Questions at the Tory Party hustings – were they rigged?
by John Strafford
So, you thought you would go to the Tory hustings and put a question to the Leadership candidates? This was my experience:
I applied for two tickets for the London hustings, one for myself and one for my wife on the same order form. I was surprised that I was allocated a seat in Block D whereas my wife was allocated a seat in Block C.
All the questions for the candidates were made from Block B. There was a manned security barrier between Block D and Block B to prevent anyone from trying to go from Block D to Block B. There were no microphones in Block D and no instruction as to how to put your question to the candidates, so who decided which Block was allocated to whom?
Nick Ferrari, chaired the question session, and for each question he asked the Christian name of the questioner. Who gave him these names and when? Did he also know what the question was, if so who filtered the questions?
There were no spontaneous questions asked for, as at no time did Nick Ferrari ask the audience for a question and even if he had, certainly if you were in Block D, as I was, there were no microphones!
This reminded me of the Chairman’s session at the last Party Conference, chaired by Peter Booth, the Chairman of the National Convention who had a computer with all the questions on it so he could decide which question would be asked. On a point of order, I asked if he would take spontaneous questions from the floor. Ben Elliot, Party Chairman thought he should do, so we had questions asked from the floor. Both Ben Elliot and Oliver Dowden (Party Chairmen) said that in future they would make a point of taking questions from the floor, so why did we not get them at the husting’s meetings?.
Were the questions to the candidates rigged. I do not know for sure, but there is precedent, and one cannot help being suspicious!
