The first of NTSU’s election hustings took place on Monday December 2, allowing students to ask questions to help them decide who to vote for in the upcoming general election on December 12.
The five candidates for the Nottingham south constituency, or their representatives, attended the hustings in the basement bar of the Clifton student’s union.
Barry Holliday (Liberal Democrat), John Lawson (Brexit Party), Marc Nykolyszyn (Conservative), Cath Sutherland (Green party) were all in attendance, whilst the Labour candidate for the general election was unable to attend due to a prior commitment.
She was therefore represented by Angharad Roberts, a local city councillor and a departmental representative of the University and College Union (UCU).
The hustings event started with each candidate being given two minutes to introduce themselves, with chair and student’s union president Bradley Fox cutting them off if they ran over.
The Liberal Democrat candidate Barry Holliday started the evening by explaining he was a former secondary school teacher and has lived in the Nottingham south constituency for over 15 years, before turning his attention to the current affairs affecting the country.
Both Marc and John Lawson decided to turn their attention to Brexit and the current issues surrounding the UK’s political climate, whilst Cath aired her concerns surrounding the environment and claimed this election should not be a ‘Brexit election’, but a ‘climate change election’.
“This shouldn’t be a Brexit election, it should be a climate change election,” Cath said.
“In 20 years, you will look back and wonder why you didn’t worry more about this existential crisis,” she added.
After the candidate’s introductions, chair Bradley Fox invited questions from the audience which took the form of tackling poverty and homelessness, the economy of the country after Brexit, and concerns surrounding crime within Nottingham.
All the candidates had brought notes regarding their policies and commitments to ensure they didn’t misquote anything from their party’s manifesto, and as a result, there were a lot of numbers and promises being fired from one politician to another.
One key concern from the students in attendance was that surrounding student debt, with a student arguing that after just one year of University, he was already in £13,000 debt.
Whilst Labour and the Green party simply argued that they would abolish tuition fees, the Conservative representative only wanted to reduce the burden of student debt and would work to create opportunities so graduates could progress after University.
The Liberal Democrat candidate claimed that although it is unfair that students must pay for their education, he argued that the system of student loans is the best option we, as a country, have at the moment.
Towards the end of the evening, an audience question turned the panel’s attention to the racism allegations surrounding Conservative leader and current Prime Minister Boris Johnson, after he described Muslim women wearing headscarves ‘letter boxes’ or ‘bank robbers’.
Marc Nykolyszyn attempted to ease the tension surrounding the topic and argued that Boris is more focused on looking to the future than focusing on the past and is constantly ‘pushing the boundaries of debate’.
However, the other candidates united in saying that Boris was ultimately unfit for office, whilst both Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage have also faced similar claims surrounding anti-Semitism and negativity towards migrants.
The final question of the evening led us back towards the students’ manifesto created by NTU and UoN.
Labour, the Green Party, Brexit Party and the Liberal Democrats all wholeheartedly agreed with the manifesto created by the students, whilst the Conservative candidate agreed he would support it “with discussion”.
Another NTSU hustings event took place at Brackenhurst campus in the Newark constituency last night (December 3), with the final hustings due to take place next Monday (December 9), ahead of the December 12 election.
By Faith Pring