Diversity in Southend

I attended my first official "Question time" event as an MEP in Southend on Friday evening. The Public and Commercial Services Union had arranged the event, inviting candidates from all the parties, and advertising to their 300,000 members UK wide and through local media outlets. It was an interesting event. There were 15 people in the audience (half of which were supporters of the 6 candidates), so it was an intimate affair. Nevertheless it was still a heated event, with both candidates and audience members getting hot under the collar at times. As an Independent candidate most of the questions were not a problem to handle (especially if you get a grip of the local issues as well) - although I (and the Jury Team) did get attacked at one point over the diversity of our candidates. I pointed out that diversity of opinion from candidates all peddling the party line was not a strong position to criticise on, and when considering the 'open' primary nature of the list selection, the argument all but faded away. Overall, I'm not sure there were many 'floating' voters in the room, although I did get some encouraging feedback from Marion (the only non PCS union/candidate support person in the room), and she was particularly pleased when I was able to hand her a concise explanation of the Lisbon Treaty. I feel much more prepared for the Norwich event next week, where I'm promised a much bigger turn-out, (a Thursday evening rather than Friday I think helps). I encourage as many Independent candidates as possible to get along to these events, if nothing else they are great learning experiences.