Last nights accountability meeting was a great success. It was really nice to meet the other candidates – except John Bell who didnt show, or send a representative! There was four prepared questions that we had on bigotry, health, living wage and engaging young people. It was very disappointing to watch Carl - who has been doing this for years – fail to answer a single question with a specific policy idea. It saddens me that he will still take votes without having any new plans! The final thing about Carl was that he kept saying how he would listen to the people, which would have been more believable if he hadnt kept getting the Plaid candidate's name wrong – Shane not Sean.
Shane Brennan from Plaid was a lovely chap to speak to and obviously holds politics close to his heart. It was sad though that he failed to link all the failures that we have in Wales with the fact that Plaid have been in power for the last 4 years! Again his answers were vague in places, he failed to really inspire me with his rhetoric, the answers were just moans about what was wrong – again very little (but more than Carl) on specific policy.
We also had suprise questions from the floor, they were on jobs for older people, sustainability and traffic flow problems in Deeside. Its a tough job having to think on your feet but should you be briefed and honest there is nothing to worry about. I struggled with the traffic question, I am not fully briefed on the issue and therefore did not try to fluff my answer – in fact it was 'I dont have a clue, but I will find out'. I hope the audience appreciated the honesty. Both other candidate's had a long drawn out policy answer that was not specific to the question and full of 'spin'. Carl got a small bonus point from me as at the end of a 2 minute essay on Welsh transport issues (with no real point) he did say he didnt know either. I would have appreciated brevity more that an typical politicians answer.
Afterwards the tea and biscuits were excellent and I made a point of speaking to many people. All of them were so friendly and kind, but still challenging on the issues. I feel I did well from the feedback – especially from the lone Tory audience member who had me down as the best candidate, I hope I would have still got his support had John Bell turned up! The only area I wasnt happy with was the Labour supporter, who made a point of telling me that Nick Clegg was going to be taught a lesson with a smirk. I want people to vote on Welsh issues and how we can work together. Politics SHOULD NOT be about point scoring – but im not naïve enough not to expect some backlash from die hard Labour supporters!
Overall though it was a great evening and I was pleased to make some new friends.
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