Tonyrefail Hustings - Savoy Theatre

It's only a week until we get to vote in our next general election. Tonight Dawn and I decided to go up to the hustings held in the Savoy Theatre just up the road.

This is not our first hustings of course. We went to the environmental hustings held in Cardiff just about a year ago for the European elections. I found that a fascinating evening, as was tonight.

All bar two of the candidates turned up. The Conservative candidate was a no show, and the Socialist Labour candidate couldn't change his shift, so politically that was a score draw!

There were five questions drawn at random from emailed in questions and then a handful from the questions given in at the start of the evening. I was lucky enough to get my question drawn.

We are very much a Labour stronghold here, with the candidate being returned to parliament since 1922. The last election the Lib Dems run Owen Smith close, I am not sure what will happen this time. It depends how much people tar Mike Powell with the coalition brush I suspect. I also suspect just enough to see Owen Smith returned as our MP.

I went to the hustings with my mind kind of made up on who I was going to vote for next week, but I wanted to see who my vote was actually going to, rather just a name on a piece of paper.

What was abundantly clear by the end of the night, the main party candidates are far more used to standing in front of large groups of people than the those from the smaller parties. The UKIP, TUSC and Green Party candidates were like rabbits in headlights at times, which was a bit disappointing. To be honest, of the three the UKIP guy came across the best, even though my political learnings are poles (ha! unintentional joke) away from his ideology. He also had the guts to say, despite UKIP's policy to support fracking, he would be against it in our area due to the geology of the area after decades of mine working.

Mike Powell and Owen Smith indulged in a bit of Punch and Judy political point scoring which was a big turn off for sections of the audience. I also though Mike Powell came across as far too aggressive at times, passion is great, but it boiled over too much for my liking, even though I suspect I voted for him last time around. 

The Green party representative disappointed me the most, I am sure like me she is passionate about the environment, and I even got her an environmental question, and she just fell way short of my expectations. She had little idea about the area she was representing. It was all most odd to be honest.

The TUSC candidate was on a £10 minimum wage mission, which is nice and utopian, but unrealistic in any sense. How on earth paying everyone £10 per hour would increase shopping in Tonyrefail was lost on me, seeing as the shops would have to close as they had no staff, or increase their prices significantly to cover it.

The Plaid candidate came across very well during the evening, he was very well spoken and more importantly, like the other main candidates, very well briefed. I don't agree with all of their policies, but with such little difference this time around across all the main parties, as they vie of a position in a probable coalition, this is to be expected.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and the theatre is looking stunning and I can't wait for it to open. It will be a valuable and exciting new feature for Tonyrefail.

One last comment on this blip .. I really don't care what other peoples political opinions or leanings are, the most important thing is, as I said five years go, is to get out there and vote next week. Your vote carries more weight than ever in this closest of contests.