With less than a week to go before the general election, those of our readership who have not already succumbed to terminal election fatigue may have been watching the so-called election “debates” – both for the South East and nationally – on television.
Were the questions asked the questions that you would have wanted to be asked? Were you satisfied with the answers?
Now the opportunity is here to have your say. As Rye News announced last week, Churches Together have once again organised a local hustings to take place at St Mary’s Church from 7pm to 8:30pm on Saturday June 3. All the candidates have been invited to attend and this follows a similar hustings arranged at the time of the last general election.
This is an opportunity to hear what your local candidate aspires to do for our community. The party leaders have been bombarding us for some time with overall policies on which they all claim to be “very clear”, but what about Rye? How will the result affect our town? What effect will the various party policies have, for example, on the future of our school, the local NHS services. And what about the fishing fleet and the farmers after Brexit? Will there be added impetus to solve our traffic problems? How will any change in the immigration law affect the tourist industry on which Rye relies?
These and so many more questions have yet to be answered by parties with significantly different policies: the current government believes in releasing the brakes on spending only gradually, the main opposition believes spending (and taxes) is the way forward. Of the minor parties, UKIP want dramatic cuts and controls on immigration and more coastal security, while the Lib Dems want another Brexit referendum. What does all this mean for us here in Rye? How will our lives be changed – if at all?
A hustings is an old-established feature of British elections and dates back several centuries when candidates were required to stand up in their intended constituency and declare their policies. In those days, of course, the rules were somewhat more lax than today. Speakers could be cheered or booed and were often in danger of physical violence, either through objects being thrown or even a minor (and sometimes, not so minor) riot breaking out among rival sets of supporters. The fact that vote-hungry candidates would be liberal with supplies of alcohol in order to gain support cannot have helped matters.
None of this, however is likely to apply to the St Mary’s hustings where the debate will undoubtedly be controlled, sober, responsible and with truthful answers from all candidates (well…maybe).
Photo: library image
Image Credits: Rye News library .