Harrogate Chamber Hustings : Your Questions Answered
Humanity is facing an existential crisis of our own making.
In preparation for the General Election to be held in less than 2 weeks, we hosted a Hustings of our own with 6 of the 7 candidates standing in the Harrogate & District constituency in attendance. This week we will reflect on the questions asked and the answers given.
Candidates were then asked two questions together.
Jamie from Harrogate Neighbours asked:
I started becoming aware of politics thanks to Brexit. I want to know why politicians can't admit when they're wrong because we tell children that it's okay to make mistakes and yet our leaders don't seem to be able to follow those same rules and it is just fascinating
Another gentleman asked:
Humanity is facing an existential crisis of our own making. No government in the world is yet stepping up to the mark to address that effectively. What do the candidates propose to do?
Conrad Whitcroft (Labour):
There have been not only a referendum but two general elections since. People disagree with you and there are more people that disagree with you than agree with you. Unfortunately, that is just the case with democracy and that is the reason that that issue I consider to be settled
On the subject of the environment, we are facing this absolute catastrophe, and we need to become a world leader and step up to the plate. We had the industrial revolution which did contribute to a large part of the environmental problems and started it. However, we can have this new green industrial revolution to fix it. Great British Energy is going to harness wind, solar and tidal power, working as a public sector body to make sure that we bring together all of our investments and nuclear energy as well, which I think is going to be a key thing to get us out to the crisis.
John Swales (Reform):
In everyday life if we make a mistake, we apologise, we move on. Why do politicians never apologise? Ego, fear of being caught out, who knows? But I mean that goes to the heart of one of the previous questions, which is why are people so disengaged from politics? The reason is because they don't see real life being reflected in politics.
As for climate change, the science isn’t settled. There are 2000 scientists including two Nobel Prize winners who say there is no climate emergency. However, we all want cleaner air and to reduce our consumption of the earth's resources. So, our stance is that in 30- or 40-years' time we will have a new source of energy. At the moment it's nuclear fusion and, it's nowhere near ready yet. But we will have a supply of energy that will be reliable and clean compared to what we have today. However, we need to get to that point, which means we need to build nuclear power stations, but they take a long time. SMRs will be faster, but we will have to use it alongside wind and solar, gas and oil, because when the wind doesn’t blow, when the sun doesn’t shine, we'll have no lights on unless we want to have prolonged periods of blackouts. That is the scientific fact that we face. It may not be popular, but that is my view and our position.
Shan Oakes (Green):
I think we've had plenty of time to work out that actually there is a climate chaos going on. The heating in the last couple of years - people have been dying of the heat, the flooding, the winds, all kinds of things are happening, which there's plenty of evidence about it and surely, we want to take the precautionary principle and not just assume it's all fine. The Green Party has a 10-point climate plan. Our lives depend on it, they really do.
Andrew Jones (Conservative):
In answer to the first question about admitting mistakes, I think actually it comes down to the culture we have within politics and we need to have more serious conversations because we are facing very many serious issues and if issues are reduced to glib sound bites or the amount of copy you can get into a tweet, then I think it becomes very shallow indeed. So, I think it's a political cultural question that I think we need to get at to help address what I think is right. Firstly, to answer your question, I do think climate change is happening and I think we do need to take action on it and that action has been taking place over a number of years, obviously predates this recent government. I think the debate upon restoring nature and caring for our planet goes back several decades and we should take some pride that the UK is the first major economy to have cut its carbon emissions by 50%.
I think we have done extremely well on climate change. When I became a member of Parliament 14 years ago, 6.8% of our electricity came from renewable sources. In the last quarter of last year, it was nearly 50%.
Paul Haslam (Independent):
Admitting you are wrong is critical in your learning process. Failing fast is actually the best way to learn, so I don’t understand why some politicians are not prepared the admit they made a mistake and say I reflect on it and say how do I learn from this for future?
In terms of the gentleman's question, we are poisoning the land still we are putting terrible chemicals in the air, and we are polluting the rivers. So, we do need to do something about it. The reason I left the Conservatives was that they're slowing this down and I don't believe we should slow it down. We should be speeding it up and fast.
Tom Gordon (Lib Dem):
I pretty much agree with most of what's been said. I think it's about fear of being criticised and being shown to not have been right, and there is an expectation on people and positions of authorities to always get it right. And I think we almost hold people to a really high standard that sets people up to fail. Just an example of why people don't always apologise. I'm slightly dyslexic and in my haste, whilst I was working a full-time job, I stuck out a press release which incorrectly said that the ticket office at Harrogate Station was going to be closed. It's not. That was a genuine mistake. And I ended up with a barrage from the former MP for Harrogate who's now a candidate telling me that I got it wrong and that I was lying. So that's why people don't want to apologise because their fear has been publicly humiliated and embarrassed. And I think a little bit of honesty and a bit of integrity, and a little bit of humanity goes a long way.
On the subject of climate change, I look at actions rather than just words. In coalition, the Liberal Democrats nearly quadrupled renewable energy from wind production offshore. We set up the world's first green investment bank but with tangible messages and positives about trying to decarbonise and be more climate friendly. I don't understand why this debate is so contentious because there is no damage from us having a green revolution. We are home of the industrial revolution, and we should be at the front leading this one going forward. And it is not just about climate, that's obviously a massive issue and it is the most pressing thing.
There's also the element of energy security too. I can see no reason why that we as a country wouldn't want to be in production of our own energy, whether it be by renewable or nuclear.
We would like to thank all candidates for participating in a lively and engaging discussion, and all those who asked such pertinent questions.
Thanks also to John Plummer for facilitating the meeting and Pavilions of Harrogate for hosting.
Written by Zach Greaves - Chamber Press Secretary
