everybody is either trying to fudge the issue or coming out with one sided statements which will appeal to their segment of voters. Daftest thing I heard this afternoon was that affordable housing should be provided but in the north. Um, so who is going to teach, nurse, stack shelves in Sainsbury's, etc in the south. What was disturbing though is nobody is prepared to challenge the concept of atleast part self-owned property and say what we actually need is to go back to the 20th century idea of providing council housing (to replace what the Tories sold off).
3. Whether Turkey should join is a contentious issue and the only people who was prepared to acknowledge what the argument is actually about was one of the Muslim candidates. The rest were talking in noble terms about what the EU stood for and extoling the democratic and human rights virtues of it's members whilst generally steering clear of the fact the key human rights type legislation is among the stuff being vetoed or negotiated out of by Britain. To be fair though the current MEP did point the error of these veto's when she was doing a spot of Labour bashing in her ickle speech.
4. That selling tea, coffee, sandwiches and cake at near market prices at a meeting is a very sensible way for a local party to earn funds and keep the punters smiling.
So which order am I going to put people down in? Well, that's something kept purely between myself and the ballot paper. What I will say though is seeing the democratic process in motion and hearing people extoling their versions of the role of a Lib Dem MEP in Europe my faith in both the Lib Dems and democracy were restored.