Birmingham City University hosts ‘Question Time’ with Perry Barr candidates

• Apr. 28 by Katie Fox (2)

A Question Time-style debate was held at Birmingham City University yesterday, involving five of the Perry Barr constituency’s political candidates.

Student Union President Tom Thompson acted as the Chair at the hustings which featured Conservative candidate William Norton, Khalid Mahmood (Labour), John Tyrrell (Socialist Labour Party), Karen Hamilton (Liberal Democrat) and Melvin Ward (UK Independent Party).

Questions were put to the candidates from the floor which was made up of staff and students at the university and also members of the general community.

Topics of discussion ranged from higher education fees to the rights of homosexual men to give blood. As earlier questions were discussed more in depth, there was little time left for other topics like environmental issues.

Green issues

A quick question about climate change was raised towards the end of the debate however. The subject of cutting emissions was put to candidates and the issue of reducing UK emissions as quickly as possible to give poorer countries around the world the chance to adapt to the changes caused by our pollution.

Socialist Labour Party candidate John Tyrrell denied that climate change was fully the government’s responsibility; however asserted that they should be doing all they can to reduce emissions and tax those who are causing the pollution.

Karen Hamilton, the Liberal Democrat candidate, was unsure of her party’s policy (a common theme of the event) and responded with personal agreement to the answer given by Mr Tyrrell.

UK Independent Party candidate Melvin Ward had more to say on the matter. He spoke on behalf of UKIP by saying that the party had reservations about the severity of climate change.

He claimed that previous research into climate change has been unsound and proposed that the issue may become a higher importance if more research was carried out on the matter.

He was the only candidate to provide figures on this matter however and claimed that emissions would be reduced by 25%- but with no further details.

The conservative and Labour candidates concurred that climate change and emissions were important issues.

Community

Candidates also spoke about their links with the community. Some came across well to the audience as it was clear that they were well involved within their area.

Karen Hamilton (Lib Dem), who is also running for a council position in the local elections, demonstrated her strong rapport with her community, especially within Handsworth where she lives.

She spoke of her use of social networking site Facebook as another way of engaging with her community.

William Norton (Conservative) however, was criticised by the floor for not being local to Perry Barr or having strong ties to the area. He responded by saying that he didn’t want to ‘bombard’ his community with leaflets like some parties have been known to do.

Melvin Ward (UKIP) voiced the importance of listening to local people and communities by saying that they know about local issues and want to be involved in politics. He said:

‘Give the public a chance to make their voice heard’.

Khalid Mahmood (Labour) was safe from criticism on this issue as he is local to the area himself; however he found himself in the firing line as a heated debate about MP’s expenses broke out due to his own publically-known claims.

The Labour candidate also lived up to his reputation by interrupting other candidates, responding to their answers with disdain and even told one audience member to “shut up” as they put a question the candidate.