@Michael I got Karen Wheller (Green Party candidate) phone number incase you want to contact her about attending if this goes ahead - let me know if you want it & I’ll email it to you 
It was my understanding that the 2015 hustings organised by the Forest Hill Society and the Sydenham Society fell apart because candidates refused to appear alongside the openly racist candidate from LibertyGB and because the church venue couldn’t accept that candidate because LibertyGB does not accept religious freedom
Would a planned hustings invite all standing candidates or only those candidates representing parties with more than 1% at the last general election?
I’m not a fan of hustings that include all candidates. For instance, at a 2015 Camberwell and Peckham hustings I attended, I don’t think the participation from the candidate for Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol (CISTA) made a great contribution to the event. And while the Whig Party candidate was well-spoken and funny I would’ve preferred to hear more from the main candidates rather than a party that polled near to 0%.
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Agreed. From what I recall of the hustings at the Honor Oak, it got really sidetracked challenging the bigotry of the LibertyGB candidate which meant we missed out on substantive discussion of other issues.
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I agree with you and @starman but could a hustings that excluded some candidates face a threat of legal challenge? I’ve no idea - just concerned.
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If organised perhaps by a public institution such as the BBC. Perhaps yes. But a privately ran one? I doubt it.
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I checked with the electoral commission after being challenged on a 5% threshold for hustings and they confirmed that it is perfectly acceptable. That would be the threshold so there would be a maximum of five candidates. Other groups may choose to hold hustings with more or less candidates but the 5% threshold is what i would recommend.
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So based on the previous result? I guess there must be some degree of flexibility in regard to formation of new parties. Could you imagine in the same rule was applied to French En Marche party?
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If there was a massive shake up in British politics (or local politics) these criteria might not be valid. But the five parties with >5% are the main parties in National (English) politics as well as having demonstrated their appeal to the local community.
Incidentally, it wouldn’t matter if I picked 5% or 1% the candidates would be the same this time. The criteria we used last time was in fact 1%, so I should probably stick to that figure of 1%. But having more than five candidates in a panel discussion limits the ability to get answers from the candidates.
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OMG yes!
An American solution in the past has been to have a separate debate/hustings for those minority parties.
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It’s your event, invite who you want. Only national broadcasters have to obey rules on balance of reporting as anyone who has picked up a newspaper has probably noted. And that’s only during an election campaign.
If you want to have an “objective” criteria, perhaps a 5% threshold would work. You could either base that on previous results (which are only 2 years old, so probably reasonably current) or national polling. What I will say is that having an objective threshold decided in advance won’t stop the excluded from complaining, but will at least give a fair answer if contacted by the press.
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I think this is perfect for a local hustings, hope you go ahead with it
Of the parties who polled in the top five in 2015, all but UKIP have selected their PPC for Lewisham West & Penge. Is now a good time to try and arrange the hustings?
As I don’t rate any current Party Leader, this time round I will place my vote for who I think with be the best representative for the constituency. So would love to see a lot of local content included in the hustings.
I don’t disagree with you, but deciding hustings questions probably merits its own topic in #politicos:local-politics
Are the hustings at the Banquet Hall on Perry Vale on 23rd May separate to hustings being discussed here? Or have they superseded those? Either way, I’m pleased to see hustings happening. I love hustings.
Hi @helensulis - where did you hear about those hustings, please? I’m interested to attend and can’t find any information online.
Oh sorry, that would have been helpful of me, wouldn’t it! I’m on the Sydenham Society email list. Bizarrely, they were described as the “Sydenham West” hustings, which might be why a google for the constituency name hasn’t helped.
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