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Students React to General Election Candidates’ Performance at the University of Surrey Hustings
Published on: 23 Nov, 2019
Updated on: 25 Nov, 2019
Amelia Hadfield, Professor of Politics at the University of Surrey welcomes the audience to its General Election Hustings
The five Guildford Parliamentary candidates were grilled by inquisitive students and others at the University of Surrey on Wednesday evening (November 20) and The Guildford Dragon was there to hear student reactions.
Interviews were conducted by Martin Giles and filmed by Mark Insoll.
UK students can choose to vote in the constituency in which they are studying or in their home constituency. With a close race predicted by some here in Guildford the votes of even a small proportion of the 16,000 students might prove crucial.
This is what they had to say…
An online voting system was used to gauge the opinion of the 320 strong audience before and after the debate. Although unlikely to be representative of the whole constituency it is clear that Anne Milton impressed some of the audience with the points she made, despite suffering from laryngitis on the evening.
Ms Milton’s gain was at the expense of Lib Dem Zoe Franklin, whose percentage fell by 11 points. The Conservative and Labour percentages remained constant but John Morris also increased his share of support, again at the Lib Dem’s expense, it seems.
Audience support for the candidates before…
…and after.
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Responses to Students React to General Election Candidates’ Performance at the University of Surrey Hustings
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Peter Brayne
November 24, 2019 at 9:36 am
Well done Dragon. More of this please👍
Alan Davies
November 24, 2019 at 6:04 pm
Yes and sorry to say more representative than The Dragon’s on the street survey but why do you ask “which party” will you vote for, not “which candidate”?
The ballot paper puts the candidate’s name first and above the party name and emblem. We are electing an individual to represent us, not a party hack.
Anne Milton is not the only one fed up with party politics. So why is the positive impression she gave the students “unlikely to be representative of the whole constituency?”
Editor’s note: not everyone in the UoS audience took part in the survey. Their sample size is not known to us. Our sample of the general public in the High Street and North Street is we believe likely to be more representative than a predominantly student audience. In any case, we do not support any particular candidate or party and have explained clearly how we conducted the survey. Readers are able to draw their own conclusions. Actually, we asked: “Who will you vote for?” not “which party” and showed, on the questionnaire, both parties and candidates’ names.