Voters Attend Dragon Hustings to Hear Candidates Face Pressing Questions

Published on: 8 Jun, 2024
Updated on: 11 Jun, 2024

Over a hundred voters came to the Guildford Dragon General Election Question Time Hustings on Thursday to see and hear candidates standing for the Guildford constituency.

Questions from the audience were sorted by topic and the most poplar were: the Environment and Climate Change, Water and Sewage Management, Foreign Policy/Defence, the Economy, and the NHS. One question from each topic was put to the six candidates who together with chairman and Dragon editor Martin Giles formed the panel:

The participants in The Dragon Hustings. Please note Graham Drage is the Reform UK candidate for Godalming & Ash. He kindly substituted for Dennis Saunders, the Guildford candidate, who had an unavoidable prior commitment.

You can see and hear the whole event recorded hear. The Guildford Dragon NEWS would like to place on record its thanks to the United Reformed Church, Guildford, for once again freely providing the venue, helping with the preparation and arranging the recording below…

Responses to Voters Attend Dragon Hustings to Hear Candidates Face Pressing Questions

H Trevor Jones Reply

June 27, 2024 at 12:10 pm

At least two questions were offered on EU relations but didn’t get asked because other topics were more popular, which I think is sad, as the EU seems to be what divides the parties with Conservative and Reform UK appearing to be against better relations but Labour, Lib Dem, Green and Peace in favour to a greater or lesser extent. (All parties want good health, education, transport, water, etc.)

As no parties have offered a poster highlighting this difference, I’ve made my own A4 poster to display outside my house, the text of which reads:

“GENERAL ELECTION

If, like me, your main concern is rapprochement with the EU, eg joining the Single Market and Customs Union to reduce travel and trade restrictions, then it’s important to elect a candidate who is not Conservative or Reform. All the other parties, to a greater or lesser extent, seem to support rapprochement. So under our antiquated voting system, it’s best, if you agree with me, to vote for whichever other candidate is most likely to exceed the Conservative votes in Guildford.

Currently this appears to me to be the Lib Dem candidate for Guildford, who seems to me to be a pretty good candidate anyway, as are, to be fair, also the Labour, Green and Peace candidates in my own opinion formed at a recent hustings, but do check it out yourself, eg.] at GetVoting.org before casting your vote.”
David Roberts Reply

July 1, 2024 at 5:33 pm

Those who can’t spare 1 hour and 33 minutes to watch the hustings may like to see The Guardian’s report on Ms Richardson apparently downplaying pollution issues (and being over concerned about her personal security): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/29/angela-richardson-tory-deputy-chair-sewage-crisis-political-football?

Being a devoted Brexiteer completely rules her out of contention in my eyes. Unfortunately, the Lib Dem candidate has shown even less concern about the overdevelopment of Guildford’s villages under the Tory Local Plan.
John Perkins Reply

July 2, 2024 at 3:06 pm

Eight years ago a majority of voters chose to leave the EU. Four years later, after many attempts to prevent it, the UK finally left. Another four years have gone by since, yet there are still some complaining about it.
Angela Richardson Reply

July 3, 2024 at 7:55 am

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Angela Richardson is the Conservative candidate for Guildford in the general election