We were generally a bit disappointed with this hustings at the Utrophia Arts Project at Tanners Hill organised by NO2ID and Power2101. There was a good turnout despite it being a glorious Saturday evening but we couldn’t help feeling that it was not representative of the constituency. The audience was mainly white (as were the candidates, no surprise there) and this end of Deptford is anything but mainly white.
Joan Ruddock, Labour candidate for Deptford Lewisham, previously the MP – full red jacket.
At least Joan wore red, not the banal pink-red usually favoured by New Labour acolytes (yes, you Joan) and typified by Gordon Brown’s choice of tie on the recently televised presidential leadership debate.
So how did a political debate become a fashion critique?
Until now I have always voted labour. Since 1997 we have had the Iraq war; massive and intrusive curtailment of civil liberties including a seismic shift from the rights of the individual espoused in the 795 year old Magna Carta; continuing privatisation of public services; extensive use of anti trades union laws legislated for by the previous Tory administration, which despite promises, have never been repealed – and that is just the tip of the iceberg. So why the fuck should I vote ‘Labour’ now? This is not a Labour party.
And I will never vote Tory. Ever. I grew up politically through the successive Tory administrations (Thatcher x 3, Major x 1). My own personal scar tissue pales to insignificance compared to the damage done by the Tories to ‘society’. Remember this?
There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.
Margaret Thatcher
And the Tories go on about ‘broken Britain’. Hypocritical fuckers. They ‘broke’ it. And New Labour (sic) continue to break it.
Gemma Townsend, Conservative candidate for Deptford Lewisham -Â ‘We’ll cap immigration to about this much…’
One questioner asked for reassurance from the candidates that we could trust them when they got to office… Like they were going to say that the first thing they would do would be to order a duck island on expenses. That they weren’t self-serving ego-promoting rapacious political whores. They are politicians for fuck sake, going for the highest office. There has to be an element of self-interest there though obviously none would admit it. The questioner was asking about honesty and integrity… #fail.
Another questioner, a young black man called Tony walked out in disgust after being shouted down. His exasperation got the better of him and he angrily shouted his questions, but you know, he should have put his hand up and waited his turn etc etc. His questions were highly relevant and local, asking what the candidates would be doing for young black families with poor housing, low incomes and.or benefits. Unlike the question on big oil and the arms trade. WTF?? The fifth column sometimes disappears up its own arse.
Kate raced out after Tony and got his phone number so we should hear more from him soon. Local politics and proper journalism. What an unusual mixture. I for one am looking forward to it.
I find it very hard to write about politics and the more local it gets, the more difficult it is for me. I believe that the candidates believe what they say. I don’t believe what they say because it is so evident that there is such a reality-rhetoric gap. ID cards Joan? Immigration Gemma? The other candidates have a credibility/reality gap (for me at least) because they can say anything. Fucking hell, even I could change the world!
So that is why I found myself looking at Joan’s red jacket and thinking of the irony of her wearing that colour. Still, it photographs well.
And on the subject of photography, the light was very low so I had to use a too high ISO (hence the noise) in order to hold the Nikkor f/2.8 80-200 steady enough to avoid shake. Unsuccessfully for the majority of shots too which is a bummer. For some reason the photo of Joan turned out to be the best of a bad bunch. Must remember a monopod next time. I also loathe this kind of staged photography anyway but need the practice. Luckily Kate videoed the occasion and this will appear at hangbitching.com when we work out how to get it off the cam (hello Sony with your crappy proprietary connectors).
Anyway, big thanks to NO2ID and Power2101 for giving us the hustings and allowing me to indulge in bitter disillusioned sociopathy. I still don’t know who to vote for and it is upsetting me hugely.
Update:
Coverage on some other local blogs:
Do tell me of any more
by skinnyvoice
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Excellent report from Lewisham-Deptford hustings from @skinnyvoice, with truly great photos http://bit.ly/cF24N1
RT @skinnyvoice: New at deptfordvisons: Partially Full Red Jacket – Deptford/Lewisham Hustings 17/04/2010 http://bit.ly/apnQEb #photogra …
You’re left wing? In Lewisham Deptford you should consider voting Green, they’re further left than Labour now and Darren Johnson is a fantastic candidate, with a real chance.
http://www.onlygreen.org.uk/
Hi Rosie, am I left wing? I was hoping that would be self evident from the photography/writing on this blog but I’m guessing your question is rhetorical. Checkout some of the tags/categories.
Voting Green? Most parties are probably farther left than labour now so the field is wide open. Thanks for the interest though
I will write about Darren, Tamora and Ian at the husting too. We videoed the whole event and I’ll be providing a link to it soon.
Here's a nice report from Sat hustings of which GemmaT4MP boasts… more to follow. http://bit.ly/cF24N1
“The audience was mainly white (as were the candidates, no surprise there) and this end of Deptford is anything but mainly white.”
Where were they then?
The $64,000 question regarding community engagement surely? How was it promoted? The candidates don’t exactly reflect the ethnicity Deptford Lewisham constituency do they. At least there were more women than men. Worse still was the treatment of Tony, the young black guy. I doubt if he went home with a positive view of the electoral process.
Surely an event promoted by the churches as in West Lewisham (see http://www.ctsfh.org.uk/) would give a better chance of *some* community engagement? I think I’ll go and find out–”Christians from the constituency” only excludes me twice…
The link doesn’t work for me at the moment, I’ll try later. I would likewise be excluded twice too. Will be interested to hear how you get on and if there is a ‘Christian’ agenda for the questioning. Abortion for instance? Or homosexuality? I use the word Christian loosely here…
Tony the ‘young black guy’ had a point but talked over everyone, lost his temper and ended up effing and blinding – his emotions got the better of him, a real shame because he really had something to say, unlike the crusty who seemed to have lost it some time ago.
The event was advertised on the public thoroughfares and spaces of Deptford, New Cross and Brockley – areas traversed and used by EVERYONE – and I personally flyered every shopkeeper and friends from the junk market down to the anchor.
You can’t MAKE people come.
Robin, this is not a criticism of the organisers but a comment on political engagement.
I agree that you can’t make people come to the event, they need to want to come. I myself now have a high level of political disengagement since I don’t feel that these parties represent me – the opposite in fact. The last two Labour administrations have filled me with disgust, something I wouldn’t have believed possible after four Tory governments dismantled our society. The fact that your campaign (NO2ID) is even necessary under a Labour government speaks volumes of their attitiudes to their electorate, but ID cards are just one of many attacks on our liberties such as the Digital Economy Bill and 28 days detention to name a couple. That plus the personal dishonesty of the majority politicians from all parties, the recession, the Iraq war, the dismantling the public sector to bail out the banks etc etc fills me with hatred for this corrupt political system and the people who govern us and want to govern us.
My children, of a similar age to Tony, have never engaged. They feel much the same as I do. But suddenly their Facebook accounts are overloaded with ‘charm’ offences from the political parties. They ask me why? Why only now? Why has there not been any attempt to engage them through the term of office? They are starting their working lives (or non-working lives I should say) with the huge disadvantages of the current economic and educational crises. If, or most likely when they do start thinking about it they will probably become as angry as Tony.
When I talk about promotion, I don’t mean leafleting and emailing to advertise a husting. There is an assumption that people care enough to want to come if they know about it. Many people don’t even know what a husting is, it sounds archaic. It is also possible that local people didn’t bother to come because they are fairly sure it wont make a blind bit of difference and it was a lovely Saturday evening to do other things. This is Deptford, there is not only disillusion at a national level. Lewisham council has some questions to answer too, and local often eclipses national.
Plus ça change (plus c’est la même chose). Aren’t you just sick of listening to the need for change?
Excellent post. I failed to turn up to represent the non-white section of the Deptford constituency, but thanks to the magic of the interweb, I’m getting a decent feel as to what transpired.
I must say, that despite my own foetid housing conditions, the plight of Deptford High St, and other concerns, the main reason why I could never personally vote Tory or New Labour (aside from the small matter of never having voted Tory, nor Labour since that Smith guy who unfortunately dropped dead) is actually because of non-local issues. For example, I’m *still* absolutely furious about the bombing, invasion, shooting up and occupation of Iraq. With my tax money!! At least the Lib-Dems, Greens et al opposed this.
P.S.: I can confirm that many people should have seen the hustings notification in and around Deptford, but sadly, I have to agree that many local people would have been of the opinion that it was not very relevant.
Thanks for the interesting comments Ola