UK Election 2015

Dispatch From Hampstead And Kilburn – Interview With Maajid Nawaz (LibDem)

Samuel Hooper2 Comments

 

Maajid Nawaz is by far the most high profile of the candidates standing for election in Hampstead and Kilburn, perhaps befitting the seat currently held by Labour’s Glenda Jackson. But Nawaz was adamant that his high profile and personal causes (such as the Quilliam anti-extremism think tank, which he founded) would dovetail closely with his work as a constituency MP, not distract from it.

On the LibDem’s performance in coalition, Maajid Nawaz emphasised the “stabilising effect” that the Liberal Democrats have had, softening the “harder edges” of an outright Conservative government. The LibDems have been “a moderating influence on some of the more ideological elements of the Conservative party”, says Nawaz.

Maajid Nawaz spoke most passionately on the subject of mental health, claiming that the LibDems have introduced measures to ensure that “people who go to a hospital complaining of anxiety or depression are treated exactly as somebody who complains of a physical ailment”.

 

Click here for interviews with each of the 2015 candidates standing for election in Hampstead and Kilburn, and a summary of the recent hustings organised by West Hampstead Life.

Maajid Nawaz - Liberal Democrats - Hampstead and Kilburn - General Election 2015

Dispatch From Hampstead And Kilburn – Interview With Magnus Nielsen (UKIP)

Samuel Hooper1 Comment

 

UKIP candidate Magnus Nielsen is perhaps best known for his eyebrow-raising comments on Islam, proposing that mosques should only be able to hire imams from a government-approved register of non-extremist preachers. When interviewed prior to the candidate hustings on Thursday, Nielsen stated that he is in favour of peoples’ right to practice religion freely, so long as it does not “intervene on the human rights of other people”.

Nielsen also defended UKIP from what the party sees as media obsession with the misdeeds and wacky opinions of some of their “loose cannon” candidates, pointing out that “UKIP is the only party which will not allow you to become a member if you have been a member of the BNP. That is not true of the Labour Party”.

Interestingly, Magnus Nielsen did not have a ready position to take on TTIP, declining to say whether he was for or against the trade deal currently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States until he researched the issue further.

 

Click here for interviews with each of the 2015 candidates standing for election in Hampstead and Kilburn, and a summary of the recent hustings organised by West Hampstead Life.

Magnus Nielsen - UKIP - Hampstead and Kilburn - General Election 2015

Dispatch From Hampstead And Kilburn – Interview With Rebecca Johnson (Green Party)

Samuel Hooper2 Comments

 

When interviewing Rebecca Johnson, I asked how the Green Party would mitigate what would inevitably be huge transitional costs involved in moving the British economy from its current state to a radically different, more “sustainable” footing, particularly if the rest of the world did not follow suit. Johnson spoke about “growing different kinds of jobs, community based jobs, community based shops, localised, community based industry to supply the sustainable, renewable energy” and vowed to “change the architecture of how energy is produced”.

When asked about this upheaval, Johnson said: “there will be transitional changes. I see those as opportunities. With every opportunity there will be different ways in which jobs and industry and community responsibilities will change and will grow … I believe that very very quickly, people will find that they are happier, healthier, they have better communities and better living standards, they have better education and health which means better security”.

Rebecca Johnson continued: “I believe that the transition can be done in the lifetime of one parliament”.

 

Click here for interviews with each of the 2015 candidates standing for election in Hampstead and Kilburn, and a summary of the recent hustings organised by West Hampstead Life.

Rebecca Johnson - Green Party - Hampstead and Kilburn - General Election 2015

General Election Hustings 2015 – Hampstead and Kilburn

Samuel Hooper1 Comment

West Hampstead General Election 2015 Candidate Hustings

 

When the votes of the 2010 general election were counted in the northwest London constituency of Hampstead and Kilburn, veteran Labour MP Glenda Jackson clung on to her seat in the face of a strong Conservative challenge by the narrowest of margins – a mere 44 votes. The fact that the Liberal Democrats were a only 800 votes further behind makes this blogger’s home constituency the tightest three-way marginal in the country.

Based on the 2010 results, with Labour 44 votes ahead of the Tories and the Conservative-LibDem coalition none too popular among many voters, the Labour Party could reasonably expect to hold this seat in May 2015. But these are not normal times, and the various national dynamics at play will keep this constituency an interesting one to watch.

The excellent local West Hampstead blog, West Hampstead Life, is organising candidate hustings to take place in the constituency at the Sheriff Centre on West End Lane tonight at 7.30pm. Your blogger will be present, and hopes to sneak a couple of minutes with each candidate to question them on national issues and their personal philosophies.

The parliamentary candidates for the constituency of Hampstead & Kilburn are as follows:

Labour – Tulip Siddiq

Conservative – Simon Marcus

Liberal Democrat – Maajid Nawaz

UKIP – Magnus Nielsen

Green Party – Rebecca Johnson

 

This blog will live-tweet the hustings @SamHooper, and publish a summary shortly after the event.

Cameron / Miliband’s Bland And Inoffensive Path To Not-Quite-Victory

Samuel Hooper4 Comments

 

Today saw the launch of the Conservative Party’s latest election broadcast, emailed to their supporters and promoted on YouTube. And from a strictly artistic and technical perspective, it’s not bad.

The video was distributed along with this blurb:

Samuel,​ <– thanks, mail merge personalisation

Have you seen our new Election Broadcast?

It shows how our plan is securing the things we all want for our children and grandchildren: a good education, a decent job, great public services and the chance to make the most out of their lives.

It’s really important that everyone knows the choice at this election: a better, more secure future with the Conservatives or putting all the progress we’ve made at risk with Ed Miliband propped up by the SNP.

Cue lots of video footage of babies and small children, and voiceovers in which the parents express their hopes that little Johnny will emerge from the British educational system reasonably literate and numerate, never have to “worry about paying the bills each month” as an adult, and to come of age in “a Britain with opportunities” (duh). All of this is accompanied by the gentle strumming of guitars familiar to any fan of the TV show Gilmore Girls, and the same amiable whistling that TSB currently uses in advertisements to trick people into thinking that they are a friendly local bank.

But despite the focus on youth, in reality the Tories (and Labour too) are much more concerned with “securing the things we all want” not for our children and grandchildren, but for our parents and grandparents. The welfare state certainly needed reforming in 2010, and Iain Duncan Smith’s rollout of Universal Credit could yet go a long way toward eliminating the benefit trap, but it cannot escape anyone’s attention that the younger generations have borne the brunt of the necessary corrections to excessive government spending.

Meanwhile, Britain’s pensioners – who are much more likely to be homeowners and free of the cost of young raising families – have not been asked to contribute a penny, even as we were told that we are “all in it together”. Instead, the older generation are showered with non-means tested benefits such as free television licences and bus passes, while their pensions are protected with a “triple lock” which ensures that they will always get richer in real terms.

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