Debate Night at the West Wales Chronicle.

Despite a few minor technical problems the West Wales Chronicle Electoral Debate went smoothly overall, and was well chaired by Rebecca Rosenthal and filmed in front of a live audience of over ninety people.

The electoral candidates consisted of Scott Jones from the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), Ken Rees (UKIP), Selaine Saxby (Conservative Party), Vaughan Williams (Plaid Cymru), Nia Griffith MP (Labour Party), Guy Smith (Green Party) and Sian Caiach (People First).

Best performers on the night were Vaughan Williams from Plaid Cymru and Nia Griffith from the Labour Party, both of which clearly marked themselves out as accomplished politicians and seemed (judging by the audience reaction) to have made the best cases for their election of the entire panel.

Both Vaughan and Nia were quite passionate on a wide range of national subjects such as the Hunting Act of 2004, whether they’d keep the nuclear deterrent of Trident in addition to what they would do for Jobs both Locally in Llanelli and nationally.

No Representation

A close second was Scott Jones from TUSC who made a strong point that clearly seemed to resonate with the audience that the Labour Party no longer represented the people that it was originally set up to do so and that it was a time for a new labour movement that reflected the values of ordinary working class people.

Sian Caiach did well, revealing key facts about her background such as the fact that she was a consultant in Prince Philip Hospital that blew the whistle on her colleagues for unethical behaviour, and that like most whistle blowers, she found herself to be the one that lost her job as opposed to the wrongdoers.

If there had been an award for the most straight forward and ‘down to earth’ person on the panel, Sian would have won it.

No Coalition

Sian explained their vision for a national government that would request the views of the people on any major issue and act accordingly., thus removing the need to work in coalition with any other party as all governmental decisions would be the result of a public consultation.

Business First

The conservative Party Candidate Selaine Saxby explained that she had a background in business and that the Welsh economy was the fastest growing part of the country outside of London.  When compared to other parts of the country Wales had done really well.

Selaine reminded the audience that to return a Labour government at the the next election would spell disaster for the economy, undoing all of the gains made so far, before stating that the next Labour government would be heavily dominated by the SNP, a result that would be poor for Wales.

The sparring contestants tackled immigration and the impact that they could have in Llanelli from Westminster.  Broadly speaking most of the candidates supported immigration, though of course the UKIP candidate Ken Rees stated that only UKIP could truly tackle immigration and that as long as the United Kingdom was a member of the European Union we would never have control over our borders.

Sustainable Ecology

Guy Smith from the Green Party also resonated well with the audience when talking about the need to look after our ecology and changing the nature of the economy to reflect sustainable values.  He made the point that at present our economic and governmental system doesn’t govern in the interest of most people.

Guy stated that the economy as it stands is unsustainable and that the Green Party would reverse the trend towards a society that is being increasingly divided between poverty and great wealth.

If elected the Green Party would seek to correct this with a truly democratic system of governance that worked for the majority of people, not minorities.

Please Vote

Finally they closed by discussing what they would do in the event of a hung parliament, before telling the audience which was carefully chosen to be a representative cross section of the political spectrum in Llanelli why they should vote for each candidate.

Rebecca completed the chairing by asking the audience to consider carefully who they would vote for and also urged them to vote as opposed to choosing ‘not to vote.’

Choosing not to vote would allow the country to be run by self interested minorities, ‘so if you want a say, you need to vote.’

That has to be the strongest point of all.

Footage is currently being edited for the final segment of the debate and will be published soon.

Watch this space, because as soon as it is ready, we will publish it here.