Election Candidates face questions from Ipswich churches

 

 

Around 180 people gathered in Christ Church, Tacket Street on Monday 19 April for a Question Time general election hustings, organised in conjunction with Christ Church, Heart for Ipswich and Amnesty International and chaired by Revd Paul Daltry. Five candidates - Mark Dyson (Lib Dems), Tim Glover (Greens), Ben Gummer (Conservatives), Chris Mole (Labour) and Chris Streatfield (UKIP) - were present, representing the main national political parties. 

 

There was some protest from supporters of one local Independent that all the candidates were not included, but the organisers explained that the candidates were present by invitation, and that a limit had been set to allow time for more questions. However this candidate was given opportunity to ask a question about her single issue of Broomhill Pool. The balance of the questions, mainly about global poverty, human rights and the environment, did generally reflect the kind of broader issues that tend to concern the supporting organisations.

 

In their personal introductions, Mark spoke of his campaigning on social issues as a film maker and Tim of his career in computer science. Ben stressed his successful business experience, Chris Mole his long service in public office, and Chris Streatfield his passion for democracy and freedom from EU control. All the candidates stressed their local credentials.

 

After an initial question about party funding (which revealed the far greater resources available to Labour and Conservatives), the candidates were asked about the priority each would give to fighting global poverty. Although all thought the issue important and supported maintaining or increasing the 0.7% GDP target for the Aid budget, there was a wide variation in proposed solutions. 

 

UKIP saw Europe as part of the problem, whereas Ben viewed the EU as a good way of directing aid. Chris stressed continuing current commitments, whereas Mark stressed the issue of fairness and the need to make aid better directed. Tim moved the argument on to issues of free trade and fair trade and there was a lively debate about this, with a wide variation in support for free trade.

 

In a question about the national debt and tax, the familiar arguments from the national scene were rehearsed by the three main parties, including the Lib Dem’s claim that they alone had seen the problem coming.   By contrast, the Greens saw the crisis as evidence of the limits to growth and even advocated government default on its debts, whereas UKIP saw the EU as a significant part of the problem. This led Ben to a robust defence of being in the EU, and Chris Mole to acknowledge that it was inevitable that taxes would rise and expenditure fall.

 

In response to a question about extraordinary rendition by US security forces and the extent of British complicity, Chris Mole maintained that the UK had been misled the Americans, whereas Ben expressed outrage at what he saw as implicit British support. He went on to challenge Britain’s close security relationship with the US and said that it needed much more parliamentary scrutiny.  Mark called for a full public enquiry.

 

The final question was about funding green technology and projects. Tim urged recognition of the colossal challenge of becoming a carbon free economy and advocated nationalising the banks and only giving people tax breaks on their savings for green investments. On the other hand Chris Streatfield denied that there was any issue with global warming at all! Ben asserted major failure on environmental issues by the government and pointed to the Conservative policy for universal grants for greening homes. Chris Mole urged building on current policies led by Gordon Brown and the importance of healthy businesses to achieve change, and Mark urged more government action to stimulate key environmental projects.

 

Overall, it was perhaps disappointing that in nearly two hours there had not been time for more questions. On the other hand some of the most interesting exchanges took place when discussion had got past initial responses. With the possible exception of one candidate who was suffering from a very heavy cold and perhaps did not shine as well as he might have done, the evening was actually really quite illuminating about these candidates. You do learn a lot more from this sort of event as compared with reading all the stuff that comes through the door. Well done and thank you to the organisers.