About a hundred people (1) gathered last night to hear from five people who want to be the Member of Parliament representing Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge . The five present were
- Dannie Braine, Green Party
- Alexander Bramham, Social Democratic Party
- Jacqueline Anne Brown Labour
- Sam Harper-Wallis Liberal Democrat
- Gavin Williamson, Conservative and Unionist Party
[I don’t know if UKIP’s Janice Mackay is still in the race, and if so she is why she wasn’t present. At the last minute before nominations closed, the Reform Party’s candidate had pulled out of the running – this was the source of perhaps the sharpest moments of the hustings – see below).
The event went smoothly, with a scattering of “high” points (ymmv). What follows is not a blow-by-blow (I am a masochist, not a sadist, after all), since the event was live-streamed and will presumably be online for you to watch at your leisure. It’s what I gained from it, with a smattering of snark and some thoughts about “what next”…
The event began punctually and after formalities each of the five candidates got two minutes (mostly adhered to) to set out their stalls. No real surprises – lots of invocations of children, of being local or having local connections: the usual motherpie and applehood that you need to say in order to be taken seriously. Williamson – an MP already for 14 years was the most slick and professional (that’s not necessarily a compliment, btw – and see comment on closing statements), but his pitch seemed to be “I’m Gavin Williamson.”. The Labour candidate made mention of schools (being a teacher) and the NHS and… the Nolan principles, something we will come back to. The Lib Dem and Labour candidates are sitting councillors (the normal conveyor belt to becoming an MP – the fact that Rishi Sunak has no such background is one of the many reasons he is just so bad at the bread and butter skills of politics. But I digress)
Each candidate then had an enforced minute each to respond to a total of 16 questions (see below). Inevitably, therefore, only generalities and platitudes can follow. I am not sure how, if I was organising it, I’d have been able to do anything different.
Two cliches apply to almost all hustings, and they were here in force.
- All politics are local – most of the questions (see below) were on bread and butter local issues – schools, the high street, the greenbelt. Nowt wrong with that, obviously.
- You learn more by listening to the silences. – what is not talked about can be (often IS) at least as important as what is discussed. And the gaping silence is, of course… climate change (see below). Not a single question on it, and only one of the candidates (the Green, obvs) mentioned it at all (2).
Despite the issue being brought forward (belatedly) by Margaret Thatcher in 1988, and despite 36 years of campaigning, promises, protests, and heatwaves etc, it’s just NOT an “issue” for people. This might be puzzling, until you think about terror management theory. But I digress.
UPDATE – I sent the blog post to the organisers of the hustings, and they replied with this added context –
The reason for the omission of a climate change question was because we had asked the candidates for a written response to the question, “What’s your opinion on the climate crisis? What should individuals and the government do to ensure our children and grandchildren can grow up in a healthy environment?” in their candidate profiles that they submitted – an example is here – https://alittlebitofstone.com/2024/06/07/candidate-profile-sam-harper-wallis-liberal-democrats/
It is still the case, of course, that only one of the five people even mentioned the climate crisis
Here’s my cheat’s guide to the 16 questions asked.
- What would you do about drugs? (Lib Dem says decriminalise cannabis. Everyone talks about treatment, policing etc
- What would you do to help Stone High Street ((business rates, free parking, open a constituency office (!!!))
- Planning application for service station on a greenfield site. There’s a petition about this. Everyone saying “defend the Green Belt”, of course.
- What government reforms required to rebuild trust of public. (proportional representation, say a couple. Not Labour, obvs).
- Do you agree that you can’t increase spending without increasing taxes? Lib Dem says borrowing, Green says ‘carbon tax’)
- Do you support right to strike? (most say yes, but typically Conservative has-cake-eats-it with “minimum service laws” which, um, means no effective right to strike. See here. Labour won’t repeal. If you can’t strike, you’re not a worker, you’re a slave. It’s pretty straightforward).
- (Long question) why is education not a priority in Stone? (Hilarious “deranged wokeness” stream of consciousness from the SocDem guy, who says “A mile a day of” mandatory walking for students and staff.
- Protect individuals’ rights?
Then a 15 minute comfort break
- Israel/Gaza – various bits of cautious handwringing. Some saying “no weapons to Israel”, one pointing out that it’s mostly components rather than weapons themselves. “Elbit” not mentioned, obvs.
- What to do to support the NHS (usual pieties, and attacks on “middle managers”)
- What investment in social care for those with severe disabilities – again, the usual soothing sounds, but what else can you say in a minute?
- How are you going to help the most vulnerable in the constituency? Everyone using the word local as if it had meaning, as if it were a talisman to ward off evil spells
- What about the rise on VAT for private schools? Things getting spicy now – Labour (and it was aimed at them) pushing back firmly, pointing out there would be exemptions for the kids from poor families.
- Last minute withdrawal of Reform candidate. Still spicy! The SocDem guy skirting defamation laws with comments to Gavin Williamson, who talked about innuendo, insinuations (there was hissing – disbelief? – at this point, followed by vigorous clapping from a small claque. The Labour candidate pushing back against the Green candidate’s unwillingness to speculate, saying politics isn’t a tea party and mournfully pointing out that Reform were polling 14%. My impression was she thinks they will switch “back” to the Conservatives, but it will probably be more complex than that – some stay home, others to UKIP or wherever.
- What are you going to do for young people? (youth clubs etc)
- Stopping HS2, right or wrong. What you doing about transport? (Most agreed HS2 stoppage right. Get direct trains to Birmingham and Manchester etc).
That was it for questions. Each candidate then got a closing two minutes each. No real surprises, just recapping. The Labour candidate, J.A.B., got in another of her very subtle jabs (see what I did there), when she reiterated the Nolan principles of public life.
Surely this was not at all a coded reference to the Conservative candidate and, well, this, this and this? Speaking of, Gavin Williamson finally seemed to come alive, though perhaps overdid it, reaching Penny Mordaunt levels of fervour – it felt like outtakes from her infamous leadership bid video.
None of the candidates crashed and burned, by their own lights. They may have picked up or lost a voter or two, but nothing cataclysmic happened.
The event finished with a round of applause (richly deserved) for the organisers and tech folks of the event. It’s easy to be cynical about “democracy” but the fact remains it is the least-worst system we’ve got, and hustings are an important part of it – and they don’t happen by magic, they happen because of initiative and hard work…
What we learn and what next
The “climate” is just not an issue (in the literal sense) for anyone, it seems. Not one of the sixteen questions was on it, and only one of the five candidates (the Green) mentioned it at all. But, to channel Tolstoy, just because you’re not interested in climate that doesn’t mean climate isn’t interested in you… The earliest impacts are already here for people in other parts of the world, and the heatwaves, once-in-a-hundred-year events happening every five years, agricultural mayhem etc will become more frequent. We are radically unprepared, and that unpreparedness is a) escalating and b) will have very real-world consequences, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable (e.g. the old, the disabled).
What next?
Well, we will wake up on July 5th with a Labour government. The amusing question is will the Tories dip under 100 seats, (and who will lead them afterwards). Given the Starmer lot’s clear inability to do anything other than repeat shopworn memes about ‘maxxed out credit cards’, they will disappoint, even though they’ve worked very hard to massage expectations down down down. The problems we face – as residents of Stone, as residents of the UK, and as of planet Earth, won’t go away. They will escalate. The 2029 election will involve far more anger and despair – and perhaps the things that traditionally come with anger and despair.
Footnotes
(1) Seeming to be all white of skin and mainly white of hair
(2) During the interval someone I thought was outgoing Tory MP Bill Cash but have been informed was someone else altogether, told me that the atmospheric concentrations hadn’t changed. That’s not true – atmospheric concentrations of C02 have gone up from 280ppm before the Industrial Revolution to 426ppm (and climbing rapidly) today. I tried to point out that small amounts of something can make a big difference, pointing out that if he had as much alcohol in his blood as there is carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, he would be unsafe and if stopped by the police, would lose his license. It didn’t seem to land, and you shouldn’t expect him to be throwing orange cornflour on the Stone War Memorial or glueing himself to the A34 any time soon.
Disclaimers
I have no connection with A Little Bit of Stone – just a punter who turned up at the hustings. I am not now, and never have been, a member of any political party.
marchudson.net 
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