Meon Valley Constituency Hustings

Went along to the election hustings organised by the RSPB last night. Not all candidates were present, although the main candidates were. Those present were George Hollingbery (Conservative), Liz Leffman (Liberal Democrat), Howard Linsley (Labour) and Steve Harris (UKIP).

So how did they do when presented with questions mainly about the environment??
Well the three candidates representing the three main parties did reasonably well although there were subtle differences which I thought were important. However IMO the UKIP candidate did quite badly. It was clear that the primary subject was the environment, yet Steve Harris I think managed to bring immigration and the EU into most of his answers.
I also believe that he was a skeptic about climate change, although none of the questions really challenged him a great deal regarding that issue.

What was more interesting were the responses from the two front runners. My impression was that Liz Leffman put into practice far more environmentally friendly actions in her life than George Hollingbery. Liz said she and her husband only owned one car and shared it, she used public transport etc. and would use the train to get to London if elected. She also uses the internet a lot to conduct business rather than arranging meetings and travelling a lot. George apparently flies to America (an unstated number of times) and judging by his 'surgery' that regularly appears in Waterlooville, drives a 4x4 Land Rover 'tank'.

My advise to George Hollingbery, is that he puts his money where his mouth is and starts analysing his own carbon footprint. Running a property business doesn't give him automatic rights to have a larger carbon footprint than other people!

If you are interested in posing questions to the candidates, there is another hustings on Weds 14th April, at Hart Plain Church, Cowplain at 7.30pm. All candidates will be at that one.

Not sure what constituency you are in?
Ordinance Survey have an online map system where you can enter your post code and see the constituency boundaries. The new constituency boundaries apply, so after entering your postcode you need to click on 'Show Layers' and then choose 'Proposed Westminster constituencies'.

Added: Also the BBC election pages have a postcode/constituency map facility that is easier to use.