howard mcsweeney1 wrote:I hear that Stacey did well at the hustings in Deal this evening, no doubt the Captain will report back on this.
An entertaining evening (though hardly a re-run of the Brains Trust).
The questions, being from the local Chamber of Trade, we're all a bit dull about business rates and so on and at times one was really hoping someone from the audience would shout out 'What are the 39 steps?'and shoot the chairman just to liven things up.
Stacey indeed did a lot better than many thought she would, though a little short on the understanding of the limitations ALL national governments have on tax avoidance by international companies which are a matter for world trade negotiation rather than individual countries. She was all for lots of bank holidays though a little unsure of how to pay for them or indeed what productivity was.
Charlie played a straight bat as expected claiming responsibility for higher wages, lower unemployment etc which like it or not are all true, though whether they are due to government is a debatable point. He only really went off piste with his mad idea to bring in visas for just about everyone and then charge them for a 'visa waiver' since they don't actually need one. No, I don't understand that either and I spent 23 years in the Home Office dealing with such matters. He also rebuilt the railway line at Dover singlehanded.
The Green woman waived her hands around a lot and was also keen on days off and worried abut an aging population and just seemed generally batty and the sort of person one wouldn't object to living in a van on your drive.
The UKIP man was replaced by the candidate for Thanet South who was wearing his dog-collar. It turns out he's a Baptist which probably explains a lot. Talking to another member of the audience earlier he had confided that he was expecting to take Thanet South with a majority of 5000 but when you think of the mad things he believes in and preaches about in his (sun)day-time job such fantasies seem quite reasonable.
The Liberal Democrat, another stand-in, seemed a very nice young man. That's all I can remember about him. He was the sort of young man one would be quite happy taking your daughter out, but hoping nothing became too serious in case one ends up with really boring grandchildren. One feels that legalisation of cannabis would do him a world of good, but what would I know of such matters?
Tomorrow they should all be appearing a little less nervous and hopefully will be answering a wider range of questions more important to Dover voters such as dog fouling or the provision of public toilets. If it gets really boring I'm more than happy to ask about the 39 steps as long as someone else brings the firearm.
Jan Higgins, Guest 2060, howard mcsweeney1, Reginald Barrington and Paul M like this
'If no one went no faster than what I do there'd be a sight less trouble in this world'