All 6 candidates vying to become MP for Isle of Wight West faced intense questioning in front of a crowd of 300 voters at the Island Echo / IW Observer General Election hustings in Newport yesterday evening (Wednesday).
Residents from across the new Isle of Wight West constituency packed into Newport Minster to hear from those standing in next month’s General Election – the first election since the Isle of Wight was split into 2 parliamentary seats.
The premier event was introduced by Darren Toogood, editor/publisher of Island Echo and chaired by David Holmes, who maintained excellent order and – unlike Fiona Bruce on BBC Question Time – kept his interjections to a minimum.
The candidates first introduced themselves before fielding questions on the ferries, education, the state of the NHS, and the environment. They then faced previously unseen questions from the audience.
Sitting on the right of the panel was the least experienced candidate Rachel Thacker, of the lesser-known Alliance for Democracy and Freedom (ADF) party. She was the star of the show for many. Rachel – who claimed she was speaking in public for the first time in her life – was viewed by 1 member of the audience as “an ordinary person, just like us, who spoke from the heart”.
To the left of Rachel was Nick Stuart of the Liberal Democrats. Nick gave the impression of being a highly knowledgeable and experienced candidate, having trained in the military, worked in science and innovation for the Civil Service and as a teacher at Medina College.
The youngest candidate – 21-year-old Cameron Palin of the Green Party – spoke passionately about the need to protect the environment and invest in education. Cameron believed that the money required for greater investment could be afforded by the rich – whom he regarded as those with the broadest shoulders.
Bob Seely battled gamely to defend his record as constituency MP and that of the government, despite some heckling from the audience and criticism from opposing candidates. But he presented well and detailed the money the Conservative government have handed to the Island in recent years.
Ian Pickering of the Reform Party sat between Bob and the Labour challenger, Richard Quigley. Ian, perhaps surprisingly for some, came across as caring having previously worked in teaching special needs children. However, Ian got into difficulty towards the end of the hustings when he lost his train of thought mid-sentence, bringing his response to a question to an untimely halt.
Finally, on the left of the panel, sat the Labour candidate, Richard Quigley, who appeared to have the most support from the audience of any of the candidates. Richard spoke succinctly, calmly and confidently, aiming his fire at the record of the Conservatives in government and that of the incumbent MP.
Perhaps the most interesting question from the audience was the one asking what could be done to promote more love and kindness and reduce the divisiveness of political debate. Bob Seely answered that social media was ‘poisonous’ and that ‘people lost their humanity behind anonymity’.
After the hustings, the audience voted for their favoured candidate in an exit poll, the result of which will be revealed on Island Echo tomorrow (Friday).
Another Island Echo/Isle of Wight Observer hustings event, this time for Isle of Wight East, will be held at Ryde School next Wednesday (19th June). There are no further tickets available for the at-capacity event, but the entire hustings will be live streamed to Island Echo’s Facebook Page. An in-depth article on the responses from candidates to some of the questions posed at the West hustings will be published in the coming days…
You can watch the entire hustings, as live streamed by Island Echo, below:
