Chris Bowers encourages Wealden voters to watch the hustings debate recording
Last Saturday December 7th, Crowborough Community Centre hosted Wealden's only pre-General Election parliamentary hustings debate with all four parliamentary candidates participating - Lib Dem Chris Bowers, Labour's Angie Smith, the Green Party's Georgia Taylor and incumbent Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani. The debate was moderated by BBC political journalist Helen Catt.
It was an important chance for Wealden voters, many of whom self-identified as still undecided at the start of the debate, to ask all four candidates direct questions and hear each of them speak. Due to the venue's size, tickets were limited and had quickly sold out, but anyone unable to attend the live hustings was able to watch a live stream of the event, and people can still watch the video recording of the event now via the Crowborough Community Centre's facebook page (NB: the action starts about 2 minutes into the recording):
News that the debate had been scheduled had previously been welcomed by Lib Dem candidate Chris Bowers, who'd challenged Tory Nus Ghani to a debate early in the campaign. After Ghani had failed to show up for the Wealden XR climate change debate in Forest Row, many began to wonder if she would participate in a live debate with the other candidates, especially as it seems a pattern has emerged during this campaign with over 70 Tory candidates (including Boris Johnson) failing to attend their local constituency hustings.
Following the debate, Lib Dem candidate Chris Bowers has received a lot of positive feedback from Wealden constituents, not only from attendees on the night but also from people who watched the video recording later. "I know people get sick of politics and politicians who refuse to address issues or listen to voters' concerns," he says. "I've always tried to answer the questions people ask me as honestly and directly as possible, so it's gratifying to hear that this came across at the Crowborough hustings and that more people will be voting Lib Dem in Wealden on December 12th because of it."
However, he also stresses that he was already delighted simply because the event happened as hoped. "One of the reasons Wealden has been so one-sided in recent years is that the Conservative candidate has seldom put herself forward for debate," says Chris. "Now there is 90 minutes of footage with all four candidates, and people can really see the differences between the parties - both in terms of policies and personalities. The more people who watch this, the closer the result will be."
VOTING INFORMATION:
Polls are open tomorrow, Thursday December 12th, from 7am until 10pm.
If you haven't received a polling card, don't worry - you don't need the card to vote (you just have to be registered) but you do need to know which polling station to vote at - click here to download WDC's LIST OF WEALDEN POLLING STATIONS.
For up to date #UniteToRemain #VoteNotTory #TacticalVoting information, go to Best For Britain's getvoting.org