We had our hustings meeting in Morecambe yesterday and it was it was good to see a packed hall taking part in the democratic process. I am grateful to the organisers for playing their part. I have read the manifestos of the three major parties but it was interesting to see how the candidates interpreted their policies and to see how well they spoke in front of an audience.
I am afraid that the event was not completely positive. The UKIP candidate had a prior engagement and regular readers will know that I would have liked a few answers from this particular candidate. 'Prior engagement' may be a euphemism for not wanting to answer any questions but this possible eupemism pales into insignificance when compared to the absence of the sitting MP. A simple explanation was given - she declined the invitation.
Why should she do this? I had heard that she had better things to do. Well what could be a better use of her time? She may consider that she will get in the newspaper for her refusal to attend and that all publicity is good publicity. I don't think they will publish my letter (see Wednesday's blog entry) and they may not mention her non-attendance at all. However I do want the voters to know that she couldn't be bothered to turn up. Possibly she feels that she cannot articulate her policies. We don't know so we will have to come to our own conclusions.
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Since I have lived in Morecambe, 9 years this summer, I have never seen any candidates canvassing door-to-door. Yet before my divorce, I lived in Bolton-le-Sands, only a matter of a few miles away, and we were canvassed in ALL elections, local and general.
ReplyDeleteI for one am very interested to here that our MP didn't show her face at the hustings, perhaps she doesn't want to be elected this time around?
I have stood in your area twice as the County Council candidate Sea, and I used to enjoy colouring in my map to say which doors I had knocked on. I covered most of the division on both occasions. I was agent in 2005 for the general election and many of those doors were knocked on for that purpose too. Maybe the Labour candidate is knocking on lots of other doors so she can't go to meetings.
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