Friday, April 29, 2005
The Hustings report
Well that was fun.
First off, Alan Ord did not even bother to turn up. What is the point of running, and for us voting for him if he can not even be bothered turning up to the Hustings?
I had 3 questions prepared, on Iraq, Jobs and ID Cards. I got my ID Cards question read out by the Chairman so I had to ask my Iraq question myself..more on that later as that deserves a blog on its own.
Impressions of the candidates:
Alan Ord: Missing presumed "can't be bothered"
Watts Stelling: Good local Councillor, but not sure about an MP. Came across well if a bit repetitive, personally I don't agree with his policies he seems a bit of a cross over of Tory/Labour.
Hilary Armstrong: Shes going to win and she knows it. She said that speaking to the locals makes her more nervous, but I don't know if that is a pre-made excuse for not being a very good public speaker. Lots of ums and ahs, forgetting names and quite a bit of waffling. Very much New Labour.
Jamie Devlin: Now if he was from the area he would do a lot better. Out of the 3 (Alan didn't turn up or did I mention that) he came accross the best. For a 25/26 year old his public speaking confidence was very impressive. Two complaints, I set Hilary up nicely on I.D. cards but he stole my thunder on the "choice" argument, secondly Hilary set the Goverment up nicely going on about truth and honesty and not one dig at back from him!
The audience was very pro-Hilary. At points Hilary threw fish at the crowd and the seals clapped back, if the meeting was in a less biased place it might have been better. We were in Hilary's church right accross the road from her house.
Now from my point of view most of the questions were boring, Pensions, Education and Health.
Hilary and Jamie did have words on the Health issue with Hilary accusing the Tories of counting porters in the statment that "there are more management staff than doctor and nurses" (well it was something along those lines). If I have the time I might check that one out. I did hear a shout from the crowd asking the Chairman to call order during this discussion.
Now on to my question on ID Cards. I asked the candidates what their opinion on ID Cards are and asked Hilary directly how much they would cost us.
Hilary then started her waffle, the basis of her argument was:
New Passports will have to in the future have biometric data on them (Iris, fingerprints, DNA), as will driving licences. The cost of Passports will go up to about £70, that is an increase of £28, and if you have one of these new Passports an ID Card will be in the region of £10-15. So we will take the higher end of that cost as that is usually what the goverment do.
So that is a cost to us of £43.
Now on to the "advantages" according to Hilary.
To fight terrorisim (Will get to that in a bit)
To cut crime/fraud
She doesn't see what all the fuss is about as other countries have them and they won't be compulsory for at least 6-8 years.
Now this is where I wanted an instant come back, as I could see the rather large holes in this..but the Chairman stuck to the rules sadly and let Jamie steal my thunder.
Jamie rightly pointed out that we chose to have a Passport and we chose to drive, he also raised the civil liberty argument.
Watts said he didn't have a problem with ID Cards and would like one card that is his Passport/Driving Licence/Cash Card and Swiss Army Knife (I added that last one). Watts said he has nothing to hide so the has no problem with an ID Card, now I did not raise this point with him at the time. I have nothing to hide in my house so should I just let the police/goverment just wander in when the choose, I have nothing to hide when I make a phone call should I let the goverment tap my phone? It is called privacy and I am quite protective over it.
Now I got my turn to come back at Hilary.
I brought up the choice argument again, I said I did not want to be forced to have an ID Card. She said that we won't be forced for a good few years.....comedy come back time.....with Jamie taking the lead and putting it much better than myself (God I am rubbish at speaking in public looking at the video my work mate took) we highlighted that only the terrorists would be forced to have an ID Card..much laughter etc etc. She then said that in a fast changing world that we need to put such things in place, but if we are not putting them in place for 6-8 years...we are hardly acting fast I responded....
I have to say that was fun.
The meeting was drawn to a close with the candidates being asked a question on Faith, the role of a politics and faith and telling the truth.
I really thought one of the other candidates were going to have word about truth and the liar Blair but they were soft.
The meeting was drawn to a close with out my Iraq question being asked. Not happy I attracted the Chairman's attention stating that I had a question that has not been answered. Hilary looked none too pleased and shook her head. I said it was on the last topic truth, I was told to come up and ask the question to the panel after the meeting...so I did.
That is my next blog, but my fingers hurt so I am off for a rest and a coffee...
First off, Alan Ord did not even bother to turn up. What is the point of running, and for us voting for him if he can not even be bothered turning up to the Hustings?
I had 3 questions prepared, on Iraq, Jobs and ID Cards. I got my ID Cards question read out by the Chairman so I had to ask my Iraq question myself..more on that later as that deserves a blog on its own.
Impressions of the candidates:
Alan Ord: Missing presumed "can't be bothered"
Watts Stelling: Good local Councillor, but not sure about an MP. Came across well if a bit repetitive, personally I don't agree with his policies he seems a bit of a cross over of Tory/Labour.
Hilary Armstrong: Shes going to win and she knows it. She said that speaking to the locals makes her more nervous, but I don't know if that is a pre-made excuse for not being a very good public speaker. Lots of ums and ahs, forgetting names and quite a bit of waffling. Very much New Labour.
Jamie Devlin: Now if he was from the area he would do a lot better. Out of the 3 (Alan didn't turn up or did I mention that) he came accross the best. For a 25/26 year old his public speaking confidence was very impressive. Two complaints, I set Hilary up nicely on I.D. cards but he stole my thunder on the "choice" argument, secondly Hilary set the Goverment up nicely going on about truth and honesty and not one dig at back from him!
The audience was very pro-Hilary. At points Hilary threw fish at the crowd and the seals clapped back, if the meeting was in a less biased place it might have been better. We were in Hilary's church right accross the road from her house.
Now from my point of view most of the questions were boring, Pensions, Education and Health.
Hilary and Jamie did have words on the Health issue with Hilary accusing the Tories of counting porters in the statment that "there are more management staff than doctor and nurses" (well it was something along those lines). If I have the time I might check that one out. I did hear a shout from the crowd asking the Chairman to call order during this discussion.
Now on to my question on ID Cards. I asked the candidates what their opinion on ID Cards are and asked Hilary directly how much they would cost us.
Hilary then started her waffle, the basis of her argument was:
New Passports will have to in the future have biometric data on them (Iris, fingerprints, DNA), as will driving licences. The cost of Passports will go up to about £70, that is an increase of £28, and if you have one of these new Passports an ID Card will be in the region of £10-15. So we will take the higher end of that cost as that is usually what the goverment do.
So that is a cost to us of £43.
Now on to the "advantages" according to Hilary.
To fight terrorisim (Will get to that in a bit)
To cut crime/fraud
She doesn't see what all the fuss is about as other countries have them and they won't be compulsory for at least 6-8 years.
Now this is where I wanted an instant come back, as I could see the rather large holes in this..but the Chairman stuck to the rules sadly and let Jamie steal my thunder.
Jamie rightly pointed out that we chose to have a Passport and we chose to drive, he also raised the civil liberty argument.
Watts said he didn't have a problem with ID Cards and would like one card that is his Passport/Driving Licence/Cash Card and Swiss Army Knife (I added that last one). Watts said he has nothing to hide so the has no problem with an ID Card, now I did not raise this point with him at the time. I have nothing to hide in my house so should I just let the police/goverment just wander in when the choose, I have nothing to hide when I make a phone call should I let the goverment tap my phone? It is called privacy and I am quite protective over it.
Now I got my turn to come back at Hilary.
I brought up the choice argument again, I said I did not want to be forced to have an ID Card. She said that we won't be forced for a good few years.....comedy come back time.....with Jamie taking the lead and putting it much better than myself (God I am rubbish at speaking in public looking at the video my work mate took) we highlighted that only the terrorists would be forced to have an ID Card..much laughter etc etc. She then said that in a fast changing world that we need to put such things in place, but if we are not putting them in place for 6-8 years...we are hardly acting fast I responded....
I have to say that was fun.
The meeting was drawn to a close with the candidates being asked a question on Faith, the role of a politics and faith and telling the truth.
I really thought one of the other candidates were going to have word about truth and the liar Blair but they were soft.
The meeting was drawn to a close with out my Iraq question being asked. Not happy I attracted the Chairman's attention stating that I had a question that has not been answered. Hilary looked none too pleased and shook her head. I said it was on the last topic truth, I was told to come up and ask the question to the panel after the meeting...so I did.
That is my next blog, but my fingers hurt so I am off for a rest and a coffee...
