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Report of today's hustings posted on Dover Mercury Facebook page by Keith Sansum.
Dover hustings; I attended this mornings Hustings, and hope to give an unbiased view of the event. There was a chair, but a lot of the time he was playing on his phone in the corner, and allowed some candidates to much time, that said it was good to get the candidates in one room. So how did it go???? CHARLIE ELPHICK; Unfortunately Charlie didn't get to the meeting, and although you could feel a little sorry for his stand in, The Dep leader of DDC, she was well out of her depth, and really did Charlie no justice. Charlie I'm sure would have been more informed, and more able to get the conservative message across GREEN PARTY 3 times the candidate advised that he was unlikely to win, and as good as saying don't vote for me, he had little to say on the major issues, and came across as a wishy washy uniformed poor speaker. CLAIRE HAWKINS; Although my views on Claire are clear, I do feel she spoke with passion, and new her subjects, she did grasp local opinion, where she tended to fall down, was her references to blame the tories for the ills of the day. I feel had she stuck to Labours plans for the future, it would have gone down better. Of course Claire still has to work out and explain how they won't be making the cuts,,yet have promised to follow the tories cuts for at least the first 2 years if elected. Also Claire stated she would re nationalise the railways, this was promised before by Prescott prior to a general election, as soon as in office, Prescott said they couldn't afford it. so trust is a word that comes to mind. SARAH SMITH; Came across quite well, appeared to grasp the issues being raised, and high profile, Sarah in another seat at another time, would probably do well, but unfortunately the lib dems national scene wont help Sarah, and of course the lib dems don't tend to do well of late in the Dover Seat.
DAVID LITTLE;
David took time to answer questions, but I do feel that Mr Littles attitude comes across as arrogant, and he will lose more votes than he gaines because of this.
David isn't helped by other maverick MEP;s when he keeps quoting HONESTY and no sooner than he mentions it, that we find one of his own MEP';s is suspended from party for alleged fraud.
Mr Little got himself involved in personal attacks on the 2 main parties, but at one point even ridiculing the green candidate, whilst the green candidate did himself no justice, he had a right for respect from the top table.
I feel these meetings are good for local people, able to question them direct, and more meetings are to follow, which I applaud.
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