Hostile hustings for Thame’s MP

A General Election Forum, held in Thame last night (Monday), attracted so many local people that the event had to be reconvened in the Church next door. The hustings was organised by the combined churches of Thame, and was booked to be held in St Joseph’s church hall.

But the sheer number of local people who wanted to see and hear their candidates talk about the issues that would help them decide where they would mark their cross on polling day, surprised many people.

Thame constituents continue to arrive before it’s decided to reconvene in the more spacious church next door.

Four of the five candidates standing in the Henley Constituency (which includes Thame) attended, Robin Bennett – Green Party, Laura Coyle – Liberal Democrats, Patrick Gray – Radical Party, John Howell – Conservative and Oliver Kavanagh – Labour Party. UKIP’s candidate, Tim Scott, did not show up.

The candidates were asked a variety of questions, including subjects such as the lack of affordable housing in Thame, funding for Education, how the country should treat immigrants and asylum seekers, Children’s health services and freedom of movement for EU citizens. Thame.Net tweeted live from the forum and for those unable to follow our twitter stream, here is a flavour of the main questions discussed:

Education

The first question of the evening came from a teacher at Lord Williams’s School, who asked John Howell about education funding, saying that her school was due to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds in the proposed Education Funding Formula. She invited him to visit her school and help them ‘choose the 25 teachers that will need to go!’

The Lib Dem candidate, Laura Coyle, refuted his reply that there will be a real-terms increase for all schools, adding that under her party, what she called ‘the vanity project’ of more grammar schools would not happen.

For Labour, Oliver Kavanagh promised a programme of investment in education. An audience member said directly to John Howell that one Thame primary school had spent time and money building a kitchen to provide school lunches for pupils, only to now have to scrap it as the free school lunch policy was being abandoned by the government.

The Radical Party candidate, Patrick Gray, said that ‘current policies are strangling the futures of our young people’. He said that his party wants power ‘back in the hands of people, meeting locally and saying what they want’.

There was a rumble of derision from some sections of the audience as John Howell blamed the previous Labour government for the state of economy and said that ‘a strong economy’ was what his party had to offer.

When asked about cuts to Policing and fighting terrorism, John Howell said that more surveillance officers had in fact been employed. While for the Greens, Robin Bennett talked about suggestions of a report on terrorism funding which is expected to criticise Saudi Arabia, bring ‘suppressed’ until after the general election.

Immigrants and asylum-seekers

In response to a Thame resident’s question about what each party would do to help immigrants and asylum seekers, International cooperation is the only way to solve the fundamental causes of refugees, suggested the Radical Party’s Patrick Gray.

John Howell said the government had helped 3000 children from the immigration camps. This was not enough, said Liberal Democrat, Laura Coyle. “We should welcome refugees and asylum seekers with open arms.”

The Green candidate said that only 350 children had been taken in by the UK last year. The Lib dem candidate said that her party would limit detention in asylum centres to 28 days, calling the current system of inderminate lengths of stay as ‘inhuman’ and ‘barbaric’.

Housing

A member of the audience said that despite earning a reasonable salary, she had looked into several schemes to help her get on the housing ladder in the area, but £330,000 for a two bedroom house is not ‘affordable’!

Abandonment of a national consensus after the war, that everyone should have a decent home, is what is at the root of the housing shortage and high prices, said the Radical party’s Patrick Gray.

John Howell mentioned Neighbourhood planning as the way for local people to influence housing development in their areas, a policy he helped introduce. He suggested that the proposed completely new, settlement at Chalgrove was an opportunity to put infrastructure in first, before any houses were put in.

On the subject of free movement of workers between the UK and the EU, the Radical party’s Patrick Gray said that it was ‘folly’ to restrict immigration from the EU. “We need their skills in many occupations” he said, and that we would be “shooting ourselves in the foot” if it were curbed.

John Howell said that be believed that a reciprocal agreement on EU workers would be made during the Brexit negotiations.

Candidates’ final statements

Winding up at the end, the Green candidate, Robin Bennett, said: “We will work for environment and the most vulnerable in our society.”

In his final statement, Patrick Gray said: “Vote for the Radical Party for a more equal and optimistic future.”

Seeming to concede that a Labour win was unlikely in Henley, Oliver Kavanagh suggested that a vote for his party would nevertheless “send a strong message to Teresa May” that her party would not have things all their own way in a future parliament.

Laura Coyle for the Lib Dems said in conclusion: “We certainly did not vote to leave the EU in the way she (Theresa May) is preparing us to. We want Britain to remain open and tolerant.”

John Howell, the sitting Conservative MP, after criticism from the floor of the government cuts to Education, the NHS, the police etc, said that only a strong economy could support such services, and that he was proud of what his government has done for the country. This evoked some noisy, negative responses from some members of the audience.

Conclusion

It cannot be denied that the general feeling among the audience at this Thame General Election Forum was one of hostility toward the sitting MP, John Howell (who made a hasty retreat at the end) and the Conservative government in general, which perhaps is to be expected after seven years of austerity and cuts, whether one believes them to have been necessary or not. But an observer could not fail to have been surprised at the lack of apparent support for the Conservative party that has dominated the Henley constituency for so long.

But to jump to any conclusions about an earth shattering routing of John Howell’s party, would be unwise – those dyed-in-the-wool Conservatives ‘who would vote for a toy, blue bunny if it were put up’ as they say around Thame, would probably not have felt the need to come to a forum and hear alternative views. Also, it was raining last evening and there were very few young people attending which, if the pundits are to be believed, could make a difference if they are moved to come out and vote.

Listening to the questioning and the response to replies from the politicians, the over-riding impression was that those who had taken the trouble to come, had decided that they want to vote for an alternative, and had come along to size up the alternatives before making up their minds – whether they intend to vote tactically or not.

Only in the early hours of Friday morning, June 9, will we and the candidates discover whether or not the Henley Constituency has been rocked at its political foundations – or just shaken up a bit.