Hustings are the fairest way
THE public response to the announcement that the Guernsey Press intends to run a series of hustings meetings in front of a live and online audience has been largely positive, and thank you for that.
To those who have been negative – the audience is not ‘invites only’, the public will be invited to apply for tickets, and we shall do our best to ensure that they are shared evenly.
When it comes to questions, we’ll be hoping to do all we can to keep things fair and informative. ‘Planted’ questions are unlikely to come to the fore.
It was clear to us that something needed to happen in this campaign. With worries that the growth of AI will soon make manifesto statements irrelevant, and concerns raised about the States-produced manifesto and questions ‘booklet’, including the extent of any editing, voters need another way to assess the candidates.
We used to have manifestos, doorstep visits, and the parish hustings.
‘Meet the candidates’ events just can’t hope to get the same cut through and the hustings remains the best route to seeing people perform under pressure, in what we hope will be a better and more inclusive format than 2020’s self-arranged or party-organised events.
As deputies recognised in debate last month, selecting from the candidates in Election 2025 is too important to trust to luck.