Democracy in Action

Chairing the Churches Together-organised General Election hustings at Hornington Baptist Church yesterday was one of the most intense 90-minute periods I've ever spent. People had submitted questions - fewer than I anticipated, to be honest - which I then grouped into subjects and reworded so a single question was asked for each. It became clear that a set of questions were being asked not so much by individuals as by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel & Brighton using those individuals, so I put a discount on those when assembling a list actually to be put to the candidates. All the candidates got back to me, apart from the Womens' Equality Party (though I think their candidate attended another hustings not far away), while the Greens had a bit of an internal issue after the national party imposed a candidate on the local Greens who preferred to stand aside and allow the Lib Dem standardbearer a free run at the incumbent Tory: a local councillor stood in for her. So we had a full podium and to get through at least six questions I intended to limit each candidate to a statement of two minutes only.

Given some of the statements of the leader of Reform and the opinion of some of the party's candidates, I was rather worried about how to handle their local representative if he started claiming there were streets in Oldham where nobody spoke English, for instance. So I warned the candidates that, as well as expecting them to concentrate on their own policies and not one anothers' record or proposals, if any of them came up with statements I couldn't see the basis for I might ask them to elaborate. In the end I did this with the Conservative candidate who seemed to suggest that there were potential illegal immigrants waiting on the French coast for a Labour administration to take control ('You can't know that', I said), and the Labour candidate, just to confirm that some very optimistic-sounding figures were in the manifesto. The Lib Dem candidate and Green spokesperson needed restraining from some negative rhetorical flourishes, ad hominem attacks and straying from the point. Ironically the only person I didn't take to task in any way was the gentleman from Reform who, even if you might disagree with him about this or that point, did express himself in a completely unobjectionable and well-behaved way.

Constantly trying to watch the clock, remember who should speak next, and concentrating on what the candidates were saying in case I felt I should intervene, while all the time striving to make sure I put my own personal opinions to one side, was surprisingly hard work. Il Rettore told me that when he'd done the same job once in Devon he'd ended up telling all the candidates to shut up, which I'm glad was farther than I reached. I'm glad it's over and not sure I want to repeat the experience. 

I finished by pointing out the dangers MPs now face and how we should appreciate the willingness of anyone who wanted to do the job, even if we disagree with them - and by asking anyone who was in the habit of praying to do so for our nation on July 4th. The number of plain-clothes police in the church, and their uniformed colleagues keeping an eye on the pro-Palestinian demo outside, brought home the point.