Email Your Candidates!
Since 2015 HIRA has successfully run Hustings, which is the traditional opportunity for electors at all political levels to a) hear a live, brief introduction/statement by election candidates b) put questions to all candidates & see their ability & competence to answer them. Despite the necessarily limited numbers of electors participating - if we'd had huge numbers wanting to participate we'd of course have moved/alternatively run the Hustings - nevertheless many have left our meetings stating that, as a result of what they'd witnessed, they'd changed their voting choice. Hence the importance of 'live' meetings, whether televised or not. This year 2021 the opportunity for me to record questions of our candidates, using 'zoom', film their responses then post that on UTube has not materialized and I'm sufficiently well aware of online meetings' occasional 'collapse' to avoid taking responsibility for this, given that any such failures in such a context, would inevitably lead to recriminations!
Consequently and given the fact that our Election nominations only provide either a postal address or a location eg 'Havant' address, I sourced our candidates via their Party by websearch and, failing that, Facebook, when I had no prior personal email for a candidate. My question put last week was the same for all: may HIRA have an email contact for the candidate which I could send to our members & post on FB i.e. for the wider public who chiefly use FB, so that individual electors could put their own questions to our candidates and receive a personal reply. My reason was that " an email is both more efficient, convenient and less expensive for most people than posting letters to the publicised private addresses."
This is the result for you to follow up if you wish to do so, in alphabetical order of Party (Candidates' Nominations available from Council website but posted separately on this website):
1. Conservative via their websearch email contact: no response. However Leah Turner's HBC plus Lance Quantrill's HCC emails may still be effective.
2. Green via their Facebook page: from Robert Soar " Hi Anne, I can be messaged on FB (I'm not a frequent user) or for a more immediate reply man@onemandog.co.uk - and yes I know my email address is now on a public forum - all questions will be answered."
3. Labour via their websearch email contact: Sherree will answer any questions shereeearnshaw@yahoo.com
4. Liberal Democrat: please see more detailed response & contact opportunities available from hello@ but their 2 emails as requested: Wilf Forrow at wilf@havant-libdems.org Paul Gray at paulgray.havantlibdems@aol.com
Please direct your questions to the candidates themselves as I will not be forwarding them; keep all communications polite or your email may be blocked and most definitely counter-productive. One final point: whatever your experience of Councillors and political parties has been, it is of fundamental, long-term importance that every elector cast his/her vote, not spoiling the ballot paper but selecting a 'best under the circumstances' option. Still dissatisfied? Start working for whatever party or candidate you could support! Simply complaining is not an option for obvious reasons.
