Fylde Hustings: Public service versus self interest
The Blackpool Gazette, Lancashire Post and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Fylde constituency at the upcoming general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given time to answer questions from an audience at The Lowther Pavilion Theatre in Lytham.
Four out of the seven people on the ballot took part in the event with Cheryl Morrison (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom), Brendan Wilkinson (Green Party) and Brook Wimbury (Reform UK) all absent.
In order of appearance on stage:
ANNE AITKEN (Independent)
TOM CALVER (Labour)
MARK JEWELL (Liberal Democrats)
ANDREW SNOWDEN (Conservative Party)
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given time to answer questions from an audience at The Lowther Pavilion Theatre in Lytham.
Four out of the seven people on the ballot took part in the event with Cheryl Morrison (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom), Brendan Wilkinson (Green Party) and Brook Wimbury (Reform UK) all absent.
In order of appearance on stage:
ANNE AITKEN (Independent)
TOM CALVER (Labour)
MARK JEWELL (Liberal Democrats)
ANDREW SNOWDEN (Conservative Party)
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NewsTranscript
00:00out from from the list that we had. Somebody asking, they wanted an opinion from all the
00:07candidates on public service versus self-interest first. Mark, stay with you on that one. Public
00:15interest versus self-interest. Public service rather versus self-interest. Yeah, there are
00:23set principles that all politicians should work to. I'm not going to take any swipe to
00:31anyone here because I'm sure they're all upstanding and of the highest integrity,
00:36but it undermines our democracy, I think, when politicians do act in a
00:46unprofessional way, if I can just put it like that. Because what we all get painted with is
00:55you're all the same and I don't believe that. I believe everyone up here on this table is doing
01:01this because they want the best from their perspective and given their values and policies
01:09and they want to try and do the best. So
01:12to me, one of the things that is really fulfilling as a politician is when you get stuff done,
01:23when you achieve things, when you improve people's lives and that must surely trump,
01:29it is a really selfish position to say I'm going to do this for my own benefit.
01:33And those known principles, I think they are, put out those principles by which politicians
01:40should behave and they should be held to account and they should have the most severest consequences
01:46if they do not hold to those principles because people are putting their trust in you
01:51and I will always hold your trust and integrity in politics.
01:59I think we can honestly say, all four of us, I think we're fair. You don't know who you're voting in,
02:10you don't really know us, but you do hope that you're going to vote somebody in who's fair.
02:18But you might take somebody on as a job at work or in the nursing or at the post office
02:23and they might not turn out to be how you want them to be. You just have to
02:27look at the person, hope we're fair, I think all four of us are fair and I hope we play by the rules.
02:35But yes, politicians should be held to account, it shouldn't be brushed under the carpet
02:42and if any of you all do get to Westminster, don't be like the schoolyard or as though you're
02:48all in the zoo. I think we all need to just come down to brass tacks, work for the people and
02:54stop trying to get points off each other.
03:03I think it's hugely important and one of the sad things the last 14 years has been
03:10the decline in standards and because when you start to accept those standards for yourself
03:13you start to accept it from everyone else as well and that's why regulators stopped regulating
03:19and sued Stars Flame to give you an example. It has to be about service before self, it has to be
03:27about constituency before career, it has to be about country before party, so it's not just
03:33the integrity of individuals, it's the integrity of parties as well. I think we're overdue Labour's
03:42proposal for a statutory standard system for MPs and Ministers, it's time that's
03:47put on the footing that can't be interfered with by party politics. One of the things for me is
03:55I've got two kids in this constituency and I don't want to gift them a mess
04:00because we had a substandard MP but it's not just on me, even if I'm elected it's not just on me,
04:07it's not on the 649 other people in the House of Commons, it's not on the far too many currently
04:14in the House of Lords but that's another thing we're going to address. It's on all of you as well,
04:19hold us to account, don't snipe on Facebook, come round and tell us exactly what's wrong.
04:26Make sure that you turn out and vote. Now by now you might have decided you're going to vote for me,
04:31if so please vote and tell your friends. By now you might have decided I'm the last human being who
04:36should ever go to Westminster. In that case vote for one of these other people, not the ones who
04:41didn't turn up because frankly turning up is an important part of the job.
04:52And when you choose to vote for them tell your friends because this election might well be that
04:57close. So it's important, voting is just the start of it, it's about being held to account.
05:04Read your local paper, I'm sure you'd like me to say that, you can't get a robbery that easily,
05:09but read your local paper. We're having to fund people like Paul from bits of the BBC licence fee,
05:17because there's not enough interest in what's going on locally and nationally. The electorate
05:24has responsibilities too, it's not down to any one of us if we're elected because by now you've
05:30decided not to vote for the people who didn't turn up, it's down to everybody because a better
05:35society doesn't start in Westminster, it starts in Wheatland, it starts in Wharton, it starts in
05:42Frakkington, it starts in Luton St Hans, it starts in Polk, it starts on your street, it starts in
05:47your house with the way you choose to behave to other people because you can set a standard that
05:54the rest of us have to follow from where you are and darn right MPs should set a much higher
06:03standard from the apparently lofty heights of Westminster, but it's all of us together because
06:11as some Prime Minister said before he decides to leave after a small inconvenience,
06:16we're all in this together, we really are, 70 million of us in this country,
06:21we can all be part of the solution or we can all be part of the problem, I know which I choose.
06:34As your party made that a harder task for you, is it harder for you to get a hearing as a result?
06:41I think one of the things that's quite often amusing to watch and which is why I don't
06:46partake in it is from either of the parties when someone from the other party gets caught doing
06:51something they shouldn't have done and then everyone piles on on social media to try and
06:55score some points out of it, the press do some digging and it turns out someone from the other
06:59party's also been up to it and everyone ends up with egg on their face and politics looks poorer
07:04for it, so for me actually part of it is not about, it's about not getting involved in that
07:10bloodslinging, that cheap swiping at individuals, actually sometimes how you treat people when they
07:15get something wrong and are down is actually more a testament to your character than it is
07:20when you treat people on the up and for me about integrity in public life is what drove me into
07:27politics about, I started out as a candidate in district council then I became a county councillor
07:33then I became the police commissioner and now I'm stood here today vying to be your next member of
07:39parliament. I've worked my way up from grassroots community politics where actually it's about
07:44whether the dog poo gets cleaned up and the potholes get filled in and you're dealing with
07:48the things that matter to people day in and day out, I'm not considering yourself to be this aloof
07:56senior person who's dealing with things far more important than what matters to individuals.
08:01Like I said earlier on I've knocked on with my team, we've knocked on about six thousand doors
08:06around Fylde now, I actually believe politicians often hide from the public too easily and you
08:13should be out there talking to the people that you serve, you can't go to Westminster
08:17and be claimed to be representing and be the voice of a constituency if you're not talking
08:22to your constituents and I would like to say actually that this has been a clean election
08:28in Fylde, it has actually been a pleasure to debate already tonight but also throughout this
08:34election, the first time I met Anne she gave me a massive hug and a glass of wine and it has been
08:41a really clean election and actually for me that is actually a key part of it that is on us as
08:47politicians, yes as individuals, I don't doubt the integrity of any of the people on this stage,
08:51I don't doubt that people are in it for the right reasons but it's also one of us to keep
08:57the discourse clean and to keep it about the policies and not about the people.