Hustings and public debates for Cambridgeshire elections 2025

Posted byCambridge Town OwlPosted inUncategorized

A plea for people and groups across the county to start organising public events for the county council and mayoral elections – election day being 01 May 2025

Image: The struggle for democracy – digitised with a few more very old texts from previous eras here

TL:DR? See Chris Rand’s guide from 2016 on how to organise one, and if you know of a group of people who might be able to put one together, please do – as political parties are all ears for such things. Also see the Democracy Club’s blog here.

With the threats to democracy being higher in the public’s conscience, organising events is something that people can do in their localities in response.

Hence also the meeting on 08 March 2025 at the Mill Road Community Centre to debate the local government overhaul, organised by the Cambs Unitaries Campaign (which I am a member of too!)

Be courageous enough to experiment, and don’t worry if only a few people turn up

For example I run fortnightly informal Sunday afternoon gatherings in my local pub (The next one is this coming Sunday at The Rock from 2.30pm). Sometimes one person will turn up, sometimes we’ll need a large table. But it was from one of these last month that we got the idea of putting on an event for the elections this May

“What are the debates like?”

If you want to get a feel for what local public debates and hustings are like, see my video playlists here for events in Cambridge and Cambridgeshire that go back around ten years. On filming, despite not being in the greatest of health, if someone can arrange transport for me (there and back) generally I’m happy to help film for a small fee. (DWP insisted years ago I could not do it for free anymore. Ditto candidate videos but fortunately most candidates standing for political parties now have the in-house capacity produce the candidate introduction videos that I used to make for all parties standing such as in 2017 here).

Can we get a series of public debates, hustings, and events happening across Cambridgeshire for the county council elections?

I’m already in the process of helping organise a hustings on Cambridgeshire’s housing crisis with Cambridge Resilience Web activists, which is likely to be at the Wesley Methodist Church by Christ’s Pieces. Times and dates will be forthcoming, and with this one we will be experimenting with breakout sessions prior to the ‘BBC Question Time’ debate, where the candidates will rotate between groups of audience members, each looking at a different aspect of housing policy. For example topics might include:

  • Private rented sector issues
  • Council/Social housing and affordability
  • Retrofitting given the climate emergency
  • Newbuild housing standards
  • The growth of Cambridge and environmental/ecological sustainability

Some people have asked about a transport-specific hustings – and hustings outside Cambridge

Which is splendid, but I don’t have the capacity to get involved in organising other events. Hence appealing to one of the civic societies that has the legitimacy in the eyes of the general public (Cambridge CVS?) and has paid officers to undertake a co-ordinating function both appealing to partners/member organisations and ensuring there are as few clashes as possible?

For example, county-wide events could cover:

At these, parties could be given the option of either their Combined Authority candidates or their lead county council candidates

For neighbourhood-level events, that would ultimately fall under the remit of community-level organisations – such as in Queen Edith’s with the Community Forum. Because we had a much lower turnout in 2024 compared with previous years, we’re having to have a rethink on how to advertise and also on what format to have. (You can see the videos here)

How do we get teenagers and young adults interested and involved?

Only they have been conspicuous by their absence over the years, and given the proposals coming from ministers about new powers and overhauled structures, it’s all the more important that they get to take part – even if the under-18s don’t have the right to vote. (Their parents might do – and this also raises the issue of citizens of other countries being banned from voting due to their immigration status. Given that Cambridge employers go out of their way to recruit from abroad, shouldn’t our city be leading the campaign to do what Scotland has already done and extend the franchise to over-16s who are legally resident in the UK? ‘No taxation without representation’ and all that?

Furthermore, which institutions are the ones with the public legitimacy to organise such events? Who are the people that young people themselves can put pressure on to organise? For example should the managers of the larger schools and colleges in Cambridgeshire (especially the further education institutions) be routinely organising such events annually/whenever the general or local elections take place? (And if they are not, who should be doing what to change this?)

Food for thought?

If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to: