Saturday, May 27, 2017

Election campaign day 38: the hustings meeting and UKIP gay haters

Blaydon hustings meeting May 17 (2)

On Thursday evening, the one and only hustings meeting of the campaign in Blaydon took place at Strathmore Road Methodist Church in Rowlands Gill. It was my first chance to meet the Conservative candidate Tom Smith, kindly paying us a visit from London! He seemed a pleasant enough person. Sadly, the Space Navies Party candidate was not present, presumably on some interplanetary trek going boldly where no party has gone before. Also not present was the Libertarian candidate. The panel therefore consisted of Labour, UKIP, Conservative, Green and me.

The poorest performer was UKIP. He had to be pulled back by the chair of the meeting on a number of times to the question in hand. The final question we had to answer was what we each thought was the biggest injustice in the UK. The UKIP candidate rambled on about the horrors of "thought police" forcing people to accept "sexuality" and attacking equal marriage. The audience was clearly unhappy with his response but he was then told to end his answer by the chairman as he had overrun his time. "Yes, I'll stop there," he said.

I spoke next and opened my comment with, "Yes, please do stop there." It brought a round of applause. My answer about injustice was about the wealth divide in the country. Tom Smith spoke next and took the Kipper down even further by pointing out that he had married his husband and was very happy in his relationship. That brought a round of applause as well.

Sadly, there are no more hustings meetings in Blaydon. I guess the next time I will see my fellow candidates will be at the count.

1 comment:

Lisabela Zxywhiddm Marschild said...

Dear Johnathan
It sounds like I missed a good bunfight with that UKIP guy. Being a Transwoman and a candidate I'm sure he would have been foaming at the mouth If I was present in all my glory.

Actually I wasn't off exploring other worlds. My mum is 83 and severely disabled.I wanted to come to the Hustings but couldn't find anyone to sit with mum. My carer is still on Maternity leave and she's my driver. Can't find someone else to drive my van. It's great fun being disabled.
As a liberal democrat I would expect you to stand up to the gay bashing and I'm pleased you did.

Best Wishes

Lisabela Zxywhiddm Marschild