RESIDENTS will be able to hear what the town’s five Parliamentary candidates have to say on a range of issues when a hustings is held at Bromsgrove Methodist Centre.
The event, which has been organised by Churches Together in Bromsgrove (CTiB) and will take place between 4pm and 6pm next Sunday (April 26), will feature all five candidates – Conservative Sajid Javid, Labour’s Tom Ebbutt, Lib Dem Bart Ricketts, UKIP’s Stuart Cross and Green candidate Giovanni ‘Spoz’ Esposito.
There will be questions from the public for the panel to answer and the organisers are hoping there will be a bit more to the event than ‘Punch and Judy’ politics.
They said they wanted to get to know more about the candidates and their moral compass and what they hoped to achieve if they get elected.
CTiB has appointed a task group to receive questions and select those of interest, particularly from the faith community perspective.
The chair of the meeting will be Rev Richard Wilde.
He said: “We have all heard often enough from the party leaders’ sound bites and negative comments about other political parties.
“This is a chance to find out what makes each candidate tick, what local issues he will fight for in Parliament, which way he might vote in a free vote on an ethical issue and so on.
“In our electoral system we are voting for our candidate and not directly electing a Prime Minister.
“In the past I have voted for candidates from different parties and my decision was based as much on how he/she understood and engaged with his/her constituency as the party manifesto.”
Anyone wanting to submit a question should e-mail it to [email protected] and indicate if they want to ask the question themself or have it read out.
CTiB will not accept questions that are intrusive into the candidates’ personal lives or offensive.
Mr Wilde said he wanted to impartially enable a respectful debate and allow for honest expression of opinion without rude interruption.
“People of faith hold differing views on matters of public interest but hopefully we can respectfully disagree and value the dignity of all humans.
“People of any faith and none are welcome to the hustings – all I ask is respect for others and a willingness to listen.” he added.
