Hot air hustings

Having bucked the national trend in the referendum earlier this year, Bristol gets to vote for its first elected Mayor in November.

Being still undecided who to vote for I went along to a hustings that was organised by my old colleagues at Hartcliffe and Withywood Community Partnership and Voscur, a city-wide voluntary sector umbrella body.

This is the only debate taking place in south Bristol, which may be half the city, but still gets little attention when compared to the central and northern parts of Bristol. As south Bristol is home to most of the city’s poverty and deprivation it’s not difficult to understand why voter turnout is traditionally low, as is political activism and engagement compared to the rest of the city.

It was an interesting evening with some unexpected laughs and a lot of completely expected and predictable hot air. So many responses seemed to entirely miss the questions because candidates were keen to blame other political parties and then trot out their rehearsed statements.

For example, a very specific question about the need for a secondary school in one neighbourhood was greeted by nearly every candidate with clichés about the lack of primary places across Bristol and one even managed to inject a rant about public transport into his response. This happened repeatedly with candidates wedging in their pet political tropes at every opportunity instead of giving direct answers to simple questions. The loudest round of applause of the evening went to the questioner who prefaced her question by stating she wasn’t interested in what the others have or haven’t done, or transport, or the environment, or cuts, she wanted to know specifically what each candidate was going to do about the issue she raised.

It really was quite infuriating to observe the lack of respect from candidates as they ignored what people were saying and it offers very little hope for an elected mayor being any better at serving the people of Bristol than the current cabinet system.

It’s no good just saying ‘economic development is crucial’ or ‘I believe in clean air’ or ‘inequality is a massive issue’ – we all believe those things! Voters need to understand how candidates intend to tackle issues; otherwise all we’re left with is personality politics. And to be frank there wasn’t much personality on show either. We were treated to a ‘prolier than thou’ session with candidates flaunting their council estate backgrounds in a desperate bid for ‘authenticity’. I wonder if they’ll do the same at hustings in the wealthy suburbs of north Bristol?

One thing surprised me – I found myself with a growing respect for the conservative candidate as the evening went on. This goes completely against the grain for me, but his responses were calm, insightful and pragmatic. There’s been a general acceptance that the mayoral election is a two-horse race between Labour and a high profile independent. Labour because voters are unhappy with the coalition and the independent because Bristolians are fed up with party politics holding the city back. But, in the referendum to decide if we should have a mayor, the turnout in conservative wards was 50% higher than in Labour-held wards.

The conservatives traditionally do badly in Bristol and have been the third party for decades, but these elections aren’t like ward elections; votes from across the city are counted equally. If more Conservative voters are in favour of a mayor then more of them will be inclined to get out and vote come November.

There was only a 24% overall turnout in the referendum, but in the strongest of the Conservative wards this rose to 34%, whilst in some Labour strongholds turnout was as low as 10 and 12%. Those who don’t care whether we have a mayor may not bother to vote at all next month, while those strongly in favour are very likely to bother. Could this be enough to let the Conservatives slip in through a split vote? And if it is, what mayhem might we expect as the traditional Labour/Lib Dem councillor catfights get the added incendiary of a powerful third political party thrown into the battle?