I went to a hustings arranged by a church group in Selby last night at Standering Hall on New Lane. All the PPCs were there and gave a pretty good account of themselves, particularly Arnold Warneken of The Green Party who I thought was the outstanding candidate. Katherine Macy of the Liberal Democrats spoke very confidently for a 21 year old in her first election and I'm sure will be an MP one day. Unfortunately, neither of them are likely to be an MP on December 13th.
The chair, a member of the church group, had to call for more chairs because so many people turned up!
All the candidates were I think please to see such a gathering on a cold night in December. The audience was not quite the balance one might have expected in a constituency where the Conservative party won 58% of the vote in 2017. I would say it was probably 60%+ left wing and Nigel Adams got quite a bit of booing and pushback, particularly when he talked of Labour scaremongering about the NHS. It's a word Adams reaches for whenever anybody argues with Tory plans and he can't think of a counter argument. He was able to employ it frequently in the referendum when anyone pointed out aren't any benefits to Brexit at all.
In 90 minutes last night, just four out of the six scheduled questions were asked. One was about climate change and Adams talked about Britain under the Conservatives having the "fastest emissions reduction of any G20 country". This was rather ironic since in June 2016, he blamed the main law, the EU Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU, for the "destruction of highly skilled, well paid jobs in our area caused by EU regulation in the power and coal industry". He has since confirmed the EU regulation in question was the 2010 Industrial Emissions Directive (actually not a regulation anyway).
The hypocrisy of it is breathtaking but not altogether surprising from a man who has actively supported the imbecile who may well become prime minister again in eight days time.
It is having your cake and eating it. Deflect criticism for your own policy (The Conservative government of 2010 voted FOR the IED) onto the EU but when the benefits of the policy show through in the fastest emissions reduction in the G20, take all the credit and don't breathe a word about the EU.
Last weekend I was door to door canvassing for Labour. Today, I am out stuffing envelopes for the Liberal Democrats in York and tomorrow leafleting for The Green Party in Barlby and Riccall. It's all a bit strange for someone who, until 2017 had never voted anything other than Conservative. However, I find it oddly exhilarating. Everyone in the Remain Alliance that I have met over the last couple of years has been, without exception, kind, decent and perfectly able to come together in the spirit of cooperation to defeat Brexit.
Is it a lesson for the future? I really hope so.
