Down at the hustings

Last night the United Church and the Bishop of Winchester hosted hustings for our election candidates: Steve Brine (Conservative), Patrick Davies (Labour), Mark Lancaster (English Democrats) and Martin Tod (Liberal Democrats). The UKIP candidate was otherwise engaged. As you can imagine, they all towed their Party lines about the deficit, parliamentary reform and how to tackle our "broken society." The only one to break ranks was Patrick Davies who said that he's never supported owning nuclear weapons, had marched against them in the past and hopes for a nuclear-free world.

It was interesting to watch the interaction of the personalities: Steve, the action man who always has a ready anecdote; Martin, who's passionate about climate change and who hopes to learn how to be a good constituency MP before another election is called; Mark, the cheerful policeman who believes the English have far too little say in their own Parliament; and Patrick, a man of great integrity who sadly doesn't stand a chance of being elected in Winchester.