A General Election 2015 hustings event was held for the local constituency of Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough. Six parties were represented at the event at Christ Church, Pitsmoor.
Harry Harpham was there as the Labour Party candidate, having recently taken over from David Blunkett, who was retiring after 27 years as an MP. The candidates summarised their main focus in their individual introductions. Maxine Bowler of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) stated she was distinctly anti-austerity and Tina Gilligan explained that the Green Party wanted to spend more as a country in order to build the economy. Elise Dünweber wanted the constituents to stick with the Conservative Party’s long term plan for the economy, John Booker (UKIP) focused on the UK leaving the European Union and Harry Harpham (Labour) promised to build houses in the area and vote against the privatisation of the NHS at every given opportunity.
The event lasted over two hours, chaired competently by the organiser of the evening, Huw Thomas, who told me that such events were extremely important back in the 1960s when it was the only way to meet your representatives.
In a lively debate, the full audience fielded questions over a wide range of subjects such as immigration, education, unemployment, climate change, party spending plans, the integration of our community and challenges faced by young people. All parties had ample time to reply and to respond to each other. For the final question of the evening, candidates were asked who they would vote for if they could not vote for themselves. Tina from the Green Party chose Maxine of TUSC. Every other candidate then replied they would vote Green for Tina.
Harry Harpham said afterwards, “Local issues did get addressed. I thought it was a very good discussion … I thought the audience were fantastic. It was great to see the hall full and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think these things are very valuable for helping voters decide on their representative, who is going to make decisions that affect their daily lives.”