General Election Debates - Announcement

[The Chair]

Dear all

It is proposed that, in light of the forthcoming General Election, a series of debates will take place within the confines of the Drawing Room that each Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) will take part in. I have, in principle, obtained the participation of Tessa Jowell and am currently contacting the other major parties with expectations of their inclusion.

I propose that the debates shall run according to the following guidelines:

1) Questions to be put to the candidates should be PM'd to the Chair

2) Prospective questions will be vetted and a shortlist drawn-up. Expectations are of approx. 6 questions.

3) These (identical) questions will be put to each candidate via a private email and each candidate will be given 3 days to respond.

4) Answers will be posted in a separate thread for each party.

5) Follow-up questions and/or supplementaries can then be submitted via that thread in a free, but heavily moderated, manner.

6) PPC involvement in the subsequent questions will be at their discretion. The Chair asks for understanding that these are busy people with campaigns to run and that they may not be able to dedicate large amounts of time to subsequent debates.

I hope that these debates will be illuminating and educational. We at the EDF have a great chance to participate directly in democratic debate in one of the most closely fought elections in recent history. I hope people will respect this opportunity.

Comments below can be used for discussion of the method of debate but please PM any questions you have for the PPCs to the Chair directly.

Regards.

[Old Yeller]

Hello,

Will you also be inviting Harriet Harman who now represents part of SE22, as well as the other party candidates?

[PeckhamRose]

That would be really useful. Indeed she does represent part of East Dulwich; parts of East Dulwich are in the 'Nunhead and Peckham Rye' ward and community council area, including The Gardens.

[Marmora Man]

Support involvement of the Camberwell & Peckham candidates - Peckham Rye includes many EDF residents (including Marmora Road) and they should be represented here. I am sure the Conservative, Green, Lib DEm and SWP candididates would play.

[Old Yeller]

Please would you say what criteria you will use to vet questions?

What are your guidelines for moderation of the subsequent threads?

[The Chair]

Whilst I appreciate that some residents of SE22 will be voting in a different constituency, logistically it would be difficult to accomodate another 4+ candidates into the debate. If however any of the candidates for Dulwich and Norwood decline or are unable to take part I will endeavour to invite their Camberwell & Peckham counterparts.

The criteria for vetting the questions is arbitary. I do not have specific criteria other than that the questions are sensible, intelligent and will provoke debate. I have set a provisional limit of six per candidate to try and cover a few topics but to try and keep some degree of brevity. I feel it only fair that candidates are allowed to answer their questions in secret but may consider allowing personalised rather than identical questions for each candidate.

Moderation of the follow-up debates will be more vigorous than normal. This is because I want to ensure that all candidates are respected and that the contributions are valid. This is not Question Time, I am not David Dimbleby and hopefully the readers of the EDF are more intelligent than the average studio audience.

[????]

Chair - will this debate be both National and Local? Too much of one and we lose a unique opportunity to get our local prospective MPs to tel us their vision for 'round here' but equally as well arguing about the plans for Crossings on LL will be dull

[silverfox]

What is the deadline for submitting potential questions for the PPCs to you?

[The Chair]

???? - a valid point. I shall try to ensure there is at least a local flavour to the questions submitted. First and foremost these people should be constituency MPs and their work in the local community should not be down-played in favour of national issues.

Silverfox - thanks for highlighting this. To allow for debate afterwards I shall set a provisional deadline of Monday 19th. Should insufficient questions have been submitted this could be flexible.

[The Chair]

Questions have now been sent to all four candidates to answer. The questions are:

1) Should MP's live in the constituency they represent?

2) What is the fairest way of capping individuals annual earnings i.e Bob Diamond ?63 million at Barclays?

3) Do you accept that whilst the crime solving benefits of surveillance are considerable, there must surely be a level at which the costs to an individual's privacy and sense of freedom outweigh the potential benefits?

4)Could the candidates please outline how they intend to offer this area (East Dulwich, Nunhead and the wider Southwark/South East London area) better transport links to other parts of London. Although I realise the Mayor has overall responsibility for transport in London, do any of the parliamentary or council candidates have a view/ have plans to propose measures to improve the connections between South East London and the rest of the city?

5)I would like to ask the candidates what they would do to ensure that all local children can go to good local state primary and seconday schools (with the emphasis on good as well as local).

6)Should the government departments treat humanist, secular and religious organisations equally in policy making, funding decisions and consultations?

These are an amalgamation of different questions and themes that were submitted and I would like to thank all of those that did so. Apologies if yours didn't make the final cut.

Let's hope for some interesting answers.

The Chair.

[????]

Nice work Chair

[????]

Chair - have you given them a deadline and/or can all the replies be posted simultaneously?. I guess If I was them I might be tempted to wait until I saw what others had to say and comment etc. before posting my own.

[Moos]

Good questions, well done Chair and everyone submitting.

[PeckhamRose]

Thanks Chair!

And good amalgamation and rewording!

[The Chair]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Chair - have you given them a deadline and/or can

> all the replies be posted simultaneously?. I guess

> If I was them I might be tempted to wait until I

> saw what others had to say and comment etc. before

> posting my own.

I agree ???? but it's very hard to do otherwise. I have asked all the candidates to try and post by Friday night so hopefully by Monday we should have all four.

As for waiting till the other candidates have been... well shall just have to live with it. I'm hoping we just get their opinion rather than an opportunity for point scoring.

Ho-hum.

And thanks all for the kind words of support.

[SteveT]

Perhaps they should send there replies in an email and you could print them out on here, that way the candidates do not know what the other answers are?

Just a thought.

[Jamma]

Ok this is clearly a great idea. But I'm guessing The Chair is not a journalist. Those questions are dire. Particularly the one about privacy and that. It's a closed question. Similarly the one about capping pay. Perhaps one or more canididates thinks there is no limit to the amount of pay one should be allowed to earn.

I'm not giving my view on the answers to the questions, but they are not good questions. There' kjillions of media living in east dulwich these days, couldn't The Chair have asked one or more of them for advice?

[????]

er, these arent journalistic questions, they are from the people of the EDF. They're about engagement rather than a quick answer so I don't think we'll get closed Answers. eg the capping they could answer "Well we don't believe that the state should have a say on how much businesses pay their employees etc etc. It's not a press conference...I disagree and say well done chair. They may choose to answer them in a closed manner but don't think they'll get many votes on that basis

[The Chair]

The Chair did not write the questions. The Chair's profession is not relevant.

Jamma did not submit any questions. Nor did any "media types" volunteer their free time and energy in setting this up.

The candidates can answer the questions as they see fit and can choose to participate, or not, in the subsequent discussions.

I think that's all that needs saying.

[sophiesofa]

Well said the chair and mr sterling. I think it's great that you and team EDF have taken the time to make the poll and host the debates so thank you.

[Jamma]

Ok look this is a good idea, I'm not knocking it. But you'd get more out of it with better questions. That's all.

[Mark]

I submitted some questions, one of which is used, and I'm glad it hasn't been sexed up for the audience. It simply means my question has been asked, however if you read the questions out loud in a Dirty Harry voice they might be more appealing to some.

[????]

Is Tessa the only one who is bothering? In which case I take my hat off to her. A bit of a lack of engagement on the others parts, I know its election time but this is surely a decent and efficient way to engage with a reasonable amount of constituents?

[silverfox]

There appears to be a distinct lack of engagement on the edf's behalf.

I'm amazed that given the views often expressed on here about the difficulties of getting children into schools (see family room) and the pros and cons of funding faith schools Tessa's replies have gone unchallenged.

The silence from the edf is a bit of an insult to a busy politician who has taken time out from a hectic schedule to answer our questions.

[Narnia]

Frankly I'm thinking of changing who I vote for given the lack of responses from the others. I understood they had agreed to reply. Am I wrong?