Blackpool North Hustings: Candidates deliver their mini manifestos
The candidates standing for election in the Blackpool North and Fleetwood constituency on 4th July were each given 3 minutes to introduce themselves and outline their manifestos to an audience at a Cleveleys venue. Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
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NewsTranscript
00:00to introduce themselves and outline their manifestos.
00:06Just to say, Lorraine Beavers was enabled to come, but Clary Gunshaw, who is the police
00:14and clan commissioner for Lancashire, but also I know is local to this area, is representing her.
00:21So we'll go for you.
00:27Good evening, everybody.
00:41Hello there.
00:42Judge how far we can hope this will work out, first of all.
00:45So I'm Paul Maynard, I'm the Conservative candidate for Blackpool North and Fleetwood.
00:49I've got three minutes to tell you what I'm about, which is going to be quite a challenge.
00:54As many of you will know, I've been the Member of Parliament now since 2010 for Blackpool North and Cleethouse,
01:00and with the new boundaries we are taking in some new areas.
01:04My fundamental point to you is that I am very happy to stand on my record of being a diligent, good constituency MP
01:11over the past 40 years.
01:13The work that I've done, in Blackpool in particular, to draw in funding for regeneration,
01:19to work across the party divide, with Blackpool Council, with government, with the private sector,
01:24has helped bring in hundreds of millions of pounds into the town of Blackpool to start our regeneration process.
01:31No-one says that regenerating Blackpool is going to happen overnight,
01:35but the foundations that we've put in place are now visible in the town centre.
01:39Whether you go into Aberdeen Street Market, whether you see the new civil service hub that's going up,
01:44whether you've travelled already on the new tram extension up to Blackpool North station,
01:48you're seeing the benefits starting to arrive now.
01:52And that's the philosophy I want to adopt, in Cleetwood in particular,
01:56which so far has not benefited from the Government's Lovely York programme.
02:00But by my lobbying and mithering of Ministers, I made sure that it was on the short list of towns
02:06that would receive £20 million from the Government as an extra payment on the Lovely York programme.
02:11And now I want to take that same philosophy that I used in Blackpool,
02:16of working across the party divides, working with councils, working with the private sector,
02:21to bring that same long-term focus to Cleetwood.
02:25Listening and speaking to people in Cleetwood, I noticed great frustration
02:29at what they often see as a toxic, partisan nature of politics in Cleetwood.
02:34And in my view, that I think is holding the town back.
02:37Of course, one of the most important things I think I can offer as a Member of Parliament
02:41is actually, the moment an election is over, the party politics have to be put to one side.
02:46But of course, the constituency game is in a way a bit misleading.
02:50Blackpool North and Cleetwood, it misses out the largest community of all in the middle,
02:54Thornton, Cleetwood East.
02:56And of course, there, many of the issues, some people look to Cleetwood, some look to Blackpool,
03:00some look to Cleetwood itself.
03:02But the main focus I've seen over the past 14 years
03:05has been the consequence of gradual and encroaching housing development,
03:10putting stress on local services, local medical care, secondary schools in particular.
03:15All of that has been stuff I've been working on.
03:17It's benefited, for that matter, Cleetwood, Thornton and Carlton,
03:20even when I haven't represented those areas.
03:23Improving access to primary care at Thornton Medical Centre,
03:26trying to rejig how meal-filled access is, for example.
03:30So I have a very clear vision of making sure that I protect local services
03:35and also making sure that both Cleetwood and Blackpool's regeneration programme
03:39will keep going.
03:42On mine?
03:54Hello, I'm...
03:56I'll start again.
03:58I'm Crackers Count, Corrosion of Forlorn Hope.
04:02I'm the official Mossring loony party candidate.
04:08We have a wide range of policies, including environment and climate change.
04:17We plan to move August between December and January
04:21in order to even things out and cut down on heating bills,
04:24especially for old people, that's really important.
04:27We want to bring back the five-piece stamp for sourcing postcards,
04:31because that's a big industry which has been neglected lately.
04:35We want to rename the Russell Watchtower to the Leaning Tower of Russell
04:45and attract a lot more tourism there with a Eurostar station
04:50and an international airport.
04:52We're going to create lots of jobs by having an F1 racetrack,
04:57a Starship base and many other things like that.
05:00I think that's just for the start.
05:03But everybody here who votes for me, and if I win,
05:06if we come to power, everyone here will get a free car
05:11and all their parking fines for the past 20 years will be paid back.
05:15Trust me, I'm a politician.
05:25Good evening, I'm Geeta Gordon and I am my own manifesto.
05:30I'm one of the people who has lived here
05:33and I have worked through the care sector, with the social services
05:40and then with the NHS through the pandemic.
05:43And just before the pandemic, I had a small business
05:46and because of the pandemic, my business also got ruined.
05:50And so I understand the hardships that people face.
05:57Small businesses, whatever they are up against.
06:01And what else can I say that, at least I'm very, very proud to say
06:06that during the pandemic, I was one of the frontline workers
06:10and with all that happened, the corruption, the lack of PPE,
06:17the lack of support, the stuff that the families went through,
06:24I've seen that firsthand.
06:26And that is the reason I'm standing today to speak up against all that
06:31that went wrong and especially past 14 years as well.
06:36And the other parties, the opposition,
06:39they did not offer any strong opposition either.
06:43So now it takes somebody local who needs to stand up and speak up.
06:49There comes a time when democracy is getting demolished.
06:54It's getting insulted. People's wisdom is getting insulted.
06:59Somebody needs to stand up.
07:01And the people who speak about democracy are the same ones
07:05who fuel the fire of division and make us feel that we cannot trust anyone.
07:13But there is a positive way forward with common people,
07:17somebody like me, an independent who's not afraid to speak up,
07:21who's not afraid of any bosses anywhere sitting in the Westminster.
07:25And as it is, an independent can speak louder as well
07:29because not afraid of losing my whip.
07:32Whip is the power. I can't get suspended.
07:36I can't get kicked out of the party just because I'm speaking for the people.
07:40So there is a lot that we can do together.
07:44If you vote for me as an independent candidate. Thank you very much.
07:56Good evening. My name is Bill Green.
07:58I'm a Liberal Democrat candidate for this constituency.
08:02I've lived on the farm since about the 1970s.
08:06I've got a very large family.
08:08But the significant thing about that family is that
08:11a number of them are in the care sector.
08:13And the main thing that certainly I'm standing for in this election
08:17is that we have got to actually look after the care sector.
08:22There are people being left to wallow in situations which are terrible.
08:31People have got to be looked after.
08:33And that means that the people who look after them
08:36have got to be paid the right amount of money.
08:39There's got to be people coming in.
08:41Just recently I looked at the number of jobs which are available in this particular area.
08:47A quarter of them are for care staff.
08:50Now if that number of people are required,
08:53can you imagine the kind of things which are not happening
08:57for our elderly people, our people who are in care, who need care.
09:01That's both at home and sort of in establishments.
09:06So that's my main concern, looking after people who are in care.
09:18Good evening, Tina Rothery with the Green Party.
09:21Tonight and all throughout this election, we're going to hear just nothing but sad news.
09:25We all have a reason to complain.
09:27And everyone has a reason to be dissatisfied with this government and with our council.
09:33So one of the reasons that we would run, that I would suggest you vote Green, Independent,
09:38or for some party that isn't the main two, which I think is so important,
09:43is we have been stuck in a two-party system for so long.
09:47And even when the Labour Party members voted to have PR involved
09:53so that we could get a better voting system rather than first-past-post,
09:57they didn't carry it through.
09:58Keir Starmer chose not to honour that 70% vote, I think it was.
10:03So I think I plead not just for myself, but for the others here.
10:07And you can hear the passion that we bring.
10:09So you will think, and what you'll read in the press is,
10:12well, why bother? You're not going to be the government.
10:15Well, no, we're not.
10:16But what we are going to be is the challenge to the government.
10:19As Peter pointed out very clearly, that's what needs to happen.
10:23We can't just have a majority government yet again,
10:27who are going to railroad through their ideas,
10:30regardless of the diversity of us.
10:33Not all of us agree with Keir Starmer, or agree with Rishi Sunak,
10:37or any of the incarnations of him before him.
10:40Which is another thing, really, to think about,
10:42is we lay a lot of blame on that man, as if removing Keir Starmer,
10:46sorry, as if removing Rishi Sunak would change anything.
10:50And yet prior to him, we had David Cameron, Theresa May, Liz Truss,
10:55and, oh, how could we forget, Boris.
10:58So they were all part of this government.
11:00So we know there is no point to voting Tory again.
11:03And as nice as you can be as a constituency MP,
11:07how you can expect a vote from a town as impoverished as ours?
11:12You know, we have poor education.
11:14I've come out of supply teaching, and it was soul-destroying.
11:17Soul-destroying the state, particularly the classrooms,
11:21state schools, the overcrowding of classes,
11:25and the inability to provide probably the most important thing
11:30to young people, which is hope.
11:33Because there's not a lot to tell them.
11:35Because the jobs in this town are poor.
11:37When I spoke to a class recently about,
11:40what would your career options be?
11:42You know, what would you look at doing?
11:44They said, we don't have a career in this town.
11:46We get a low-paid job that's possibly seasonal with zero hours.
11:50And that's what we're giving them as a future.
11:53And that's not even to start on the fact that there's no denying,
11:57my party is about keeping nature and the environment safe
12:00for them for generations to come.
12:02And we can't ignore it.
12:04It is a key part.
12:05It's what keeps us alive and healthy and well.
12:08And you look at Fleetwood, the disaster there of the landfill
12:13that's currently leaking, and it smells bad.
12:16And no one's measuring the temperature
12:18because the content of the air,
12:21because the environment agency is underfunded.
12:24Yep. Okay. Thank you.
12:26APPLAUSE
12:32Good evening. My name is Dan.
12:34And I am the Reform UK candidate for Blackpool North and Fleetwood.
12:37And I am married with two grandchildren.
12:41I'm not a career politician.
12:43I would actually class myself as one of the silent majority.
12:46And the reason that I got into politics
12:48is because I was sick and tired of seeing politicians
12:51running the country down and taking away our freedoms.
12:55So I only got involved just under two years ago.
12:59And what I have learnt in a short time
13:02is that anything can happen and anything is possible.
13:06And this is an important moment for the UK
13:10because this is perhaps the most important election
13:13we have had in recent times.
13:16The country, I think many of you will agree,
13:18is in a mess after 27 years of first Labour and then the Tories
13:22who have managed to break Britain.
13:25But at this election, the British people have a choice.
13:28We could have more of the same,
13:31with a change in colour, I think, from blue to red,
13:34but without a change in agenda.
13:37Because with Labour, we will see more net zero,
13:40higher taxes, more immigration and definitely more woke.
13:45Or we can have a change in direction for the whole country
13:50with Reform UK that puts British people first,
13:53British business and our country first and foremost.
14:01Because sadly, the election is over.
14:03Labour will be the next government.
14:06The only thing that it's really to question now
14:09is the size of their majority and who will be the opposition.
14:14And I would like to put to you that Reform UK
14:16will be the voice of opposition,
14:18the voice who will hold them to account
14:21and who will point out the bad ideas, the waste,
14:25and present an alternative vision for this country.
14:29So let me just briefly talk about my plan.
14:32We have more jobs, year-round jobs,
14:37for Blackpool North and Fleetwood,
14:39delivered primarily through reopening Blackpool Airport,
14:42bringing the fishing back to Fleetwood,
14:45reopening the railway line from Fleetwood to Poulton,
14:48and by taking on the police, backing them,
14:53and bringing 40,000 police in.
14:56Thank you very much.
14:58APPLAUSE
15:05Yes, good evening.
15:06I'm the Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire.
15:09Sadly, Lorraine couldn't make it tonight.
15:12Due to family commitments solved for tonight,
15:15on one night only, I am Lorraine Beavers.
15:18And Lorraine has got a manifesto and agenda for change.
15:23It's about change because it's about change
15:26from the government that we have now,
15:29which is without doubt the worst government we have had in history.
15:34The government that has given us record inflation,
15:37the cost of living crisis, the crisis in the housing sector,
15:41sewage in the seas.
15:43The way that this government has managed, mismanaged,
15:47not only the economy,
15:50but the way that they have given us Rishi Sunak,
15:55the man who gave us PPE and eat out to help out Rishi Sunak's mates.
16:03The party that have given us Liz the Lettuce Trust,
16:08who crashed the economy in record time.
16:12The party that has given us Boris the Truth Dodger Johnson,
16:16who the rules didn't apply to him, did they?
16:20The party, the lies, the way that he not only discredited himself,
16:27but discredited politics.
16:29That has had an impact on all of us.
16:33And that is something that we do need to change.
16:36So if we vote for Lorraine Beavers and get her elected,
16:41we will see a Labour government that is committed to stabilising the economy.
16:49That is committed to investing, getting name of policing back on the streets,
16:55tackling the anti-social behaviour.
16:58To deal with investment in this local area that is so deprived,
17:03that needs the investment,
17:05we need people that will fight for this community.
17:09And I'll tell you with Lorraine Beavers,
17:12of the 650 MPs that will get elected on July 4th,
17:17she is without doubt the one who not only deserves it more than probably any other,
17:25but would do the job better than any other.
17:28Because of the way that she cares, genuinely cares about people.
17:33That actually she wears a heart on her sleeve.
17:36That she will actually go out and make your life better.
17:41She's doing it for that, rather than doing it for herself.
17:46That is the kind of person.
17:47If Ken Loach came out of retirement to make one more film,
17:51it should be about somebody like Lorraine Beavers,
17:54a genuine working class icon,
17:57who's come from a working class council estate,
18:01who is now set to, in my belief, would make an amazing member of parliament.
18:07What a role model for really working class people.
18:11No one better than voting for Lorraine.
18:14So vote for change.
18:15Time's up. Thank you.